The five biggest threats to Texas retaining the Golden Hat

Both of these teams seem unrecognizable from Red River’s past.

[Sign up for Inside Texas TODAY and get the BEST Longhorns coverage!]

Texas returns just 10 players who played over 30 snaps in last year’s game, and even fewer from the 2023 stunning loss to future Cleveland Browns QB Dillon Gabriel.

Oklahoma is in a similar spot. 10 of their starters from last year remain in the lineup (depending on how you see the QB spot looking tomorrow), with just two starters from the 2023 win remaining on the roster. One of them doesn’t even play the same position anymore.

A lot of the X-Factors of years past, like Gabriel, Ethan Downs, Quinn Ewers and Gunnar Helm, are off to the NFL, leaving space for a lot of game-breaking potential from new faces. While the Longhorns are well equipped to win this game with a more talented roster, a lot can go the way of the Sooners if Texas can’t contain these five stars.

Jaren Kanak

I’ll be honest, I did not anticipate I’d be naming him as one of Oklahoma’s five most impactful players for this game heading into the season.

Kanak is a converted LB who found 13 tackles against Texas in 2023, but has flipped to a new side of the ball. Kanak is the Sooners’ tight end, if you can really call him that, and has produced at a very high level.

Ole Miss’ Dae’Quan Wright is the only SEC tight end with more yards per route run, and he’s first in the SEC in pure yardage through five games. Kanak’s downsides in the blocking game are well documented on our YouTube channel (thanks Paul and Ian), but he’s an athletic threat down the seam in a well-coached passing attack.

Peyton Bowen

The elder of the Bowen brothers, Peyton was a contributor in the last two Red Rivers, now starting in a veteran safety pair with Robert Spears-Jennings.

Bowen will line up over the top or down in the slot and impacts the game both in the run and the pass. He’s fifth on the team in tackles while being the third most targeted. No one is more involved in plays than Bowen on that side of the ball.

David Stone

Remember when he was in the transfer portal? Oklahoma has an odd squad, but it’s not lacking for talent.

Stone is one of the most disruptive interior defensive linemen in the SEC as just a true sophomore, notching a conference-high 91.4 run defense rating among defensive tackles. He’s fourth among qualified interior defensive linemen in pressures and is third on the Sooners in that metric. Texas’s offensive line already struggled against the Florida Gators, and Stone and the next player are going to continue to make life hard for Texas’ trenches.

R Mason Thomas

Thomas is going to be terrorizing NFL QBs as soon as next year. A projected late-first, early-second round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, Thomas’s speed and explosiveness show up on the tape when coming off the edge for the Sooners.

He has fantastic bend to get around tackles on the outside and is one of the highest motor players in the nation, continuously hounding opposing QBs as the play develops. He leads the team with 13 pressures and recorded two sacks against Auburn’s Jackson Arnold a few weeks ago. He’s the biggest threat to Texas’ ability to move the ball.

John Mateer

The biggest X-Factor, and question, of them all: is Mateer going to play?

Pete Thamel says he’s going to give it a go, but we all knew that would be the case. Is he going to be able to play, and if so, how will his thumb hold up against a theoretically strong Texas pass rush?

This OU offense lives and dies with its Heisman-contending QB. He’s quick and a fantastic scrambler. He’s got excellent touch on deep balls, especially to the sideline, and is the perfect archetype to operate in the modern Air Raid that OC Ben Arbuckle runs. The odds dramatically flip if he’s on the field for Oklahoma tomorrow.