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No. 8 Baylor visits Texas in Austin on Saturday. The stakes are high for both teams, but in different ways.
The Longhorns' season has gone into the tank. They've lost four of five games and gone from a Week 1 breakout to mostly a disaster in less than two months. Charlie Strong's seat looks scaldingly hot, and Texas hasn't been able to string together consistent efforts on offense or defense. Another loss for a 3-4 Texas team would look awful.
The Horns defense was disastrous during a three-game losing streak against Cal, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma. The defense has been better of late, but Texas could only score 21 points in a loss at Kansas State last week. When one thing's been fine, the other hasn't, and Texas has floundered.
Things have been considerably better for Baylor, which is doing more than fine under caretaker head coach Jim Grobe. The Bears haven't lost yet and almost surely retain control of their Playoff destiny. They've only come close to losing one time, at Iowa State on Oct. 1, and have otherwise badly outplayed just about everyone.
This week is a chance to keep that going while making Texas' fall even worse.
How to watch, stream, and listen
TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC. The broadcasters are Steve Levy, Brian Griese, and Todd McShay.
Radio: Baylor and Texas
Online streaming: WatchESPN
Spread: Baylor is favored by a hair more than a field goal at most places.
Make friends: Get to SB Nation's team blog chats for this game at Our Daily Bears (for Baylor fans) and Burnt Orange Nation or Barking Carnival (for Texas fans).
Three big things to know
1. The offenses share a good deal in common. Texas offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert once worked as a graduate assistant at Houston under now-former UH and Baylor coach Art Briles, and he later worked under one-time Briles assistants Dino Babers and Philip Montgomery. The result is that Gilbert's system looks a good bit like the Baylor system, with a spread and a gun-slinging quarterback, freshman Shane Buechele. The systems aren't identical, but Texas and Baylor look more alike on offense than they don't.
2. Texas won't easily score points. Baylor's on-field identity is its offense, but the Bears defense is just as good. Texas' defense has huge problems, and it's safe to say the Horns will need to run up a high number on offense to have a serious shot at winning. Baylor almost completely shuts down explosive plays, and Texas will need to stay on schedule to get up the field methodically. In both the running and passing games, Baylor limits the big play but doesn't prevent down-to-down efficiency closer to the line of scrimmage. Texas needs to take what it can get.
3. I'm not sure how much trouble Strong's in, but I'm sure a loss here won't make it any less. Strong's in serious peril of falling to 3-5 in Year 3 in Austin. Draw your own conclusions about what would happen after that.