The Red River Rivalry is one of the biggest rivalries in college football. One thing that comes with this rivalry is emotion. Head coach Steve Sarkisian has emphasized to his players after a particularly emotional game last year that keeping their emotions together will be key to securing a win.
This year is the first time since 1984 that Texas is going into the game ranked No. 1. Last year, Texas was the higher-ranked team at No. 3, but it didn’t matter for Oklahoma. Some costly mistakes by Texas, some stemming from overly-emotional personal foul penalties, aided the Sooners in gaining field position.
Senior linebacker David Gbenda blamed himself for the final result of last year’s loss after he missed a tackle that led to Oklahoma’s game-winning touchdown. This year, he’ll be playing in his final Red River Rivalry game.
The entire team, not just Gbenda, is following what head coach Steve Sarkisian preaches: this game needs to be played with emotions, but not be too emotional.
“Emotions run high in games like this,” Sarkisian said. “I’m not here to deny that our players won’t have some emotions in this game, and I think they deserve that. They should have it. The key is not to cross over that threshold where we get emotional. I felt like in last year’s game, we got a little (too) emotional.”
Sarkisian also talked about how he will lean on the veterans of his team to guide the new players. In no other game will a team run out of the tunnel and for 50 yards hear nothing but boos and then after 50, nothing but cheers.
Redshirt junior defensive back Michael Taaffe grew up in Austin and dreamed of playing in this game. Everyone who grew up in the state of Texas, no matter what team they supported, watched this game. Taaffe took last year’s loss particularly hard, stating that he “remembers everything” from last year’s game, specifically Oklahoma’s post-game antics. However, his focus is completely on Texas.
“We’re really focused on us in this game, and everything that we do right now is towards this game and towards us, and we don’t really worry about last season,” Taaffe said. “(I) just (have) confidence, I’m a whole new player this year. I’m so excited because … it’s cool to acknowledge that I’ve grown so much, and (the) best ball is yet to come for this team, I truly believe that.”
Gbenda also knows that this team’s best football is yet to come. But he also knows that this is a game where anything can happen.
“It’s challenging because obviously you’ve got to play with some sort of edge when you’re playing the game of football,” Gbenda said. “It’s a physical game, and you’ve got to bring it every time and every day. We lost a lot of ball, and (that’s one) example of just too much emotion.”
Every year, Oklahoma brings its best to this game. No matter the rankings of either team, anything can happen. Texas has what it takes to win, but needs to keep its composure and play a clean game.
