Longhorns Football Must Brace for Oklahoma’s Assault in Cotton Bowl | Horns Illustrated

 

Habe on the Horns – By Steve Habel/Associate Editor

By now, we’ve heard the Red River Rivalry – the annual dustup in the Cotton Bowl between Texas and Oklahoma – described from just about every angle.

“Tough;” “Overwhelming;” “Unique;” “Pressure-packed;” “Hard-hitting; “Bitter; “Most like an NFL game;” “Fun.”

And those are just a few [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] of the portrayals players bring home with them from a day of strapping on the gear and battling their most-hated rivals.

Players and coaches understand that this showdown on the neutral site at the State Fair Grounds in Dallas is more than just another game; it has serious implications about how individuals and teams are perceived by future generations.

If you win against Oklahoma, like third-team quarterback Randy McEachern found a way to do in 1977 when Texas’ first two quarterbacks were hurt, you establish your place in college football lore.

If you throw a clunker in the mix, that loss is like a badly thought-out selfie of you in a compromising position that lingers on Facebook. It just never goes away.

New Texas Longhorns Football coach Charlie Strong will get his first taste of running through the nearly sound-proof tunnel in the old stadium and directly into a sea of red-clad Sooner fans that would rather see you fail more than they would like to win the lottery.

Strong said Monday that he was drawing on the experience of several of his staff members – namely defensive coordinator Vance Bedford and wide receivers coach Les Koennig, both who played in the Cotton Bowl against OU, and tight ends coach Bruce Chambers – to help him understand what to expect Saturday.

“I know it’s an unbelievable atmosphere,” Strong said. “It’s not so much about me. But what’s really good is the players have been in that atmosphere. I told our players, ‘a lot of you guys sitting here sitting in this room played in that game last year, and you went up and got the job done.’”

Texas stunned OU 36-20 last season. Don’t expect the Sooners – or their combustible coach Bob Stoops – to have forgotten about that. OU will not get caught looking past Texas again.

Still, Strong believes his team can go north and pull a repeat if it plays it’s best.

“So there’s no reason for us not to go back and get it done again,” Strong said. “Anytime [there are] rival games, you know there is going to be a shift in momentum sometime during the game. It will be one -sided for a while and then somebody will make a play, and then it changes to the other side. In those games, it’s always the first five minutes of a football game that really gets everybody going, everybody’s juiced up.  Then when it settles down, and you just go play the game.”

Strong said his experience coaching at Florida against Georgia in the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” and against Florida State have fortified him for what he will see in Big D. Dream on, coach.

If the Horns can find a way to keep Oklahoma’s big play offense in check and get two or three explosive plays of its own on offense, Texas can play with the Sooners. Beating them is another story.

As we all learned from UT’s effort against Baylor past week, its defense can stop anyone – for a while. But with the Horns’ offensive woes, it’s very hard to pick them to win versus OU in Dallas.

Then again, stranger things have happened.

Just sayin’, ya know?

[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]