By John Shinn
Oklahoma players know they’re targets. Whether it’s people on the streets or the teams they play, when they see those crimson colors there’s a bull’s eye on them.
That target got a little bigger earlier this week when the Sooners returned to the top of the polls for the first time since 2003. But just how big can they get?
“Us being the University of Oklahoma, there’s already a target on our back,” wide receiver Manny Johnson said. “I think we’re something like the Yankees. Everybody wants to beat us.”
The Yankees reference might seem like a bit of a stretch to some. After all, the Sooners have seven national championships and the Yankees have won 26 World Series.
But in the realm of Big 12 Conference, it’s a solid analogy.
OU (4-0) opens conference play at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Baylor (2-2).
Those 41 conference titles OU claims are imposing. Some fear what it represents, while others see the Sooners as a mountain they’re dying to climb.
Defensive coordinator Brent Venables played and coached at Kansas State throughout the 1990s. The Wildcats always circled the calendar when they were about to play the Sooners.
“I always got fired up for those games, because I wanted some of that (prestige),” Venables said.
It’s apparent a lot more around college football see it the way Venables did. The weight of being college football’s No. 1 team has been unbearable lately.
Last season was one of musical chairs atop the polls. Four teams — USC, Ohio State, Missouri and eventual national champion LSU — all held the top spot at some point. Through the first five weeks of this season, two teams — USC and Georgia — have already tumbled from the top spot.
It didn’t used to be that way.
OU was last ranked No. 1 in 2003. It held the top spot throughout the regular season before losing the Big 12 championship game and BCS title game.
A year later, USC was No. 1 from start to finish and through 14 polls in 2005 until losing to Texas at the Rose Bowl. Ohio State has also kept the top spot to itself until losing in the BCS title game.
OU coach Bob Stoops knows something about the pressure. This week marks the fourth season his team has reached the top spot. The key is making everyone understand that nothing has been earned. The ranking is recognition, but not a reward.
“It just means it’s a measure to this point of what we’ve been able to do. I’m not going to sit here and act like it’s a horrible thing, but we’re not sitting here jumping up and down either,” he said. “The bottom line is, this is what we’ve done to this point in the year and all that matters now is what we do this week.
“That’s what our focus is on, strictly concentrating on what we’ve been doing positively up to this point, what we can do better, and let’s be sure that when we go out there Saturday, we’re a better team than we were last weekend.”
At least this week, the players are listening. They know the top ranking makes them a target. Then again, they were already a target.
“We are only four games into the season and we still have a lot of football left to play. Everyone wants to stay focused and take it one game at a time,” linebacker Ryan Reynolds said. “I think the ranking makes us a target, but it happens anyway with us being Oklahoma. We will always have a target on our back.”
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
