This year, the Sooners and Longhorns will square off at the Cotton Bowl on Oct. 10 \u2014 and Pierre-Louis knows how important it is for OU to break its recent skid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is going to be very urgent,\u201d Pierre-Louis said at SEC Media Days in Tampa, Fla., on Monday.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma and Texas have met 121 times, and the Longhorns lead the all-time series 65-51-5. The Sooners won five of six meetings from 2016 to 2021, but under Brent Venables, OU is 1-3 against Texas.<\/p>\n
The Red River Rivalry obviously means so much to the program and the state of Oklahoma as a whole. And considering their recent struggles against the Longhorns, it\u2019s imperative for the Sooners to get back into the win column.<\/p>\n
But Pierre-Louis isn\u2019t viewing the Texas game<\/a> as more important than the other 11 contests on OU\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is one game at a time,\u201d Pierre-Louis said.<\/p>\n Pierre-Louis isn\u2019t wrong for treating every game equally \u2014 the Sooners\u2019 2026 slate is a gauntlet.<\/p>\n Oklahoma will battle three teams \u2014 Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas A&M \u2014 that reached the College Football Playoff in 2026. Texas narrowly missed out on the playoff last year, and so did Michigan, which will host Michigan in Week 2. And while Missouri, South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina weren\u2019t CFP contenders last year, there are no \u201coff weeks\u201d in SEC play.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the month of practice before the regular season comes in.<\/p>\n \u201cFall camp is where we gel up all our pieces together because we have really good pieces for the offense, defense, special teams, wherever,\u201d Pierre-Louis said. \u201cAnd this is where we’re going to gel ourselves in for these next couple weeks. That’s going to help set us forward for these next three to four months, however it is, and help us get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n Pierre-Louis described last year\u2019s loss to Texas as \u201cvery frustrating.\u201d That\u2019s a fair assessment of the game that marked OU\u2019s second year in a row failing to score a touchdown against the Longhorns.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t the Sooners\u2019 only defeat.<\/p>\n OU also lost a regular-season game against Ole Miss before losing to Alabama in the CFP nearly two months later. In each of the Sooners\u2019 three losses last year, Pierre-Louis said the team \u201cfell short in a couple categories.\u201d<\/p>\n Pierre-Louis believes the sting of those defeats \u2014 along with the Sooners\u2019 preparations in fall camp \u2014 will allow them to defeat the Longhorns, as well as the other 11 opponents on the schedule.<\/p>\n \u201cEach and every day, we just have to continue to keep going back to the details,\u201d Pierre-Louis said. \u201cGo back to the basics and keep working on those key things that made us lose games and work on those things to continue to help us improve.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up to our free newsletter<\/a> and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news.<\/p>\n
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