The SP+ ranking of the next three opponents, all at home
UTSA: #89
ULM: #118
MSU: #51- I don't think this is accurately capturing how bad this team is
Texas then has a bye week before the RRSO and Georgia. While the SEC did no favors to Texas by giving Georgia the week after OU, they did give Texas a nice letdown spot in a road trip to Vanderbilt
The obvious benefits of this four week stretch are allowing the team to get relatively healthy and giving the young players/backups plenty of playing time (something Texas has frequently struggled with over the past decade given how many close games they've had to play), but perhaps most importantly this stretch gives Texas over a month to prepare for OU/Georgia
OU also has a bye before the RRSO, but I suspect they're going to have a much tougher time in the three weeks prior (Tulane, Tennessee, at Auburn) than Texas will and they won't have the luxury of holding anything back in those games or reallocating any resources away from the task at hand. Tennessee is their version of Georgia, and I think Heupel has had this one circled for obvious reasons, and OU could get embarrassed if they don't go all-out (they might get embarrassed anyway). Also, Auburn hasn't looked great, but that's not a place you want to play in a letdown spot