Deion Burks and Kade McIntyre will officially miss Oklahoma’s tilt with Texas. 

The duo were downgraded from questionable to out on Thursday’s SEC Availability Report, a blow for OU’s offense. 

Just as was the case against Auburn, the No. 18-ranked Sooners (4-1, 1-1 SEC) will have to do without a number of key skill position players against the No. 1-ranked Longhorns (5-0, 1-0).

Burks, who will miss his second game of the year, leads OU with 26 catches for 201 yards and three scores. 

McIntyre hasn’t caught a pass yet this year, as he’s been primarily used as a blocking tight end by offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. 

Texas, however, got good news on Thursday. 

Quarterback Quinn Ewers was removed from the report, meaning he is fully available to start the contest. 

Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian confirmed on Thursday that the veteran quarterback would retake his spot at the head of Texas’ explosive attack in place of Arch Manning, who filled in during Ewers’ absence. 

Oklahoma is preparing for the return of linebacker Dasan McCullough and running back Taylor Tatum, who both were absent from Wednesday’s initial availability report. 

McCullough has yet to feature to this point in 2024. 

Tatum exited OU’s contest against Tennessee in the first half, and he missed the Sooners’ 27-21 victory over Auburn. The true freshman is Oklahoma’s third-leading rusher, carrying the ball 18 times for 116 yards and two touchdowns, while also adding a reception for nine yards and a score. 

Sooners quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. completed passes to four teammates against Auburn. 

He found tight end Bauer Sharp four times for 43 yards, as well as completing three passes to J.J. Hester for 86 yards, two passes to former Texas receiver Brenen Thompson for 30 yards and a two-yard completion to Jaquaize Pettaway. 

Of OU’s available pass catchers, Sharp leads the team this year with 18 catches for 159 yards and a score. Thompson has 10 catches for 106 yards and a touchdown this year, and Hester’s total production for the season all came against Auburn. 

Bill Bedenbaugh’s offensive line will be as healthy as its been all year against Texas. 

Right tackle Jake Taylor returned the lineup against Auburn, and interior offensive lineman Troy Everett is available again, though he has yet to feature this year. 

Taylor, right guard Febechi Nwaiwu, center Branson Hickman, left guard Jacob Sexton and left tackle Michael Tarquin were able to complete the entire contest against the Tigers, and that starting five got an opportunity to gel over Oklahoma’s bye week. 

Kicker Tyler Keltner will also be available against the Longhorns, OU coach Brent Venables confirmed last week. In Keltner’s absence, Zach Schmit was a perfect 2-for-2 on field goals, serving as a crucial piece in the Sooners’ six-point win. 

The 120th installment of the Red River Rivalry will kick off inside the Cotton Bowl at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, and the top 20 clash will be broadcast on ABC. 

Every Oklahoma player who was asked simply struggled to find the words to describe the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl. 

The Sooners will travel down to Dallas to play Texas at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the usual spot in the epicenter of The State Fair of Texas. The teams will bus through a state fair crowd, rather than a college campus. One half of the stadium will be as homey as Norman, while the other is as hostile as Austin. 

“Embrace it,” OU linebacker Kobie McKinzie said. “You can’t really explain that. We’ve all been there for that game. From the moment you literally drive in the fairgrounds it’s like no other game. It’s not comparable. But enjoy it at the same time. These are the moments that you’re going to remember for the rest of your life.” 

The Longhorns currently sit at the top of college football, while OU is ranked 18th in the AP Poll. But even during a season in which Texas won the Big 12 title and made the final four-team College Football Playoff, the Sooners still got the best of the Longhorns thanks to a goal line stand. 

“The very end, the fourth-down stop, fourth-and-inches, that was really fun,” OU defensive end Trace Ford remembers a year later. “That was one of the coolest things I got to experience, just how loud that stadium got. Just the whole atmosphere after the game, walking around. The whole experience was nothing like I’ve ever experienced before. It was really fun.”

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Last season was Ford’s first experience in the Red River Rivalry. As an Oklahoma State transfer, he has been on both sides of Bedlam. From nearby Edmond, OK, he grew up watching OU and Texas clash from the comfort of home. But still, nothing prepared him for actually being there – no other rivalry, no amount of viewing from afar. 

Ford understands now, though, but many others throughout OU’s locker room do not. Maybe they also grew up watching the game on TV or played in rivalry games at their old schools, but not like this one. 

