Tulsa World: Next three games can set up title try

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Next three games can set up title try

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 11/3/2008 2:11 AM
Last Modified: 11/3/2008 3:51 AM

When Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree completed the unlikeliest of comebacks with the unlikeliest of catches Saturday night in Lubbock, Texas, a roar could be heard from inside the Red Room in the Barry Switzer Center.

A visual image of the Oklahoma football team, still sweaty from its 62-28 victory over Nebraska, hovering half-dressed, grass stains on pants, partially unwrapped tape dangling from knuckles, gathered around the big-screen TV in the locker room, cheering Crabtree's sideline heroics — and the demise of No. 1-ranked Texas — as a window of opportunity suddenly opened up for them.

But that visual never actually happened.

"That wasn't the team," OU coach Bob Stoops said Sunday. "That was just all the people in the training room and the equipment room. We didn't have the TV on as a team. People were already disbursing or in the shower. I sure didn't need to go talk to the equipment managers or the trainers."

Stoops has a message for his team this week.

Yes, the Red Raiders' 39-33 victory gave the Longhorns their first conference loss.

Yes, it opens the possibility for OU to win its final three games and win the Big 12 South. Yes, the top-ranked team in the country losing does wonders for a team chasing a national championship.

But Stoops' message has nothing to do with any of that.

"We've got Texas A&M," he said of this week's 2:30 p.m. kickoff in College Station, Texas. "We've got to hopefully continue to make improvement and be at our best when we go down there and play."

The Sooners' historic victory over Nebraska — Oklahoma's most points ever scored against NU — pushed them to 8-1 overall and 4-1 in Big 12 play.

Beating Texas A&M, then Texas Tech, then Oklahoma State, could send OU to the Big 12 championship game and, eventually, the Bowl Championship Series national championship game.

But Stoops said he won't need to hammer away at that point during the week.

"That won't take long for them to understand that," he said. "They already do. But none of it matters if you don't go play well in this game."

John E. Hoover 581-8384
john.hoover@tulsaworld.com By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

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