Booger McFarland criticizes Brent Venables for end-of-half decision-making vs. Texas

Saturday’s ‘Red River Rivalry’ between No. 6 Oklahoma and Texas has been a defensive battle so far.

The Sooners lead 6-3 at the break, but that score could have potentially been 9-3 if they attempted a 50-yard field goal with five seconds remaining in the half. Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables however decided to roll the dice on a passing play, which ended in John Mateer throwing his second interception of the half.

During the halftime broadcast, ESPN personality Booger McFarland ripped Oklahoma‘s decision to pass up on the field goal opportunity in a game where points are coming at a premium.

“That decision at the end of the first half by Brent Venables not to take the field goal is a bad decision,” McFarland said. “It’s a defensive game. Points are going to matter. That interception by John Mateer could come back to haunt them.”

That was just a baffling mistake by Brent Venables and OU. Totally screwed up the clock management. For the #Sooners to not even get a field goal try there is so bad.

— George Stoia III (@GeorgeStoia) October 11, 2025

Defense has dominated in the half, as the teams combined for just 284 yards. Texas recorded 114 yards, while Oklahoma fared a bit better with 170 yards. All three scores in the first half came by way of a field goal.

Texas’ O-Line has responded well to Tebow’s challenge

Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who is still seeking his breakout game this season, has struggled mightily. He’s completed 10/14 passes for just 69 yards. On Friday, College Football Hall of Famer Tim Tebow called out Texas‘ offensive line and their inability to keep Manning upright this season. To their credit, Manning was not sacked in the first half against Oklahoma.

“I think one of the things that we saw last week was a resilience and a toughness,” Tebow said. “He got hit a bunch. If we’re gonna focus on something, I think the start should be the offensive line. They have to protect him. You have to be able to give him time. You have a defense line for Florida that, when healthy, can be pretty dang good. But they dominated that game.

“They totally took the game over, and I don’t put all of that on Arch. I put a lot of that on the offensive line, and he’s got to have time to get it down the field. So I was really impressed with his toughness. Obviously, there are some plays he’d want back. There was a post-route he had for a touchdown, but he also was taking shot after shot after shot and he did a great job of getting right back up.”

David Pollack called out Steve Sarkisian earlier this week

On the latest edition of David Pollack‘s ‘See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack‘ podcast, Pollack refused to put any blame on Manning or the offensive line. Instead, he went after Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian. He claimed that Sark isn’t getting enough flak for his quarterback’s struggles.

“That is a big-time deal for them. They’ve got so much money and it makes it so easy to continue to be successful when you have that much money,” Pollack said. “At the same time, when you look at Texas and their roster and the ability they have to spend and they’ve had a couple of good seasons, you have to look back a little bit and say Sark is 2-8 against Top-10 teams at Texas. We’re gonna talk about Arch because he’s not playing well. But whose job is it to make sure he plays well? It’s the coach’s job. It’s the offensive play caller’s job… who is Steve Sarkisian.”

Manning will attempt to lead Texas to its first win over a Power-Four program this season in the second half.