DALLAS — Sitting in Section 4, 28 rows up from the field at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, Oklahoma fans Mark Montgomery and David Frudiger had a close view of one of the most sordid losses in OU football history.
Montgomery, 59, traveled from Santa Fe, New Mexico to watch the 2022 Red River Showdown against Texas, but he said he didn’t come to town with much optimism given Davis Beville appeared poised to start at quarterback for the injured Dillon Gabriel.
His pessimism was validated through a miserable performance that compelled the man sitting behind him and Frudiger, 59, from Dallas, to utter: “I made it through the (John) Blake era. I can make it through this.”
However, others among the 92,100 who attended couldn’t relive anything resembling the 1996-98 depression, and flocked for the gates long before the Longhorns finished dismantling the Sooners 49-0, perhaps hoping to console themselves with amenities from the State Fair of Texas.
Montgomery and Frudiger stayed until the bitter end, but retreated to the bowels of the stadium for the final minutes themselves. OU coaches and players could do nothing but the same after a historic collapse that has seen them fall from fringe College Football Playoff contender to last place in the Big 12 — the conference it has won 14 of the past 22 years — in four weeks.
Athletics director Joe Castiglione (left) and head coach Brent Venables before the game against Texas on Oct. 8, 2022.
Both schools will join the Southeastern Conference in 2025, and based on Saturday’s showing, Texas (4-2, 2-1 Big 12) and its dynamic offense appear ready for the challenge while Brent Venables and OU (3-3, 0-3) have much to fix before then.
“As a competitor, when you're used to success, whether it's this game or any game, there's a standard of performance that you're fighting for every single day,” said Venables, now the first OU coach to ever start conference play 0-3. “And so when you come up short, as a coach or certainly as a team, it's incredibly disappointing.”
Oklahoma had last been shut out by Texas in 1965 and had never lost by more than 33 points to its archrival. Its previous largest shutout defeat was a 47-0 loss to Oklahoma State in 1945.
Without Gabriel, who remains in the concussion protocol from a head injury suffered against TCU, the Sooners looked to Beville, a Pittsburgh transfer, and a Wildcat effort led by fifth-year senior tight end Brayden Willis for their offense.
The unit produced a season-low 3.7 yards per carry as Willis, running backs Eric Gray and Marcus Major and receiver Jalil Farooq traded direct snaps. It mustered just 39 passing yards between five players who made an attempt.
OU twice turned the ball over in enemy territory in the first half — first on downs, then on a jump pass interception thrown by Gray — and Beville hurled a long pick at the end of the first half. For the longest tenured Oklahoma fans, the sloppy effort could be reminiscent of when Blake perilously reverted his offense to the outdated wishbone in 1998.
Sad fans
Fans look sad during the game against Texas on Oct. 8.
“Sometimes your results don't always match up with the work that you put in, and that's the frustrating part for us right now,” Willis said of the past week of practice, during which he and Beville worked through the reinvented offense. “...I thought the preparation and the intent was right. At the end of the game, you just have to be better.”
Thinned out by injuries to safeties Billy Bowman and Damond Harmon and the absence of cornerback Kani Walker, Oklahoma’s defense was abused by Texas’ offense, allowing quarterback Quinn Ewers to throw for 289 yards and four touchdowns while running back Bijan Robinson carried for 130 yards and two scores.
Cornerback Woodi Washington was moved to deep safety to account for the injuries, but was visibly playing hurt himself, while Kendall Dennis and Trey Morrison both picked up penalties. And for the third consecutive week, OU’s pass rush was a non-factor. The Sooners tallied just four tackles for loss and no sacks after they finished nonconference play ranked top-5 nationally in both.
During the game, a fan in the upper deck was heard mocking the “defensive guru” pedigree Venables established in his decade at Clemson. Elsewhere in the stadium, television cameras captured an OU fan crying after Texas went up 28-0 in the first half.
QUINN TO JT FOR THE TD!Texas up 28-0 and OU fans are in their feels. pic.twitter.com/gECxSAD9PZ
— Longhorn Network (@LonghornNetwork) October 8, 2022
“In the last 25 years, probably the worst OU performance in an OU-Texas game I’ve ever seen,” said Montgomery, who has attended 34 of the past 39 Red River Showdowns.
Venables didn’t speak until over an hour after the defeat, once again with no particular answers for his team’s struggles, other than that perhaps fatigue is setting in.
Before Oklahoma can rest in its bye week, it must stave off a Kansas squad that, though it lost to TCU Saturday, has been playing like its 2007 counterpart that went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl.
Not far from where Montgomery and Frudiger waited out the game clock, Barry Law, 55, of Norman, stared up at a television to watch the final snaps.
He was unsure of what to think after a “terrible performance” that left him “very disappointed,” but his final thoughts on the loss carried a broader sentiment that could be attributed to many OU fans at this time.
“At this point, (I) still believe in Venables,” Law said. “But they’ve got to change some things quick."
