In May of 2017 everything seemed to be trending the way of Burnt Orange. The University of Texas had found its guy, the coach of the future who already had a marquee win over Oklahoma football under his belt at Houston and a National Championship as an assistant at Ohio State.
Meanwhile Oklahoma had just lost the figurehead of the program in Bob Stoops and was turning to a 33-year-old offensive coordinator with no head coaching experience and a lingering Muleshoe, Texas accent.
For the first time since 1998, when John Blake went up against Mack Brown, it appeared as though Texas had the coaching advantage in the Red River Rivalry.