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sportsTexas Longhorns

A way-too-early look at Texas’ 2021 schedule, including a renewed Southwest Conference rivalry

The Longhorns play a favorable slate ahead of their meeting with Oklahoma on Oct. 9.

Everything is bigger in Texas, including expectations. There has yet to be a game that Longhorn fans don’t expect to win, but that doesn’t change the reality that Texas hasn’t finished a season with fewer than four losses since 2009.

First-year head coach Steve Sarkisian is looking to change that in 2021. Here’s a way-too-early look at the Longhorns’ 2021 schedule:

2021 schedule:

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Sept. 4 –– vs. Louisiana

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Sept. 11 –– @ Arkansas

Sept. 18 –– vs. Rice

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Sept. 25 –– vs. Texas Tech

Oct. 2 –– @ TCU

Oct. 9 –– vs. Oklahoma (Red River Rivalry at Cotton Bowl)

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Oct. 16 –– vs. Oklahoma State

Oct. 30 –– @ Baylor

Nov. 6 –– @ Iowa State

Nov. 13 –– vs. Kansas

Nov. 20 –– @ West Virginia

Nov. 27 –– vs. Kansas State

Biggest nonconference game: at Arkansas, Sept. 11

Most Longhorn fans aren’t old enough to remember the famed Southwest Conference rivalry or truly understand why students chant certain expletives during the chorus of the fight song. But a rivalry once strong enough to kindle the strongest animosities will be reborn the second weekend of September.

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Playing Arkansas should be a walk in the park for Sarkisian, who scored 100 combined points against them in 2019 and 2020 as Alabama’s play caller. The Razorbacks are still a rebuilding team after the detestable Chad Morris years, although they took a sizable step forward in 2020 and were invited to their first bowl game since 2016.

Texas should be more than able to handle Arkansas in their first regular season meeting since 2008, especially given that the Razorbacks haven’t posted a winning season since 2016 and haven’t defeated a team that finished the season in the AP Top 25 in five years.

Game Texas shouldn’t win, but might: vs. Oklahoma, Oct. 9

On paper, Oklahoma should manhandle the Longhorns. Texas is losing three of its four best players to the NFL draft, two middle linebackers to the NCAA transfer portal and is loaded with uncertainty at quarterback. The Sooners, meanwhile, are returning a quarterback ripe with Heisman hope, the most athletic receiving corps in the Big 12 and a constantly-improving defense, now in its third year under defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.

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Even if the Longhorns do find a definite quarterback before Oct. 9, matching Oklahoma redshirt sophomore Spencer Rattler and head coach Lincoln Riley’s offense is no easy feat.

Former head coach Tom Herman and quarterback Sam Ehlinger were outwitted four of the five times they played Oklahoma, although three of the losses were by eight or fewer points. But upsets are not uncommon in the Red River Rivalry.

A miserable 1-4 Texas team pulled off one of the biggest upsets in school history against No. 10 Oklahoma in 2015, just two years after another unranked Longhorn squad beat the Sooners, 36–20. And in 1996, the Sooners’ worst season in the last 50 years, three-win Oklahoma pulled off a major overtime upset against No. 25 Texas.

If there’s one thing history has taught us, it’s to cast records and talent aside when these two teams meet at the Cotton Bowl.

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Game Texas should win, but might not: at TCU, Oct. 2

The Longhorns have only beaten TCU twice since the Horned Frogs entered the Big 12 in 2012, despite having a far more talented roster in six of their nine meetings as Big 12 foes.

But roster talent hasn’t seemed to matter over the last decade. TCU head coach Gary Patterson has firmly out-coached Texas since the Frogs joined the conference and has outscored the Longhorns by 101 points since 2012. Texas was a double-digit favorite over TCU ahead of their matchup Austin last season but fell short for the second consecutive year.

However, the Longhorns hope to have turned a new leaf under Sarkisian, one that won’t be out-coached by Patterson yet again.

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