{"id":213711,"date":"2025-10-10T07:12:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/213711\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T07:12:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:12:06","slug":"greg-mcelroy-reveals-his-red-river-rivalry-prediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/213711\/","title":{"rendered":"Greg McElroy reveals his Red River Rivalry prediction"},"content":{"rendered":"

No game might be as unpredictable as the Red River Shootout. Still, analysts are taking a stab at choosing a winner between the Texas Longhorns<\/a> and Oklahoma Sooners<\/a>. ESPN\u2019s Greg McElroy is no different, taking the team from Austin due to recent trends from Arch Manning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking the Texas Longhorns,\u201d McElroy said<\/a> via Always College Football. \u201cI think they bounce back and while \u2014 right now, I don\u2019t really trust Texas\u2019 offense, I don\u2019t. I do, however, the arrow is pointing up for their quarterback. I trust offense, still, a little more than I trust Oklahoma\u2019s offense right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

McElroy did not clarify whether or not he trusts the OU offense less with John Mateer<\/a> in there. However, nobody knows at the moment who will wind up being the Sooners\u2019 starting quarterback around 2:30 p.m. CT. Mateer got listed as questionable in Wednesday\u2019s SEC injury report. If he cannot go, Michael Hawkins<\/a> gets the nod.<\/p>\n

Brent Venables<\/a> has to feel like he can rely on his defense, though. Oklahoma finds itself at No. 1 when it comes to a lot of defensive ranks. Not just in the SEC but throughout college football. Through five games, it\u2019s been completely dominating opponents.<\/p>\n

The Texas unit is not too far behind, however, in McElroy\u2019s opinion. If he had to pick one or the other, Oklahoma would still get the nod. But the gap between them and what the two offenses might be does not inspire enough confidence to pick against the Longhorns.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn defense, I trust Oklahoma\u2019s defense more but the gap between Oklahoma\u2019s defense and Texas\u2019 defense is not quite as wide\u2026 I think this game will be played close to the vest \u2014 there will be a lot of field position,\u201d McElroy added. \u201cI think it will be capitalizing on mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the past quarter-century has gone in favor of those north of the Red River. Oklahoma possesses 17 wins since 2000, while Texas has won the Golden Hat on just nine occasions. Even more recent times tell us close games are played on a consistent basis, producing nine one-score games since 2014.<\/p>\n

McElroy is picking Texas to walk away winners this time, a result that head coach Steve Sarkisian<\/a> needs. If it comes to fruition, the Longhorns climb back to 3-3 overall and get an SEC win under their belt. Meanwhile, the Sooners would suffer its first loss of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No game might be as unpredictable as the Red River Shootout. Still, analysts are taking a stab at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-213711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}