Big 12, national titles run through Dallas

By John Shinn

By John Shinn

Transcript Sports Writer

DALLAS — The passion of the fans makes Oklahoma-Texas one of college football’s biggest spectacles. But the stakes are what give the Red River Rivalry that extra shine.

For years they’ve met at the Cotton Bowl with national championships in the balance. Since the formation of the Big 12, conference and division titles have hinged on the outcome.

The two programs have represented the Big 12 South in the last seven Big 12 championship games. Only once during that span did that berth happen without a victory in Dallas.

There will be an electricity in the air when the 14th-ranked Sooners (3-1) face the seventh-ranked Longhorns (4-1) at 2:30 p.m. today.

“What’s exciting is the challenge of it,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “There’s two really good football teams that have been competing and that makes it exciting, as well where so many years we’ve been in races for Big 12 and national championships.”

Texas coach Mack Brown doesn’t see any need to prop the game up any more. The Longhorns are well aware of the importance.

“They’ve watched this game since they’ve watched college football,” he said. “They know how important it is. We do have a lot of rivals. Our biggest rival out of state is obviously Oklahoma because it’s been a traditional game that means so much.”

From 2000-2004, OU thrived in that atmosphere. It rolled off five straight victories and all served as springboards to greater success. Over that span, the Sooners won three conference titles and finished the season in Bowl Championship Series games four times.

But that string of success ended with last season’s 45-12 loss. The Sooners were dominated in a game they’ve dominated.

The bravado the Sooners built up since the turn of the century was a major factor in their success. A lot of that appeared to get wiped away last year. Texas dominated from start to finish.

OU has tried to erase the memory of that game.

“We’re coming into this game real confident,” OU quarterback Paul Thompson said. “We can’t base things off of previous years, as you know Texas didn’t base last year’s success off of previous years.”

Since losing that game, the Sooners have gone 9-2 and are two highly-disputed calls away from an 11-game winning streak.

Stoops believes his team has little in common with the last one he took to Dallas. He sees a team ready to peak, not plummet.

“There’s no question we’re a much different team coming into the game than we were a year ago. I don’t even know that you can compare the two. And one of the biggest reasons, too, is Adrian Peterson’s health.

“That changes everything in regards to our play-calling and regards to the passing game. Overall our line’s playing better, our receivers are much improved, our quarterback’s playing better.

“We’re different defensively, though we’ve had our moments where we’ve given up some plays. Overall, I still believe we’re further along than where we were at that time a year ago.”

What remains to be seen is if that’s far enough to carry OU past Texas and into the Big 12’s driver’s seat.

The recent history of the Red River rivalry says the Sooners know how to hit their stride when Texas is on the other side of the field.

They stumbled last season, but things can change over the course of a year.

“We are a year more mature and this game is definitely going to be competitive because we are hungry,” defensive end Larry Birdine said. “I am not the only senior on the team that wants to go out beating Texas. This is one of our goals. To beat Texas.”

John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com