The Sooners nearly overhauled their roster with transfers and freshmen for the 2024 season. Michael Hawkins Jr. will become the first true freshman to ever start at QB in the Red River Rivalry for the Sooners. On defense, Ford will be alongside eight guys on the defensive line alone projected to make their Red River debut Saturday, including Miami (OH) transfer Caiden Woullard. 

“He’s been asking, and I didn’t understand the spectrum of the game until last year,” Ford said. “I watched that game growing up my whole life, and I told him the same thing. You got to experience it. It’s incredible. It’s fun, and he’s got to experience it. But you know he’s confident. He’s ready. I know he’s going to do really well this Saturday.”

Said defensive back Robert Spears-Jennings: “This’ll probably be the biggest rivalry you’ll ever play in in your life, but it is just another game, but it is a cool experience. Just soak it all in.”

On a Thursday afternoon, and even most Saturdays, there’s nothing special about the Cotton Bowl. Most of the time, it’s a dormant cement structure in the center of the quietfairgrounds. It makes for a longer walk from the Fletcher’s Corny Dog stand to Big Tex. There’s nothing special enough about the venue itself for regular tours or to even keep hosting its own bowl game. But for one Saturday every October, when the Sooners and Longhorns are visiting for the Red River Rivalry, it’s a spectacle you cannot comprehend until experienced. 

“I like it, to be honest with you,” McKinizie said. “I love it. Because everybody’s right there. There’s nowhere to go, I feel like. It’s all inclusive. Everybody gets the same experience, ’cause it’s only one experience of the Red River, you know?”

White Christian nationalism is a widespread form of religious extremism in the United States. White Christian nationalists believe in a social hierarchy that supposedly has been ordained by God: the United States is superior to all other nations, Christianity is superior to all other world religions, and the man is the head of the household. At the root of it is a belief by white males of European ancestry that they are superior to all other people and an intolerance of people that are below them on the social hierarchy. The use of force is justified to maintain their social control.

Gov. Kevin Stitt claimed “every square inch” of Oklahoma for Jesus Christ in a public prayer outside the state Capitol upon his reelection in 2022. Stitt signed House Bill 1775 in 2021, which banned the teaching of critical race and gender theory in Oklahoma high schools. This is a rejection of any view of history other than the traditional view of the white European male.

More: White Christian nationalism is a danger to democracy, critics say. Oklahoma is no stranger to the ideology

Christian nationalists embrace capital punishment, which is a means of maintaining social control over people of color and poor people. Samuel Perry, a leading authority on Christian nationalism, has noted that states in which Christian nationalism is strongest have the most executions. The more adults affirm Christian nationalism, the more they are likely to say, “the problem with the death penalty is we don’t use it enough.”

Oklahoma has executed 14 men during Stitt’s administration, second most among U.S. states. All but one were people of color or poor, or a combination thereof. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has recommended clemency for five men, but Stitt has rejected their recommendation four times, granting clemency only for Julius Jones, whose cause gained notoriety and provoked walkouts by high school students in Oklahoma City, Edmond and Tulsa. Stitt appeared to grant clemency grudgingly as a result of political pressure.

In a statement released after Emmanuel Littlejohn’s execution on Sept. 26, 2024, Stitt called himself “a law-and-order governor.” That is an ideological statement that emphasizes harsh enforcement as a means of reducing crime and enforcing social control. Law and order was a slogan used as a racial dog whistle in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the white backlash against the Civil Rights Movement and urban unrest. Stitt’s statement said nothing about Littlejohn’s repentance and his conduct in prison.

James Coddington, Phillip Hancock and Littlejohn would be alive today if Stitt had followed the recommendations for clemency made by the Pardon and Parole Board. Most CEOs follow the recommendations of their boards, but clemency apparently conflicts with Stitt’s view of justice. There is no place in it for mercy and forgiveness for men who have been convicted of violent crimes. It does not matter whether they are changed men, have been model prisoners, have repented of their crimes and have apologized to the victims’ families. Retribution must be carried out.

More: Opinion: Ryan Walters’ Bible choice reflects the preference of Christian fundamentalists

It is ironic that Christian nationalists are more supportive of state violence than any other segment of the American population. Christian nationalists betray the teachings of the Christ they profess to follow, who was not white and not European and created nonviolent communities in which women were leaders. He refused to allow his disciples to take arms to defend him when his own life was threatened. On the cross he forgave those who were crucifying him.

The Rev. Don Heath is minister of Disciples Christian Church in Edmond and the chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.