The Longhorns won't soon forget Danny Stutsman's comments, and plan to use them as motivation on Saturday

A pregame boast became a postgame taunt for Danny Stutsman and the Oklahoma Sooners last year.

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“Oklahoma only fears God. Texas fears Oklahoma.”

Shortly after Oklahoma’s 34-30 win over Texas in the 2023 Red River Shootout, Stutsman put the statement on a T-shirt and posed for a picture with Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables.

THEY KNOW. WE KNOW. THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS! Official shirt is now live! https://t.co/LsOA4e7yiT pic.twitter.com/lCNZyP4HcK

— Danny Stutsman (@FbStutsman) October 12, 2023

To the victors go the spoils. In addition to bragging rights, the Golden Hat, and an upset victory over the then-No. 3 Longhorns, Stutsman found a marketing opportunity he capitalized on with the support of his head coach. The heart and soul of the OU defense played a quality game, amassing nine tackles including 1.5 for loss, as part of the Sooners’ win.

The piercing insults thrown almost one year ago by the Oklahoma middle linebacker didn’t derail the Longhorns’ 2023 season. Texas made it to the Big 12 Championship game and saw the Sooners’ in-state rival Oklahoma State in Arlington, meaning revenge for the Longhorns’ only regular season blemish from last year would have to wait.

Some players let Stutsman’s claim go, or didn’t care to address it on Monday during the regular time Texas makes current Longhorns available to the media.

“I’m not really worried about that,” said Jake Majors, who sincerely noted he was a God-fearing, faith based man. “Honestly, that’s good for him. That was last year. I’m worried about this year and the outfit we’re going against now. I know he’s a pretty good linebacker and a leader and a voice on his team. Whatever antics they have going on, I’m not really worried about it.”

Others provided similar answers.

But Michael Taaffe?

“It’s a new season,” Taaffe said. “We’ve got a whole new team. I’m not too focused about what they did last year or about what we did last year.

“But I do remember everything.”

In the current college football landscape where any tweet, five-second video clip, or even quotes themselves can be taken out of context and turned into bulletin board material, athletic departments (or better put, football programs) are very active in ensuring players, coaches, and others from the organization don’t provide additional motivational material for opponents.

And while Stutsman and his program’s victory justified bragging, that doesn’t mean Texas forgot about his smart utilization of NIL.

In other comparable instances, Texas has tended to exact revenge.

Two glaring examples from the Sarkisian era involve the Iowa State Cyclones. Long after Breece Hall made his “five-star culture” comments and went onto the professional ranks, Texas players made sure to emphasize their own culture was of the five-star variety following a close win over ISU in Austin in 2022.

Then in 2023, after Cyclone O-lineman Jarrod Hufford made a number of bold statements, Texas sent Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat to get after the ISU O-line on the way to a 26-16 Longhorn victory in Ames.

Of course, the Red River Shootout is an entirely different event for the Longhorn football program compared to games against decent Iowa State squads. This game means more, and not just in the SEC sense. This rivalry can significantly alter how an entire season is remembered.

What’s Texas’ 2005 season without a dominating, 45-12 win over Oklahoma?

There’s obviously some room in Texas’ culture for outside comments as motivational material, as the Iowa State games from recent years show. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian claimed ignorance on Monday about the Stutsman T-shirts from last year, saying he didn’t know anything about them before going into a complimentary spiel about his own team’s culture.

He explained that others’ thoughts about his program are “irrelevant,” something very common in high level college football.

However, when pressed as to whether his team’s culture had room for external motivation, Sarkisian said bulletin board material was not a stranger within his program.

“I’d love to say that everything we do is internally motivated, but as a coach sometimes to be able to find some external motivators to help is good,” Sarkisian said.

At the same time, Sarkisian added “to think I’m going to have to go give some Knute Rockne speech to get ready for this game is probably not true. I could probably show up at kickoff and our guys would be ready to play on Saturday morning.”

For the most part over the last two calendar years, that’s held true. Even Barron mentioned on Monday that he’s been more focused on things he’s heard from Sarkisian than anything from opponents.

“I’ll be using some of his words,” Barron said. “Enamored. I’ve never really heard the word. That’s a good word.”

Texas does claim to be enamored with itself. At the same time, being enamored with your internal structure doesn’t mean there’s ignorance about what is said by others in other programs or other states.

Of course, simple vitriol at an opponent won’t be enough for the Longhorns to win on Saturday. Last year’s game stands as strong evidence, as Oklahoma posted the only 200-yard rushing game against Texas in 2023.

It’ll take motivation, it’ll take focus, and it’ll take a strong gameplan for the Longhorns to top Oklahoma.

But a little outside influence doesn’t hurt. Does Texas fear Oklahoma? Does Oklahoma fear only God?

The opportunity for Texas to contest those claims arrives on Saturday. That’s a date Taaffe is looking forward to. Even though he might publicly try to downplay what came from the OU program last fall, his real emotions as a die-hard Longhorn make it obvious Stutsman’s words struck a chord within the Longhorn football program.

Try as they might to downplay them, that statement and that T-shirt are things Texas players won’t soon forget as they head to Dallas on Saturday.

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“I specifically remember everything,” Taaffe said. “I don’t forget. But we’re so focused on us right now, nobody even talks about it.”