Ready to go

Sooner defenders confident heading to Dallas

John Shinn

The Oklahoma-Texas game provides a stage few will ever appear on. Besides the eyes of two football-loving states, the rest of the nation usually takes a glimpse at what happens at the Cotton Bowl.

Everything is magnified when the Sooners and Longhorns meet. No one knows that better than OU’s defense.

The unit was thought to be the Sooners’ strength when the season started, but through four games is 66th in the country against the run and 56th in total defense.

For the last month, Sooner defenders have heard a constant a barrage of questions concerning their deficiencies.

“We know where we’ve struggled at and we need to be better,” OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “If we had been kicking everyone’s fanny and stuffed everyone’s run game through four games, I’d be standing here with my chest sticking out.”

But no one will be paying attention to what’s happened in the first four games at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Texas certainly isn’t.

Longhorn coach Mack Brown pointed out two of the Sooners’ previous opponents — Washington and Oregon —are among the highest-scoring teams in college football.

“We think it’s a great defense,” he said.

Of course, he’s not the one coaching it. And he knows the chances of the 14th-ranked Sooners (3-1) claiming a victory over the seventh-ranked Longhorns (4-1) at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas aren’t good without a great defensive performance.

Does OU have what it takes to put another defensive masterpiece together against its biggest rival? The players think so.

“Our confidence is very high,” linebacker Rufus Alexander said. “It’s never been down — we always have great confidence.”

They’ll need it. Because for all the offensive stars that have shined in the historic rivalry, the defenses usually decide who leaves the Cotton Bowl in a state of euphoria.

That’s been the case in the five games OU has claimed in the series under Bob Stoops.

From 2000-2004, the Sooner defense dominated Texas. The Longhorns struggled to run the ball and the Sooners rendered their passing game ineffective.

The result was five straight Sooner wins with two coming in routs and holding the Longhorns without a touchdown two other times.

Venables said the key to winning is simple.

“We’ve told them this game is won by playing great defense,” he said. “You can’t play great defense without playing great run defense first and foremost.”

But OU has struggled to do that this season. Alabama-Birmingham, Washington and Oregon all had success running the ball. Texas, which averages 205.2 yards a game on the ground, does it a lot better than most.

It will be OU’s biggest defensive challenge of the season.

“Through four games, we’ve struggled a little,” defensive end Larry Birdine said. “But we’ve had two weeks to get ready for this. I think we’re ready to perform.”

That’s what Venables wants to hear. The early struggles left a stain, but it can be washed away with a great defensive performance Saturday.

Anyone who doesn’t think it can happen won’t be allowed near those who do.

“If you have doubt, you stand no chance,” he said. “Our guys don’t have reason to have doubt. It would be one thing if we didn’t have guys that can play; we do … I don’t believe anybody that’s going to go down there on that bus is going to be overwhelmed and have doubt. If you sense it, they’re not getting on.”

John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com