Bowl eligible? Who cares?
Published: 10/31/2006 8:41 AM
Last Modified: 10/31/2006 8:41 AM
"We want to be THE Oklahoma." OK, Nic.
Stephen Pingry/Tulsa World
Great, big, fat deal.
"It means we've got to play next week at A&M, and then the next week wherever, and then wherever," said Sooners skipper Bob Stoops. "It doesn't mean anything right now."
"You always expect to be (bowl eligible)," said defensive coordinator Brent Venables. "As a coach, I've been fortunate to be at places where you didn't ever have to count 'em up and look down the road and say, `win, lose, win, lose.' You expect to win 'em all. Anything less than that is extremely disappointing, to be very, very honest with you. That's just not what we do here."
Unless the Sooners nosedive over their last four games, last week's win over Missouri might have eliminated the Tigers from the Cotton Bowl picture.
The Cotton Bowl will watch – probably with tepid interest – Missouri's visit to Nebraska this week. Although both teams lost last week to OU and OSU, respectively, and fell out of the AP Top 25, it'll likely decide the Big 12 North winner and, well, somebody has to represent the North in the Big 12 title game.
In reality, the Cotton Bowl now shifts a great deal of attention to College Station, Texas, where the Sooners this week visit Texas A&M. OU is ranked 18th and stands 6-2 overall. The Aggies are 21st and 8-1. The winner, barring a late-season collapse and presuming Texas holds serve, has the express lane to Dallas.
The Aggies, of course, still have designs on the Big 12 South title and a possible run at the BCS. For that to happen, they'll have to beat 6-2 OU, 6-3 Nebraska and 8-1 Texas.
"I think as you get down to this time of year when there's only three or four or five games left, when you get into that neighborhood, then you've pretty well narrowed your pool of teams," said Cotton Bowl president Rick Baker. "You have a pretty good idea within three or four teams the possibilities that might present themselves. With four or five games left, things can change. Teams can move up or move down. They can play their way out of your game up or down, or into your game, both up and down."
Two other obstacles for the Aggies: they played in the Cotton Bowl two years ago, and lost to Tennessee 38-7. And A&M fans, many living in the Metroplex, don't necessarily pump huge sums of cash into the Dallas economy.
Baker said OU fans were a boon to area merchants during the Sooners' only Cotton Bowl appearance, a 10-7 victory over Arkansas in 2001. In the event that Texas wins the South, the Sooners would love to return.
"I don't know. People might have too much fun. Half the team's from Dallas," said defensive back Reggie Smith. "No, they'll be happy just to go back home and play in front of their families and stuff. They'll be able to get a lot of people there because a lot of our team's from Texas."
So achieving six wins didn't even register in the Sooners' minds.
"That's not Oklahoma football whatsoever. We don't expect to lose any games at all," said defensive back Nic Harris. "We've got to keep winning. We want to be undefeated. We want to be the great team. We want to be THE Oklahoma."
– John E. Hoover
Written by
Jason Collington
Web Editor
