Marvin Mims hopes Texas game can be a jumpstart for Oklahoma

This year’s Red River Rivalry might not have quite the pomp and circumstance of most years, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t significant stakes when Oklahoma and Texas meet on Saturday. In fact, Sooners receiver Marvin Mims believes it can be a jumpstart for Oklahoma on the heels of back-to-back losses.

The Sooners are a seven-point underdog going in after dropping games the past two weeks against Kansas State and TCU.

“I believe the same thing happened in 2020, my freshman year, COVID year,” Mims said this week. “We lost K-State, lost at Iowa State and we had Texas next game and it kind of started off a big jump-start for us. I’m looking forward to it and I think the team is too.”

While the 41-34 loss to Kansas State could certainly be explained as a one-off occurrence, a bad week if you will, last weekend’s road loss for Oklahoma at TCU was much more jarring.

The Sooners lost 55-24 and were absolutely gashed defensively.

Still, the Red River Rivalry offers a chance to wash all that away. Beat Texas and many Oklahoma fans will be a lot more willing to forgive, especially in Year 1 for head coach Brent Venables following the offseason exodus of key players that former coach Lincoln Riley’s departure spurred.

“It’s a huge game,” Mims said. “I feel like if we need to get hyped up, if we need motivation I mean this game, this is the one.”

Jumpstart or reset, Oklahoma needs a win

Whatever you want to call Saturday’s game, there’s little denying the trajectory impact it’ll have on both programs.

On3’s JD PicKell broke down what a win over Oklahoma would mean for Texas and coach Steve Sarkisian, and perhaps being the favorite puts more of the pressure on the Longhorns this weekend. Whatever the case, Mims knows showing up with an edge shouldn’t be a problem.

“If you’re scared, if you don’t want to go out there, then don’t go out there,” he said. “You know what I mean? I mean this game, maybe it means more to me being a kid from Texas, but this is a game you sign up for. You have it circled every year.”

In a wild Big 12 race so far, you also never know what could happen the rest of the way.

The College Football Playoff is all but off the table for Oklahoma, but perhaps an outside chance of getting back into the Big 12 title race remains. Those hopes won’t last long without the right result on Saturday. And that really goes for both teams.

“You go to OU, you go to Texas, you know you’re going to play OU-Texas,” Mims said. “You know what it means, being in the state fair, all that stuff. At the end of the day if you’re not fired up to play this game you don’t love football, you don’t want to play football.”