After entering the season with national title hopes, Texas was already off to a less-than-ideal start in 2013, having suffered a 21-40 rout to BYU in Provo, which prompted the firing of defensive coordinator Manny Diaz. That talent advantage over Ole Miss never went away, though, so a 21-point win for the Rebels that included a 27-0 shutout in the second half may have caught folks off guard.
No extra bit of context, not even the Longhorns’ underachieving in recent years, would have made it any less surprising that Ole Miss had just decisively beaten Texas in a football game.