Texas Football: 3 reasons the Longhorns will upset OU

For the first time in a while, Texas football and Oklahoma face each other with neither as the front runner to win the Big 12 during Red River week.

The week of the annual Red River Rivalry game is officially here and Texas football is getting ready for an extremely crucial matchup with head coach Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners. Texas comes into this game with a record of 2-1 (1-1 Big 12) after losing their first game of the season last weekend.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma is slipping up even further of late. They come into Red River with a record of 1-2 (0-2 Big 12), after losing their first two games of the conference slate for the first time in more than two decades. This was the first time that Oklahoma even lost back-to-back regular season games since 1999.

Oklahoma fell short against the Iowa State Cyclones in their Big 12 road opener on Oct. 3 in Ames. And prior to that, the Sooners lost their Big 12 opener at home in Norman back on Sep. 26 to the Kansas State Wildcats. Each of those losses for Oklahoma came on turnovers from talented redshirt freshman quarterback and former five-star recruit Spencer Rattler.

Oddly enough, a turnover in the dying minutes of the fourth quarter also cost the Longhorns their last game, last weekend against the TCU Horned Frogs. Texas had the game in hand, but junior running back Keaontay Ingram fumbled both the ball and the game away in the same play. That allowed TCU to seal the win on one last drive late in the fourth quarter to nab the win by a score of 33-31.

Somehow, the ESPN Football Power Index gives Texas a 67 percent chance to to come out triumphant in Red River this weekend. But Oklahoma is a slight three-point favorite in the betting line.

Here’s a look into three reasons why the Longhorns could upset the Sooners in Red River on Oct. 10.