Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and his players have done a fairly good job convincing everybody they could lose to today.

It’s not even a bad column, really, that one big reason why the Sooners don’t lose games like this is because they understand they can lose games like this.

But OU’s mere mortality is hard to buy this week.

It’s hard to buy not because the Bearcats aren’t capable and not because they aren’t just the kind of carefree program to stun a team like OU. They are.

It’s hard to buy because the Sooners still have Sam Bradford and DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown and Juaquin Iglesias and Manny Johnson and an offensive line with a ton of talent and even more experience.

It’s hard to buy because the only team in a real position to stop OU is OU.

Under Stoops, and since Mike Leach left, OU will never look like Texas Tech. But that doesn’t mean they can’t win like the Red Raiders: a whole bunch of points to slightly fewer points.

Which brings us to today.

OU’s going to win because, even while it would drive defensive coordinator Brent Venables absolutely nuts, it can win on its offense alone. Yet that’s only one option.

The other is to play defense, too. and beat a really good Cincinnati team like a drum. Being more specific, the other option is to play great defense in the secondary.

Getting a rush on senior quarterback Dustin Grutza will help, but the action will be in the secondary where linebackers may roam, but cornerbacks and safeties patrol.

An observant history lesson informs the Sooners may have some trouble in the back end.

During the Stoops era, there hasn’t been a more volatile facet of the team.

Keenan Clayton used to be a safety. That didn’t work and now he’s a linebacker. D.J. Wolfe and Lendy Holmes have bounced around OU’s defensive backfield. Even this preseason, Holmes worked at corner before settling back at safety. Remember when Marcus Walker, then a freshman, saved the day by replacing Eric Bassey?

So here the Sooners are ranked No. 4 in the nation with free-wheeling and pass-happy Cincinnati coming into Owen Field. Here they are 211⁄2-point favorites about to face their first real test while Venables grinds his teeth waiting to see how a back seven that returned just three starters handles it all.

And here lies the Sooner Nation, waiting to see its favorite team play its first real opponent, waiting to see just how high speculation and expectation might realistically intersect.

Can this team go as far as its offense can take it or is there reason to worry should Bradford, Murray, Iglesias, Johnson and the line wake up on the wrong side of the bed?

The biggest statement OU made last season only came after an earlier statement, the one that said without our quarterback, our first thought was to panic at Texas Tech, which itself came after another statement that went it wasn’t the altitude but we forgot how to play football in the fourth quarter at Colorado.

Then came the Big 12 championship game and all was well; for the rest of 2007 anyway.

Today’s a chance to start making the right kind of statement and to make it just as soon as the schedule allows.

Are the Sooners settled?

Is OU a dominant team?

Will it take another January meltdown to break the Sooner Nation’s heart or will it be prapared, its dreams dashed somewhere along the line?

It’s only Cincinnati and it’s only the second week of the season, but already it’s out there.

OU can announce itself as a national contender or it can announce it intends to revisit the issue, against TCU, at the Cotton Bowl, or on Bedlam Saturday.

Perhaps the waiting need not be the hardest part.

Clay Horning

366-3526

cfhorning@normantranscript.com