Texas Hosts Mississippi State on Halloween Night in Austin: 6:30 on ESPN, and No Margin Left
The 5-2 Longhorns beat Ole Miss last week to save their season's shape - now Mississippi State, the team that took them to overtime a year ago, comes to a 100,119-seat Halloween night.
AUSTIN - Texas plays the middle game of its season's argument on Saturday night: Mississippi State at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, kickoff 6:30 p.m. Central on ESPN. The Longhorns are 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC; the Bulldogs arrive 4-3 and 2-3 in the league, and the series history says to expect a fight - Texas leads it 4-2, and last year's meeting in Starkville needed overtime before Texas won 45-38.
Texas comes in off the win that steadied its fall: a 34-27 victory over Ole Miss last week, a result the SEC schedule roundup notes from the Texas side of the bracket. Mississippi State's motivation runs the other way - the Bulldogs are Ole Miss's Egg Bowl rivals, watched Texas beat the Rebels, and know a win in Austin reshapes their own November. The SEC's Halloween slate is crowded around them: Auburn at Ole Miss at 11:45 a.m., Florida against Georgia at 2:30 p.m., South Carolina at Oklahoma at 3:15 p.m. and Missouri at Arkansas at 6:45 p.m.
What follows leaves Texas no soft landing: three of its last four are on the road, at Missouri and LSU before the regular-season finale at Texas A&M on November 27, with Arkansas the lone remaining home date. That is why Saturday matters beyond the standings page - a 5-2 team with that closing road stretch cannot give away a home game against a 4-3 visitor. Halloween night in a stadium that holds 100,119 will be loud; the Longhorns need it to be enough.
