By John Shinn
Sometimes winning isn’t enough and Oklahoma is starting to feel unfulfilled.
Saturday’s 36-30 victory over Texas A&M; at Owen Field lifted the Sooners to 6-3 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12 Conference.
If that isn’t enough, the victory made OU bowl eligible for the seventh straight season. However, the level of play required to produce a sense of accomplishment has changed for the Sooners.
For the third straight game, they jumped out to an early lead and had to hold on to win.
OU coach Bob Stoops said there was an excitement after Saturday’s win, but the celebration was tempered because of how much better his team believes it can play.
“The guys are excited. They understand,” Stoops said. “I think what’s good, maybe, is now we’re expecting so much more of ourselves and when it isn’t there, they’re a little more aggravated with it when they know in some areas we can play better than this.
“I’ve said this here forever. There’s a big difference in winning and losing. To win, I don’t care, there isn’t an ugly win. Any way you win is good, especially when you’re in your division and in your conference. What I like, though, is they’re expecting more from themselves and they’re frustrated when they don’t get it.”
The Sooners rushed out to a 21-point first-quarter lead before allowing the Aggies (5-5, 3-4 Big 12) to make it a six-point game midway through the fourth quarter.
Three turnovers and seven penalties for 60 yards helped create a window for Texas A&M; to climb through. OU’s inability to corral the Aggies’ option offense made the game a lot more interesting, too.
“As far as the linebackers, we’re all disappointed in the way we played and the way we played the option,” linebacker Clint Ingram said. “We worked on the option all week. They threw in some things that were a little different. He ran it real well.
“It lets us know that we’re not all the way where we need to be and gives us something to work on. We always want to go out and dominate games.”
Reaching a dominant level seems to be all the Sooners are thinking about.
After losing three of its first five games, OU has reeled off four straight wins to position itself in sole possession of second place to Texas in the Big 12 South standings. And with two games to play, the Sooners still hope to make a lucrative bowl.
The Alamo, Independence and Houston bowls all sent representatives to watch the Sooners and Aggies play Saturday, and the Cotton and Holiday bowls are still potential postseason destinations.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a sigh of relief,” defensive end Calvin Thibodeaux said. “We still have self-confidence that we can get the job done. We’re still thinking bigger than that. We want to continue to try to win out and play hard.”
Postseason plans will sort themselves out over OU’s final two regular season games. The Sooners travel to Lubbock Saturday to meet Texas Tech at 11 a.m. Saturday. Oklahoma State comes to Owen Field Nov. 26 in the regular-season finale.
Winning those two games would make the Sooners very desirable to bowl committees. And should they reach the dominant level they’re looking for, nobody will look forward to playing them.
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
