College Football

Red River Showdown: Oklahoma Sooners seek statement win against Texas Longhorns

Updated Oct. 7, 2021 2:35 p.m. ET

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By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer

The Oklahoma Sooners haven’t escaped the month of October undefeated since 2004. Their game against future Southeastern Conference foe and perennial rival Texas is one more chance to find out if 2021 will be the season when "There’s Only One" meets "It Just Means More."

In the weeks leading up to Saturday's SEC West-West Showdown, also known as the Red River Showdown, though, OU has looked anything but dominant.

Quarterback Spencer Rattler has looked nothing like a Heisman Trophy-winning player, let alone the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft that I thought he might be in the preseason.

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In fact, against West Virginia two weeks ago, he didn’t even look like a QB who should be starting, according to enough of the 84,000-plus folks in the stands at Owen Field in the Sooners' 16-13 victory over the Mountaineers.

Leave it to OU fans to boo the QB with the best chance to lead the team to a national title appearance for the first time since 2008 and – dare I say it – a national title for the first time since 2000. 

But let’s also be clear about this: Rattler is that talented, and so are his teammates.

For this Oklahoma team, it has never been a question of talent, but maturity. Observers of the sport will know that even though the Sooners are No. 6 in AP (and No. 8 in my Top 25), they’ve yet to put away an FBS opponent in the devastating fashion Alabama did with Ole Miss, Georgia did with Arkansas, Iowa did with Maryland, and Penn State did with Auburn.

And that matters to some, if not me. This sport is as much about style points as it is about winning the game to them. 

It’s a pageant contest where the whims of people who are not playing the games matter more than the men who decide winners and losers on the field. Those are the players. 

I care about the games played, the undefeated teams at the end and the conference champions – instead of who I think was good. To wit: I thought Ohio State would beat Oregon by three touchdowns last month, and then they played the game. 

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The Buckeyes lost. By fact, Oregon is the better football team when comparing the two right now. Results matter.

This is a reality I fight, and my Top 25 reflects this. However, the College Football Playoff selection committee has demonstrated over the past seven years that the teams it thinks are the best often win by a lot and are at the top of the recruiting rankings.

The 2021 Sooners are great on the latter and lacking on the former. No game demonstrated that more than the narrow win over WVU.

In that game against the Mountaineers, Rattler was not the problem. His offensive line was, and that will certainly be a pressure point Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian asks his defensive coordinator, Pete Kwiatkowski, to press early and often.

The Sooners have allowed nine sacks through five games. Texas will put an emphasis on getting Rattler off his spot to get the ball back for Sarkisian, who should put together an offensive game-plan for Saturday that ain’t too complicated: Bijan Robinson runs right, Bijan Robinson runs left, and Bijan Robinson runs straight up the middle.

The Longhorns have developed great tailbacks from Earl Campbell to Ricky Williams to Cedric Benson to D’Onta Foreman. The latter was the most recent 2,000-yard rusher Texas has produced. Problem was, he played on a 5-7 team that lost to a Kansas squad that finished 2-9 in 2016.

Robinson, though, comes with a little more promise and a lot better team. Sarkisian knew well the kind of roster he inherited, and, while it ain’t 2020 Alabama, it does feature a tailback he can line up 7.5 yards deep who can carry the mail come hell or high water.

"Yeah, Bijan’s a terrific player," Lincoln Riley said. "You watch him play, and he does so many things well. He catches the ball well for them. He’s got big-play ability, but he’s got really nice balance, acceleration, good feel for the schemes that they’re running. So, I think he’s a complete player."

The Sooners were more than a little susceptible to the run in last year’s four-overtime 53-45 thriller with former Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger taking a scythe to the Oklahoma rush defense for 112 yards with four TDs. 

And, as good as Ehlinger is, Robinson is the most talented tailback the Longhorns have ever signed at No. 14 on the all-time Texas commitment list.

He was the No. 1 running back in the country coming out of high school at Salpointe Catholic in Tucson, Arizona, where they tell stories about Robinson like other folks tell tales about Pecos Bill, John Henry and Paul Bunyan.

As a senior, Robinson rushed for 2,235 yards on just 126 attempts for a tall-tale 17.7 yards per carry. He was the cure for whatever ailed the Lancers when he returned four kickoffs for house-calls – in one game.

As a senior against Desert Edge High in Goodyear, Arizona, Robinson toted the rock 430 yards up and down the field with six touchdowns on just 13 rushes. Call that man The Cure, because he’s a walking house-call.

Desert Edge coach Jose Lucero wanted folks to know they played Robinson tough as a junior, though.

"I thought we defended him really well his junior year, and he still ran for almost 200 yards," Lucero told Bleacher Report. "You can be in the right spot and at the right time. But he's such a talented athlete that he has the ability to make one or two guys miss."

And that talent has borne out on the Forty Acres.

Heading into Saturday’s game against OU (noon ET on ABC), Robinson has put up 650 rush yards, at 6.2 yards per rush, and that’s good enough for the second-best tally in the country. After leveling Gary Patterson’s TCU Horned Frogs with 216 yards on the ground, the Sooners are more than just on notice.

OU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch knows what I know: Robinson is a Heisman candidate and one of the best running backs, if not players, in the country.

"I liken him to the guys that jump off the tape," Grinch said. "I think about the Christian McCaffreys, I think about the Derrick Henrys, and all different styles of backs, the Nick Chubbs. That doesn’t take you very many snaps to [see], ‘OK, this looks different.’ So, I think if he’s not the best one out there, he certainly is one of the best."

If Robinson leads Texas to a win against an undefeated Top 10 OU team, that qualifier – "one of" – becomes even less necessary. 

However, if Rattler and company can put away the No. 21 Longhorns in a manner that demands the country’s attention, the first five games of the season will feel like a warm-up for what’s to come when each team moves to the SEC.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.

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