OU-Texas game not a big deal?

BY DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
7/29/09 at 11:44 AM

Related stories: Big 12 Media Days: Oklahoma Sooners.

IRVING, Texas — So, Bob Stoops, could the 2009 Red River Shootout be bigger than ever?

"How?" Oklahoma's coach asked Tuesday at Big 12 Media Days. "You explain to me how it could be."

Stoops was kidding, right? Not only will the OU-Texas game Oct. 17 in Dallas be larger than any in recent memory, it might be the biggest in a tradition-rich rivalry that started in 1900.

Perhaps Stoops was merely yanking Texas coach Mack Brown's chain. After all, Brown has often enjoyed chiding the Sooners for placing more emphasis on the series than the Longhorns.

Like Brown, Stoops' latest stance is that the best rivalry in college football is just one game on OU's road to what it hopes will be an eighth national championship.

To which I say: Poppycock, hooey, nonsense, piffle and bull feathers.

With sincere respect to every player and coach who's had the good fortune to participate in a Shootout, I submit that the 104th meeting will be the most-anticipated game in a series that has run continuously since 1929.

The size of the importance on the game's outcome depends on how both teams fare leading up to their annual showdown at the Cotton Bowl Stadium.

If all goes according to the consensus preseason predictions, the Sooners and Longhorns will enter the contest 5-0 and could be ranked as high as No. 1, and no lower than No. 4 in the polls.

And if that scenario plays out, the Red River will be overflowing its banks on both sides with the bitter emotions that have building up over the past seven-plus months and show no signs of receding.

Stoops wants an explanation on how this particular game could get any bigger?

Well, my boss won't give me the space to write all the reasons OU's coach is kidding himself if he doesn't think the rancor involved in this game will top the infamous 1976 meeting, a meeting where it took the president of the United States to separate two head coaches who were not on speaking terms.

Brown hasn't accused Stoops of spying, like UT coach Darrell Royal did with OU coach Barry Switzer before the 1976 contest, which featured President Gerald Ford handling the pregame coin flip.

But Longhorns everywhere have made a much more serious accusation against the Sooners — stealing. OU stole the spot in the Big 12 title game that UT felt it had earned.

Peeved Longhorns used everything from asterisks to airplanes to make their angry point that UT should have played for the 2008 BCS national championship instead of the Sooners.

After all, sniffed and scolded the Tea-sippers, Texas did win the 103rd meeting last October, 45-35.

"If they (OU critics) throw up the Texas score to me," Stoops said, "I'll throw up the (Texas) Tech score to them."

Ah, yes, the Red Raiders' 39-33 win over the Orange Bloods did create quite the messy jam atop the Big 12's South Division standings. All three teams finished tied with 7-1 records, with OU representing the division in the Big 12 title game thanks to a controversial tiebreaker rule.

Texas fans understandably flipped their 10-gallon lids over that decision. The folks in Burnt Orange are still burning up with anger and ill-will over what they perceive as the hose job their team received from the Big 12.

Some fans hired planes to fly over OU games late last season, carrying banners with the 45-35 score. After the season, UT officials briefly put up an asterisk in the team's locker room, hinting it won the Big 12 title instead of OU. And the coaches received the bonuses that they were promised in their contracts for a conference championship.

Brown demanded an immediate investigation into the tiebreaker rule, which uses the BCS standings when all else fails. He vowed to take those findings to Colorado when the coaches held their annual meetings last spring.

In the end, Brown stayed home because his wife had a health issue. And his 11 fellow coaches decided to do nothing. When no better tiebreaker rule was found, they decided to stick with the one that had caused a national uproar.

Stoops did acknowledge yesterday that the Red River Shootout does have a different feel to it than the other 11 regular-season games on OU's schedule.

"I'd be lying if I said it didn't," he said. "But if you win that game and lose a whole bunch of other ones, there isn't anybody in Norman, Okla., who is patting you on the back."

Stoops contends that it's only the fans who will look at this OU-Texas game any differently. Listening to OU All-American defensive tackle Gerald McCoy talk, Stoops has obviously pounded that message home to his players.

"It's going to be pretty rough this year because of the controversy from last year," McCoy said. "Not as far as the player's standpoint. But for the fans? It's going to be outrageous.

"As far as I look at it, it's just another game. If you don't win the OU-Texas game, it's not the end of the world."

That loud thud you just heard was thousands of OU fans who either fainted or just punched a hole in the nearest wall.

Associated Images:

OU head coach Bob Stoops speaks with the media Tuesday during the Big 12 Media Days in Irving, Texas. Bryan Terry/The Oklahoman