4 reasons why Texas football will pull off a massive upset vs. OK State

4) Why Texas football can upset Oklahoma State: Tom Herman’s underdog mentality

Last season, Herman actually started to steady out his record a bit when he was the favorite or the underdog. Texas didn’t have any huge upset wins last season, outside of the Alamo Bowl win over the Utah Utes. But one factor did remain constant, the Longhorns continued to play up and down to the competition when facing a Power Five opponent.

The first example of that fact is the loss to the eventual National Champions LSU Tigers at home last season by just a seven-point margin. Compare that to the way-too-close for comfort one-point win at home over the lowly Kansas Jayhawks, and you reach a conclusion that Texas has a weird problem at times of playing up and down to the competition.

Texas secured their first double-digit victory over a Big 12 foe last weekend against Baylor since the 2019 regular season finale win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Maybe this is an indicator that Herman is starting to find a greater level of normalcy in terms of how his teams play as an underdog compared to a favorite, but it looks like they will always play up and down to Power Five competition during the regular season.

The good news there is that since Oklahoma State is the favorite and the much higher-ranked team, maybe Herman will get his team up and motivated to pull off the upset this weekend. Herman proved down the stretch last season too (in the wins over Texas Tech and Utah) that he can get his team up for games when his back is really up against the wall. And it definitely is now.