As we prepare for the Red River Rematch to determine this year’s Big 12 football title, as well as other games that will shape the College Football Playoff bracket, it is essential to separate the mountains from the molehills in terms of what will determine the gridiron version of the Final Four.
Oklahoma (11-1), the No. 5 team in the latest CFP rankings, can play its way into the national championship mix by avenging its 48-45 loss to the Longhorns (9-3) from Oct. 6 when the teams meet Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington (11 a.m., ABC). Texas, at No. 14 in the CFP rankings, is pretty much a shoo-in for the Sugar Bowl with a win or a loss.
But the Longhorns would prefer to head to New Orleans after sweeping the Sooners to secure the school’s first Big 12 title since 2009. OU, with a win in Arlington, would claim an unprecedented fourth consecutive Big 12 championship and, at 12-1, should be well-positioned to grab one of four playoff berths when members of the CFP selection committee complete their final deliberations Sunday.
While the football-related stakes are substantial for both programs, the pregame focus this week has centered largely around improper hand gestures and unkind words. All of that is courtesy of a recent Big 12 crackdown on sportsmanship aimed at keeping two heated rivals from saying “OU sucks” or making Horns-down hand gestures during the biggest, most emotional contest of the season for these schools and their fan bases.
Yeah … good luck enforcing all of that, Big 12 game officials.
Although social media sites have buzzed all week about the potential impact of ill-timed, 15-yard taunting penalties and what should trigger them, as well as providing a steady stream of verbal salvos between players and coaches from both schools, Texas defensive end Charles Omenihu shrugged off the potential theatrics and cut to the chase when discussing what will matter most on Saturday.
“When you play the game, nothing they said on the podium is going to matter,” Omehnihu said during this week’s news conference in Austin. “You call it disrespect. I think it’s comedy. They handle things how they want to handle it. We’re going to handle it how we handle it. All I know is, on Saturday, it will all be handled.”
Likewise, Oklahoma linebacker Curtis Bolton told an ESPN reporter that it “blows my mind” that Texas defensive end Breckyn Hager would dismiss OU as having “no defense” after watching the Sooners rack up more yards (532) than the Longhorns (501) during the teams’ first meeting in October. OU lost, 48-45, largely because of a 3-0 shortfall in turnovers, including an interception and a lost fumble by quarterback Kyler Murray that undermined an afternoon when the Allen High School product accounted for five touchdowns and racked up 396 yards in total offense.
“We hung (45) on them, too,” Bolton told ESPN’s Jake Trotter. “If anyone on their defense has anything to say, they can have fun playing Kyler.”
Hager, who was ordered to issue a public apology by Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby after dropping the phrase “OU sucks” into an interview session with reporters following the Longhorns’ victory over Iowa State on Nov. 17, will be one of the primary Longhorns tasked with limiting the damage done by Murray, the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, during Saturday’s contest.
He’ll do so against a delicious backdrop of subplots and storylines that range from pivotal to peripheral in helping shape college football’s playoff field on Sunday morning. From most significant to least impactful, the list includes:
Murray’s mindset: The most dynamic player in Saturday’s matchup had an interesting response during Monday’s news conference in Norman, Okla., when asked if he respected the game of Texas counterpart Sam Ehlinger, who threw for 314 yards, rushed for 72 and accounted for five TDs in the teams’ first meeting.
“I have no comment on that,” said Murray, who had a testy postgame exchange with Ehlinger, based on eyewitness accounts, following the teams’ meeting in the Cotton Bowl. After Murray’s response surfaced, Ehlinger added this post to his Twitter account, @sehlinger3: “OK. Cool. Hook Em!”
During the team’s weekly news conference in Austin, Ehlinger said he “can’t really remember anything” from his postgame meeting with Murray beyond congratulating him for playing “a great game.” Regardless of what happened in Dallas, the issue is whether Murray uses it to stoke his emotional fire and lift his game in Arlington or whether he allows it to become a stumbling block and makes mistakes while trying to force big plays to happen.
If Murray raises the level of his performance, Texas’ defense is in trouble.
Ehlinger’s shoulder: Inside the Texas locker room, Ehlinger is considered back at full strength after aggravating a previous injury to his throwing shoulder in the team’s 24-3 win over Iowa State on Nov. 17. But during last week’s 24-17 victory over Kansas, Ehlinger struggled with accuracy and threw two interceptions, his first in any contest since the Sept. 1 opener against Maryland.
Ehlinger and his teammates insist he is fine physically, but his performance against Kansas, the Big 12 cellar-dweller (3-9), suggested otherwise. If Ehlinger cannot perform at a comparable level to what he showed in the teams’ first meeting, Texas’ offense is in trouble.
So, has Ehlinger shown any negative effects from his recurring shoulder ailment in practice this week?
“I don’t think so,” Texas receiver Collin Johnson said. “I haven’t heard him complain about it one time. He’s found a way to really play through it at a really high level … It’s great to see a quarterback with that kind of grit.”
