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The Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma is one of college football‘s marquee matchups every years.
And this year’s edition took less than a quarter go completely off the rails.
Things started with Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers throwing an interception of the opening drive of the game.
That led to the Sooners taking an early 7-0 lead on a Dillon Gabriel touchdown run.
Then Texas picked up a massive first down on a fake punt, only for Ewers to throw another interception deep in Oklahoma territory.
But the Horns had an answer, blocking an Oklahoma punt to tie the game at 7-7 just six minutes into the contest.
Talk about great entertainment!
But many fans weren’t able to see all the calamity due to technical difficulties on ESPN.
The Oklahoma-Texas ESPN on ABC broadcast has been full of technical difficulties, including right in the middle of this fake punt from the Longhorns. 🏈📺😵💫 pic.twitter.com/7YffxdHQ6h
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 7, 2023
Specifically, the video feed completely cut out during Texas’ crucial fake punt pickup.
“Disney’s cutbacks apparently includes using cheap a** equipment,” one viewer said of the issues.
“Thought this was just my Tv. Now a quarter of the right side of the game is cut off,” said another.
And the complaints didn’t stop there.
“Fire everyone on ESPN/ABC whose responsible for these prolonged transmission issues on the red river shootout. unprepared and unprofessional. you know who is prepared? the university of texas,” wrote Twitter user @Pndaxv.
“Jesus Christ. ESPN production is just awful at this point. Glitchy cameras the entire first 7 min of the Red River rivalry. Fowler is terrible as a PBP guy,” @11TimeChamps said of the difficulties.
The issues eventually subsided. But it’s clear that viewers have had enough of the ESPN issues.