It’s been over 72 hours since Oklahoma tumbled to Texas. It took the players about 12 hours to get over it. The Sooner Nation might need a little longer. But the players have no time to dwell.
“The end-all isn’t with that game,” OU coach Bob Stoops said Tuesday. “We’ve got a long year, and you’ve got to work your way through it.”
The Sooners have been remarkably adept at leaving the Texas game — win or lose — at the Cotton Bowl throughout the years. Under Stoops, they’re 9-0 against whatever team follows the Longhorns. In this case, it will be No. 16 Kansas at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Owen Field.
It’s the kind of game that grabs attention. There’s nothing like playing a ranked team that’s won 17 of its last 19 games, including an Orange Bowl victory, to bring things into focus.
OU, which is still No. 4 in the Associated Press media poll, is trying to focus on what’s obtainable.
“Inevitably it could be a good thing or a bad thing to get that one loss out of the way,” safety Nic Harris said. “It didn’t hurt us too bad and now we have that off our back. We don’t have that bull’s eye of being No. 1. So now we can just come out and play ball because we don’t have that added pressure.”
Recent history says one is far from a knockout blow. Two years ago, the Sooners lost to Texas and were still able to win out and claim their first of two straight Big 12 championships.
It would take some help for that to happen again, but the top-ranked Longhorns face No. 11 Missouri, No. 8 Oklahoma State and No. 7 Texas Tech the next three weeks.
“We still can conquer our goals that we set out for ourselves. That’s what we’re trying to do,” running back Chris Brown said. “We’re just moving on. It’s in the past, so we’re just putting it behind us.”
Bouncing back is this week’s theme.
The Sooners have a strong history of doing it. They followed up both of last year’s regular season losses with impressive victories over the Longhorns and Cowboys. Those performances ranked among the best OU served up all season.
“It is extremely critical to get the young guys up and make sure that they take their lumps early,” Harris said. “They need to make sure to keep playing hard and hone in, bounce back and play like we have been playing.”
So while many believe the season ends with a loss to Texas, there’s still a lot to play for. Using the last two seasons as a barometer, everything but a perfect season can still happen.
There’s some pain, but letting it linger only leads to more.
“It does hurt; you never want to lose and you don’t come to a place like Oklahoma to lose football games,” center Jon Cooper said. “But you get past it and we’ll find out how good our team is this week.”
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
Sooners have history of bouncing back
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