HAD BOB STOOPS and Sam Bradford wanted to be ungracious guests Monday night, the Oklahoma football coach and his quarterback could have departed the Lone Star State with a sly grin and this mischievous message: "We'll be back."

Bradford returned to the banquet circuit last night in Fort Worth to pick up the Davey O'Brien Award. Stoops also attended the black-tie affair, as Bradford added another award to a list of honors that also includes the 2008 Heisman Trophy.

The 32nd annual event, held at the Fort Worth Club to honor "the nation's best quarterback," is the first of several visits the Sooner duo intends to make this year south of the Red River.

The coach and the quarterback will have the eyes of Texas upon them so much in the upcoming months that they might qualify for residency status. But they will have plenty of company from here on out, as the rest of the team will be along for the return trips.

Because of its loyal fan base, OU seldom opens a season on the road. But the Sooners were more than willing to tweak that tradition when Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones offered them a chance to be part of the first college football game played in the Cowboys' new stadium.

The Sept. 5 contest against Brigham Young University at the Cowboys' $1.1 billion, 80,000-seat facility in Arlington is the first of three games OU is guaranteed to play next season in Texas. But the Sooners would like to make it four with an encore at "Jerry World," when the new stadium hosts the Big 12 Conference championship game on Dec. 5.

The Sooners also have a Nov. 21 engagement at Texas Tech. The last time Stoops and Bradford visited Lubbock, the Red Raiders knocked the quarterback out of the game with a concussion and sent his coach back to Norman with a second consecutive loss at Jones AT&T Stadium.

And, of course, there's the Texas State Fair's annual main attraction — the Red River Shootout, when OU and Texas attempt to settle their differences each October at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas.

As the 2008 season turned out, nothing was settled when the Longhorns whipped the Sooners 45-35 in Big D. The fallout from OU advancing to the Big 12 and national title games instead of Texas has already made next season's 104th Red River Shootout on Oct. 17 one of the most-anticipated meetings in the history of the storied rivalry.

All of which means Stoops, Bradford and the Sooners have plenty of work to do back home before they attempt to turn the state of Texas into their second home. And that starts three weeks from today when OU opens spring practice, which will conclude with the annual Red-White Spring Game on April 11.

So what can a player like Bradford accomplish during spring ball when he already has a house full of hardware? Bradford did throw for an almost obscene 50 touchdowns and 4,720 yards last season, numbers most players would take for a career.

"As much as anything," Stoops said Monday in a telephone interview, "there's just the natural maturity and growth.

"Sam has already been gaining strength and size in the weight room the last several weeks. I'm sure that will translate into stronger footwork and a stronger arm."

Ah, yes, the strength factor. If the 218-pound Bradford had about 15 more pounds hanging on his 6-foot-4 frame, he might be in Indianapolis this week for the NFL Combine, hoping to become the No. 1 pick in April's NFL Draft.

To the surprise of every draft geek and most NFL scouts, Bradford announced last month that he'd return for his redshirt junior season in 2009 and play for OU instead of playing 'Who Wants To Be An NFL Multimillionaire?'

In addition to Bradford adding muscle and bulk, Stoops said the consensus All-American can gain an even better grasp of OU's wide-open offense this spring "with even more processing. Another (spring) of seeing defenses and understanding where we'll go with the ball is only going to keep helping him improve."

Bradford, one of OU's best recruiters this past winter when he encouraged visiting prospects to sign with the Sooners, could add the title of "undergraduate assistant coach" this spring. With the departure of several seniors off a 2008 team that played for the national title, the Sooners' staff can use Bradford's experience as they rebuild the offensive line and receiver corps.

"He's already been a great leader for us," said Stoops of Bradford, who was elected a co-captain last fall as a redshirt sophomore. "The older a guy is and the more he plays, the stronger a leader he becomes."

Leadership figures to play a critical role every time the Sooners head south of the Red River next fall. After all, one gets the feeling that a whole bunch of Texans bid Stoops and Bradford goodbye last night while also silently thinking, "We'll be waiting."