Playing well can be its own reward for Sooners

Commentary

By Clay Horning

As most might see it, OU can’t do any more than win handily today.

The Sooners can lose, which would make less sense than what happened to Southern Cal at Oregon State. Or they can win by a whisker, which would make almost as little sense. Or they can do what they’ll probably do, which is win by a bunch.

It will be enough to keep OU ranked No. 1, though little more. For those unconvinced, nothing happening today at Floyd Casey Stadium will do the convincing. Instead, hard cases will have to wait a week, until OU and Texas meets at the Cotton Bowl and, should the Sooners prevail, the following week, when an exclamation point may be added by crushing Kansas back at Owen Field.

What OU can do today, however, is look the part.

It is no small thing and the players themselves will know the difference.

Further, it will matter.

The Sooners are No. 1, but nowhere near a unanimous pick.

They’re playing in the best division in maybe the best conference in the nation and must still play the Longhorns, the Jayhawks, No. 7 Texas Tech, No. 21 Oklahoma State and, should they make it, most likely No. 3 Missouri.

What OU can do today is not commit a bunch of penalties, not place itself in a position to overcome turnovers, send its kickoffs into the end zone, not give up any big returns, average more than 40 yards a punt for a change, execute its balanced offense unless Baylor wants to sell out to the run or the pass and then dominate accordingly.

Do that and there’s no need to get up for the big games, because OU will already be up. Do that and the only way things ever get off the track will occur through getting beat, yet not by giving anything away. Do that, and this team will be ahead of the game, even ahead of the last Sooner team to win the national championship.

Because while that team was the greatest story a bunch of Sooners ever told, it was also, eventually, the year of living dangerously.

That season, after ascending to No. 1, a month later than has occurred this season, OU needed Torrance Marshall’s miracle in College Station to beat Texas A&M;, a two-touchdown victory over Texas Tech, freshman cornerback Derrick Strait’s break up in the end zone to keep OU’s run of Bedlam losses from beginning a year earlier and a three-point decision at the Big 12 title game in a rematch with Kansas State.

That team had something.

It wouldn’t give in, but it quit thriving near the end.

It held on.

The 2000 national championship remains an incredible achievement, but eight years later OU is a better team. The Sooners are not yet special because no team can be so early in the year, but it’s right there with the best teams Bob Stoops has ever produced, with every bit the firepower of the 2003 and 2004 Sooners, and just maybe the same indomitability of the 2000 defense.

So good thus far, it’s a team that’s become difficult to write about.

Chinks in the armor? Last week’s running game might qualify, only the defense TCU played to affect it was the same thing that allowed Sam Bradford to have his biggest game to date and Manny Johnson to have the biggest game in program history. Only special teams remains a bugaboo.

Easier to point out has been what’s been happening right, even beyond the scoreboard. From inexperienced defenders rising to the occasion to the players’ lack of entitlement, the story continues being told.

OU can add to that story today simply by playing well, which requires more than showcasing talent.

Winning will be enough, but hitting each detail along the way will get OU closer to where it wants to be when minding the small stuff is required.

Because that day may not be too far away.

Clay Horning

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cfhorning@normantranscript.com