The fat lady isn’t singing just yet, but she’s gradually humming her pitch in the background.
A signature win this Saturday in the Red River Rivalry over sixth-ranked Oklahoma could jump start Arch Manning’s collegiate career and by extension, strike a needed chord of renewed optimism throughout Austin. The Longhorns are teetering on the edge of a cliff, but they haven’t fallen off completely, just slipped from the Top 25.
Fortunately for Steve Sarkisian and company, there’s a reference point from last season. The expanded 12 team playoff field included programs with multiple losses. In fact, 75 percent of playoff participants had two defeats, the exact position Texas finds itself in today. The old sitcom theme for The Facts of Life sums it up perfectly: “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have, the facts of life.”
Red River week is here 🤘 pic.twitter.com/iTAY94L694
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) October 6, 2025
The facts here are identical. Arch Manning has executed some beautiful reads and some disastrous ones. That mixture has created a roller coaster each offensive series, with his body language often telling the story as much as the stat sheet.
Now comes Oklahoma, ranked sixth yet listed as a 3.5 point underdog. Swagger will be center stage inside the Cotton Bowl. The Sooners arrive balanced and complete, producing in all three phases. Just this week, Tate Sandell earned SEC Special Teams Player of the Week, while R. Mason Thomas continues to dominate in the trenches. Even with quarterback John Mateer questionable, Oklahoma remains formidable.
For Texas, this is an opportunity to summon something timeless. You can trace it back to the 2002 Cotton Bowl win over LSU or even further to the 1970 National Championship victory over Notre Dame. The Cotton Bowl has always carried magic for the Longhorns.
And maybe, just maybe, Arch Manning has a little pixie dust left to sprinkle on it.
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