3 key OU players dealing with injuries before game vs. Texas football

The week of the Red River Rivalry game against the Oklahoma Sooners has arrived for Texas football. This Red River game looks to present Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian with a tremendous opportunity to get back right in the thick of things in the race to get a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Sark and the Longhorns started to get things moving back in the right direction in Big 12 play last weekend with a solid 38-20 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers at home. Texas’ comfortable 18-point win over West Virginia at home on Oct. 1 at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium proved that this team is capable of putting teams away when they hold a double-digit lead in the second half.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma doesn’t have as much momentum in the Big 12 coming into Red River this week. Oklahoma has some quarterback and defensive question marks this week after the blowout 55-24 loss at the hands of new head coach Sonny Dykes and the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth on Oct. 1.

Part of the issue regarding the quarterback questions for the Sooners has to do with potential injury problems. But that could extend beyond just the quarterback position for the Sooners this week.

Notable injured OU players ahead of Red River vs. Texas football

With that in mind, here’s a look at three injured OU players worth noting ahead of Red River against the Longhorns on Oct. 8.

Billy Bowman, S

One of the numerous costly injuries that the Sooners suffered in that bad loss to TCU last weekend was dealt to sophomore safety Billy Bowman. The former Texas commit and blue-chip recruit was off to a promising start this season for the Sooners before exiting the game last weekend against TCU with a lower-body injury.

A report from Mason Young of OU Daily indicates that it was the right leg of Bowman that the Sooners’ training staff was working on after he left the game on Oct. 1 in Fort Worth.

And it didn’t look good after Bowman came back to the sideline in the second half last weekend without his pads and/or uniform on.

We don’t know yet if Bowman will be available for the Sooners in Red River. But that is the situation with a lot of the injured Sooners players this week. We will be watching OU head coach Brent Venables during his media availability on Oct. 4.

If Oklahoma is without Bowman this weekend, that means that the Sooners lose a playmaker both in the secondary and in the return game. Bowman returned kicks for the Sooners this season and was making a positive impact on this secondary through the first few games.

In his absence last weekend, redshirt senior Justin Harrington got snaps at free safety. We will continue to monitor the status of Bowman this week ahead of Red River against Texas on Oct. 8 to see if he or Harrington will be the starter at free safety.