Texas vs. Oklahoma State Preview

The Texas Longhorns (7-0/4-0) have had the Oklahoma State Cowboys (6-1/3-0) number under Mack Brown. The Longhorns have won the last eleven games against the Cowboys and that just happens to coincide with how long Brown has been in Austin. This is the key matchup for the Longhorns this season. They had a tough game against Oklahoma, but that game was all but put away when Sam Bradford went down for the season. This will be the Longhorns toughest battle of the regular season.

Texas had really struggled on offense in the early part of the season. The last two games, however, Colt McCoy and company has righted the ship and gained momentum. The defense and special teams have carried the Longhorns up until that point and now that the offense seems to have found its groove a national championship appearance could be in their future.

Oklahoma State came into this season with high expectations. They got off to a good start with a non conference home win over Georgia, but were then upset by the high flying offense of the Houston Cougars. The Cowboys have come back to win their last five games since then, including their first three in Big 12 play. The offense has continued to put up points despite losing two of the top three players to start the season. Zac Robinson has had another solid year and is on pace to break the all time school record for passing yards. However, Kendall Jackson has been hurt and has missed the last five games (the Cowboys hope he will play, even if it is in a minimal role this weekend) and Dez Bryant has been kicked off the team for the remainder of the season due to Bryant’s lying about his personal relationship with Deion Sanders.

On defense Bill Young was brought in to get the Cowboys to play better defense and there have been more positive than negative results up to this point. This game will determine how far the Cowboys defense has come from last season.

The bottom line to this matchup is that the Cowboys would have had a much better shot at the Longhorns if Bryant was not ruled ineligible for the remainder of the season and if Hunter was fully healthy. With those two players the Longhorn defense would have been really tested, without them the Longhorns can just key on stopping Robinson. The Cowboys defense will have too much to stop for them to win this game. The Longhorns should win this game by a larger margin than last seasons four point win in Austin.

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By Robert Konis
Big 12 Fans Texas Longhorns Correspondent

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