It’s that time of year again, where the Texas State Fair is in full-swing and October football is bringing the goods. The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns will be battling it out on Saturday for the Golden Hat trophy at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, Texas.

Both teams are entering the game sitting at one loss, so the stakes couldn’t be higher as they are looking to keep their Big XII title hopes alive. If you remember, the Red River Shootout (I still refuse to call it by it’s new name, Red River Rivalry) loss by Texas was the beginning of the Texas meltdown. What people need to remember going into this one is that this is a much better Texas team compared to last year.

Longhorn QB David Ash has clearly made the step up as the No. 1 quarterback over Case McCoy. He is playing good football and seems to have found his rhythm. The Oklahoma defense hasn’t been too sharp on stopping third down conversions, with only stopping 36% through 4 games. Giving Ash that extra set of downs could be lethal. Texas is also No. 2 in converting on third down.  The Sooners will need to improve upon this stat if they want to shut down the Longhorn offense.

The Oklahoma defense will need to keep putting pressure on the QB like they did with Texas Tech’s Seth Doege last week. Do not give him time or he will make the play 90% of the time. OU’s defense is playing strong, and they need to continue on this. On the flip side of the field, the Texas defense has just as many question marks as OU’s offense still has.

Longhorns’ defense ends, Jackson Jeffcoat and Alex Okafor have proven themselves deadly. They have a combined 8 sacks over the last 3 games and Jeffcoat had a fumble recovery TD against WVU last week. The Sooner offensive line will need to block, block and block some more in order to give Landry Jones the time he needs to get the ball out. Another Longhorn name you need to remember for Saturday is CB Quandre Diggs. Diggs has three interceptions so far on the year and will be playing across from Sooners receiver, Kenny Stills. Going to be an interesting match-up.

The Longhorns rush defense has been suspect. They have allowed two players to have over 406 yards rushing in the last two games and this was just two guys. This could be the week that the Sooner running backs have a breakout performance unless they make adjustments. Blake Bell and his Belldozer package might be the Longhorns worst enemy.

The key is going to be containing turnovers. If offensive turnovers get out of hand, the pendulum may swing in the way of Longhorns. Jones needs to keep it to a minimum and come into the game like he did last week; focused and determined to prove people wrong.

The 107th meeting between the these two teams is the same year end and year out. It is completely unpredictable and most of the time, always exciting.

The spread right now has Oklahoma by 3, but I wouldn’t put any money on that. Going to be a barn-burner in Dallas this weekend.

Was a busy week for me here at Ride Schooner, Ride. Had the chance to talk a little Red River Rivaly with Kyle Kensing over at

Even Mack Brown cries. After RRR loss last season

SaturdayBlitz.com. You can check out the site and listen to the episode here. And if you are on twitter, definitely worth adding both Kyle @Kensing45 and Saturday Blitz @SaturdayBlitz to your follows.

And as always, the weekly 2 Guys, 1 Girl and a Sports Show episodes. We did two this week in honor of the Red River game.

Episode 1- http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sooner-radio-/2011/10/06/texas-week-show-1

Episode 2-http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sooner-radio-/2011/10/07/texas-week-show-2

Again, the game time is 11:00 CST and will be shown on ABC Nationally.

Every year, on the Friday before game day, Interstate 35 is a sight to behold. Travelling northbound, we have the Texas Longhorns team caravan. Travelling southbound, is the Oklahoma Sooner team. Both will meet almost exactly in the middle I-35 in Dallas, Texas at the Cotton Bowl (Austin is actually only 7 miles further).

The I-35 drive is a sight to see. The team buses headed down the freeway, cars pulling up along side of the buses, holding signs, waving, and cheering. It’s amazing to watch. Almost like the boys are going into battle…

Oklahoma and Texas have been playing since 1900, when Oklahoma was still just a U.S. Territory, and the University of Oklahoma campus was still part of the Oklahoma territory. They have only been playing the game as a conference match-up for 15 years, the start of the Big XII conference.

If you have never been to the Red River game, it is one of those iconic college match-ups everyone should experience once in their life.

The Cotton Bowl is split directly in the middle of a sea of crimson and burnt orange

It has to be one of the best sports experiences around. The Cotton Bowl is in the middle of the State fair of Texas, which is held annually during the month of September/October. You have the game noises, the rides, the fried food; which I hear there is actually fried biscuits and gravy this year. To check out all that the fair has to offer, look at the official State Fair website.

Besides the food, the rides, and the concerts, their is actually football being played this weekend. And this year, the Red River is actually back to one of its finer moments. Both teams are ranked, Oklahoma is No. 3 and Texas has been sneaking up on everyone and has landed at No. 11. This is only the second time in seven years, both teams have come into the game 4-0.

The Longhorns go into this game with a lot of confidence on their shoulders. A team who was unranked at the beginning of the season and wasn’t given a chance is now in the mix. Granted, they are 4-0 playing Rice, BYU, UCLA and Iowa State. So most really wouldn’t call those marquee wins. They have been improving though on the offensive side of the ball.

Quite a few Texas fans are also touting the Longhorns new offensive coordinator from Boise State, Brian Harsin. Yes, he is a great play caller and everyone remembers the Boise State Fiesta Bowl trickery. He plans on running a two QB system with Case McCoy and David Ash against the Sooners on Saturday. The last time the Longhorns ran a two QB system against the Sooners was the Chris Simms and Major Applewhite combo. Texas went with Simms, and much to all the Texas fans dismay, this happened.

I can see this happening. Just replace Roy Williams with Travis Lewis and Teddy Lehman with Tom Wort. The Longhorns haven’t played a defense as physical as the Sooners and will be or an offense that runs the hurry up like Oklahoma does. Not saying Texas can’t hang, they have vastly improved over the last couple of weeks, but this Horn team is very young, and the big game factor is lacking for most of them. Garrett Gilbert, their QB who did have the experience with big games is out for the rest of the season and is actually transferring out next year.

“I always think Texas is good,” Sooners coach Bob Stoops said about the match-up. ”It’s always hard to gauge where we’re at, where they’re at. You go into the game, and you’ve got to play it. You get each other’s best shot, so it’s always a little bit different than maybe how you might play against somebody else.”

The Red River Shootout is one of those games that always can go either way. This year, I have a feeling it will be going in favor of the crimson. Yes, I am biased, but looking at the numbers and the heart and chemistry of this Sooner team, the odds are in their favor.

ESPN’s College Game Day will be at Dallas’ Fair Park Saturday morning doing their show live. The game will be showed nationally on ABC with a 11:00 AM CST kickoff.