FanHouse Roddrick Muckelroy

STILLWATER, Okla. --- Texas coach Mack Brown normally demands his teams stay in the moment.

But in the week leading up to Saturday night's game against 13th-ranked Oklahoma State, Brown wanted to make certain the third-ranked Longhorns remembered where they were at this point last season and what they lost against Texas Tech.

They were different opponents, but presented a strikingly similar scenario a year apart.

STILLWATER, Okla. -- It almost seems uncanny, the parallels between tonight's Texas-Oklahoma State Halloween showdown and last season's matchup between the Longhorns and Texas Tech.

A hostile road environment that will be filled with rowdy fans. Night game. National TV audience. The fourth game of an unforgiving four-game stretch that includes Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri before this one.

A bid for the Big 12 South title and a shot at the BCS national championship game also hang in the balance.

It's not like Texas and Oklahoma ever needed a reason to make their annual Red River Rivalry game in Dallas any more intense.

The tradition of the two programs, the bordering states and the fight for superiority in fertile recruiting ground of Texas use to be enough. Who knew this early season game would take on so much more meaning when both teams joined the Big 12 in 1996?

This game has become about so much more than school pride and bragging rights, as one of these two teams has won the South each of the last 10 years, and it has sometimes set the stage for the national championship picture.

It was of little surprise Monday when Texas coach Mack Brown named redshirt freshman running back Tre' Newton as the starter for Saturday's UTEP game.

Newton gave the second-ranked Longhorns everything they had been looking for in a tailback for the last two seasons during Saturday's win over Texas Tech, picking up difficult yards and moving the chains. Filling in for injured starter Vondrell McGee in the second half, Newton rushed for 88 yards and one touchdown on 20 carries.

His 18 carries for 81 yards in the second half proved pivotal in keeping Texas Tech's explosive offense off the field as the Longhorns escaped with a 34-24 win. It was the inability of the Longhorns backs to pick up critical yards late that paved the way for their upset loss to Tech last season.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Just think, Texas coach Mack Brown worried last week that quarterback Colt McCoy wasn't having as much fun as he use to have playing the game.

McCoy showed his coach what fun really looks like Saturday night as the second-ranked Longhorns and Texas Tech got caught up in a virtual game of H.O.R.S.E. during the third quarter. With each touchdown the Red Raiders scored to try to reclaim the lead, McCoy was only too happy to match them.

"In the second half, he had a blast," Brown said. "When they'd score he'd say 'Look out, what a game. We've got come back and score.' He was the old Colt for the second half."

The appearance is that not much has changed in the Big 12.

When we left off last season, three teams -- Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech --were vying for supremacy in the Big 12 South and ultimately the Big 12. Again this season, three teams from the South will clash for the title and likely the right to represent the conference in the BCS national title game.

But this time instead of Tech, Oklahoma State will join the three-ring circus with the Sooners and Longhorns in college football toughest division. Last season, Oklahoma edged out Texas for the division title despite losing the head-to-head battle and eventually made it to the BCS national championship game where Florida and the SEC came out on top 24-14.