Joel Klatt placing all the pressure for Red River on Texas football

Former Texas football Big 12 foe and Fox Sports college football commentator Joel Klatt thinks the Longhorns have all the pressure on them this week.

It is officially the week of the annual Red River Rivalry game between Texas football and the Oklahoma Sooners, and there’s a lot on the line for both teams. Since Texas and Oklahoma both come into this year of Red River with an extraordinary lack of momentum compared to normal, they both also need a bounce back more so than ever.

Texas is coming off an upset loss in their Big 12 home opener at the hands of the TCU Horned Frogs. Head coach Gary Patterson and the Horned Frogs upended the Longhorns after Sam Ehlinger and Keaontay Ingram couldn’t get it done on the final drive. TCU got the win by the final score of 33-31.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma comes into Red River on a two-game losing streak. They’ve lost each of their first two games in Big 12 play. The first came at home in Norman against head coach Chris Klieman and the Kansas State Wildcats. And the second of the two losses came in their Big 12 road opener on Oct. 3, against quarterback Brock Purdy and the Iowa State Cyclones in Ames.

It’s rare that you get a Red River game where Texas and Oklahoma come in with a combined record of 1-3 in Big 12 play. The lone win for either of the two teams thus far in the Big 12 came for the Longhorns by a razor thin margin in their conference opener against the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Sep. 26, by the final score of 63-56 in overtime.

With all of the struggles thus far for both Texas and Oklahoma, both coaching staffs have to be feeling a lot of pressure. But Joel Klatt of Fox Sports is placing essentially all of the pressure on Texas head coach Tom Herman and his group in Red River this weekend.

Klatt mentioned that all of the pressure should be on the Longhorns because there is pretty much their year to win the Big 12 given all of the experience and talent on this roster. He also said that since Oklahoma isn’t ranked this week, they have less pressure on them than the No. 22 ranked Longhorns.

Herman is having a lot more pressure put on his shoulders heading into Red River week since the loss to Texas was so frustrating. And Texas isn’t all that far from holding two losses in Big 12 play. If not for that massive comeback against Texas Tech two weeks ago, the Longhorns would come into Red River with a record of 1-2 (0-2 Big 12).

Oklahoma owns a two-game winning streak in Red River, dating back to the 2018 season. They took care of business in convincing fashion last year. Ehlinger only has one career win in four tries thus far against the Sooners, which came back during the 2018 regular season.

The overall edge in Red River stills falls to the Longhorns, with a record of 62-48-5. Texas and Oklahoma will kick off at the Cotton Bowl at the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas on Oct. 10 at 11 a.m. CT in front of a limited capacity crowd.