NORMAN — Save this one.

I’m bound to be wrong.

Here we go.

The first night of the prep football season, well, unless you count Community Christian School, which began its season last week, is Thursday. Not only will Norman High and Norman North meet at Owen Field, but Southmoore’s at Edmond North and Washington’s at Apache.

Then there’s the Sooners, playing the only cupcake on their schedule Saturday.

Also, if you haven’t noticed, though school’s just in session, the prep volleyball and softball seasons began long ago.

Seems like predictions are in order. And with them, so too is this disclaimer.

If I had to bet the field against say, Oklahoma playing for a national championship, I’d surely pick the field.

On the other hand, if I had to pick between the Sooners going 10-2 or 9-3 or 8-4, and finishing second or third in the Big 12 South, or pick OU to play for it all? Well, if it’s picking one outcome over a dozen others, I might just have to …

I think you get the idea.

Here we go.

n The Sooners go 12-0, win the Big 12 title game to go 13-0, earn their place in a fifth national championship game since Bob Stoops’ arrival, and lose, finishing 13-1.

I just like OU this year.

I like Landry Jones. I like a better and more injury-free offensive line. I like DeMarco Murray getting one injury-free season. I like Ryan Broyles as a longshot Heisman Trophy candidate. I really like the defense, especially if it stays healthy. And I think it’s OU’s turn to beat Texas.

The Sooners must run a gauntlet, but taking it game by game, who beats them. If somebody does, I’ll take Cincinnati. But nobody has to get them. As for that national title game, well, OU’s 0-3 its last tries. They’ll have to win another one before I pick them.

That day, I’ll be wrong.

Perhaps it’s bound to happen.

n I’m no expert. On the preps, that’s our man Jeff Johncox. But I get these feelings, you know. Occasionally, they come to pass.

A year ago, Norman North was a mirage. They were a mirage until the very end, perhaps, when everybody was forced to see them for what they were, a reasonably good prep football team that didn’t belong in the playoffs.

Yet after three straight strong seasons, they deserved the benefit of the doubt. They didn’t live up to it. It happens.

Coaches are always confident in the preseason, but I’ve seen some quotes from North coach Lance Manning that sound a more confident than hopeful. Do this long enough and you pick up on stuff like that.

So, North wins Thursday, hits district play 3-0, returns to the playoffs after a 7-3 or 8-2 regular season or, just maybe, better than that.

n At some level, against my journalistic credo, I root for Norman High football. Butch Peters is one of my favorite people, I wonder what a deep playoff run from the Tigers would do for this town because so much of Norman, so much of it, graduated from Norman High.

So I want to believe in NHS.

But the Tigers will have to surprise me.

I think yes, a third year in coach Greg Nation’s systems, is bound to propel NHS along. I think Donovan Roberts is a star. I know nothing of the line he’s running behind, but if they can give him some daylight, win or lose, NHS will be a fun team to watch.

Still, they’ve got Southmoore, Broken Arrow, Muskogee and Jenks in their district and, for all I know, Sapulpa, Shawnee and Putnam City West aren’t terrible.

Wish the Tigers luck because they’ll likely need it. If they can somehow steel Thursday’s Clash, maybe, all bets might be off.

Nonetheless — I hate this — mark them at 3-7 or 4-6; 5-5 won’t take them anywhere, but it would include at least one upset. Hope the Tigers get it.

n What else?

Norman North volleyball returns to the Class 6A state tournament and NHS makes some noise at regionals before falling. Both squads appear better than last year, one of them, the T-Wolves, much better.

Santiago Restrepo’s another one of my favorite coaches, yet OU’s volleyball team was swept by Wichita State opening night. Nonetheless, the Sooners do no worse than a return to the NCAA Tournament.

All these years — I arrived in 1997 — an NHS or North fast pitch team has reached the state tourney only once, when Shannon Enfield coached the T-Wolves. North has an outside chance this season. A very outside chance.

This one scares me.

OU goes back to the Big 12 soccer tournament. Should the Sooners make it, maybe the football team goes to the title game and wins.

Because it almost never happens.

Maybe this is the year.

Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com