The Beaty factor: Texas coach Tom Herman drew the ire of Lincoln Riley, his Oklahoma counterpart, by acknowledging plans to pick the brain of former Kansas coach David Beaty, who was dismissed by the school after the Jayhawks’ season-ending loss to Texas, about areas where the Longhorns can improve.
“Any time you have an opportunity to gain some knowledge of what an opponent saw in their breakdowns of you, you want to see that,” Herman said during Monday’s conference call with Big 12 football coaches. “It’s pretty standard stuff. I don’t know why it’s that big of a deal.”
Less than two hours later, Riley raised his objection about Beaty’s input during OU’s weekly media session in Norman.
“Coach Beaty can do what he wants to do. I don’t like the precedent of it, of being able to bring in somebody from a league in the same year,” Riley said. “I don’t think it’s good for the conference. But it’s not against the rules and, if they want to do it, that’s fine.”
If Beaty can provide insightful input for Herman, OU could be in trouble. If Beaty, who posted a 6-42 record during his tenure at Kansas, impacts the Texas game plan in a similar manner to the ones he prepared at Kansas, Texas definitely is in trouble.
Rematch roulette: History offers a mixed message about which team stands to benefit by the first Texas-OU rematch during the same season since 1903. That is the only year in series history when the Red River Rivals have played more than once, and the Longhorns finished 1-0-1 in those contests: a 6-6 tie in the initial meeting, followed by an 11-5 victory in the rematch.
In terms of regular-season rematches in the Big 12 championship game, Oklahoma has been far more successful. OU is 4-0 in rematches of regular-season contests in a Big 12 title game setting, with two-game sweeps of Kansas State (2000), Colorado (2002), Missouri (2007) and TCU (2017). Texas is 1-2 in the same situation, falling in Big 12 championship game rematches against Nebraska (1999) and Colorado (2001) after winning the regular-season skirmish. Texas won both games against Colorado (2005) on the way to the league’s most recent national championship.
This rematch is unique, however. Because the league no longer features divisions, it decides its title with a winner-take-all rematch of a regular-season game between the top two finishers in the final standings. The contest generates $3 million per league member but could cost Oklahoma a spot in the CFP playoff bracket if the Sooners fall to Texas in a game that is not required to settle any ambiguity in the regular-season pecking order.
Oklahoma finished 8-1 in league play and Texas was 7-2. If the Sooners absorb a second loss to Texas, it will eliminate their playoff hopes. A victory, on the other hand, would avenge the Sooners’ lone loss and should elevate OU’s status among members of the CFP selection committee.
Horns-down debate: Hopefully, the week’s hottest topic among fans – the Big 12’s ill-advised acknowledgement that OU players displaying the inverted Hook ‘Em Horns hand sign during Saturday’s game will be subject to 15-yard taunting penalties – does not result in a single flag during the contest. The same goes for keeping flags in officials’ pockets when thousands of fans scream “OU sucks” or “Texas sucks” in unison during the contest (you know it’s going to happen).
The Big 12 opened Pandora’s Box on what should be a non-issue by informing OU’s Riley that game officials will follow the same guidelines they used in a Nov. 3 game in Austin, when two West Virginia players – receiver David Sills and quarterback Will Grier – received 15-yard penalties for taunting when flashing the “Horns Down” sign after scoring plays in the contest.
To the best of anyone’s recollection, it marked the first time that the “Horns Down” gesture triggered a taunting flag on a Texas opponent. Years ago, Texas receiver Roy Williams drew a taunting flag for flashing the “Hook ‘Em” sign after a touchdown, a call that angered then-Texas coach Mack Brown but was quickly forgotten by the masses.
The issue resurfaced in the West Virginia-Texas game when Mountaineers’ coach Dana Holgorsen cited a “miscommunication” before the contest as to whether the gesture would be viewed as a taunt by game officials.
“We did ask, yeah,” Holgorsen said after the contest in Austin that his team won, 42-41. “I guess there was some miscommunication … I don’t know where we stand on that. It’s like someone gives you the finger. You give them the finger back, right? Well, if someone does a ‘Horns up,’ you do a ‘Horns down’ back at them.”
Holgorsen suggested that league officials should “take a hard, fast stance” on the issue and Riley sought, and received, clarification from Big 12 officials before Saturday’s game. Now, the Horns Down issue hangs over Saturday’s game like a black cloud.
Hopefully, this needless controversy has no bearing on Saturday’s outcome. At the risk of introducing common sense to the situation, the Big 12 simply needs to adopt a policy that only one hand gesture – flashing the finger that Holgorsen mentioned – is egregious enough to elicit a 15-yard taunting penalty. The rest should not, regardless of whether the Horns point up or down.
If Saturday’s outcome is decided by a Horns Down taunting penalty, everyone loses. And that’s a terrible result for a conference championship game.
