Miscellaneous

Texas OU Weekend

By Chris Stevenson

It's only Tuesday and I really can't think about much else.  Going to this game has become somewhat of a family tradition.  I don't know how many years running or how many times I've been altogether, but this year has to rank up there as one of the most exciting because both teams are undefeated and highly ranked.  Winner of this game has an open track to the Big XII title (Texas Tech, OSU and Missouri notwithstanding) and to the National Championship.  This is big.

So here's my Texas/OU preview:

The Hatred

For those not associated with either team, you may not understand this rivalry.  It has all of the ingredients of any of the great rivalries of college football - long traditions, both programs are good almost every year, close geographically, compete for recruits, etc.  But with TX/OU there is also The Anomaly.  The Anomaly is how a place like Norman, Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma can compete at all with Austin, Texas and The University of Texas.  When you think of Oklahoma, as a state, you should think of trailer park ghettoes, toothless rednecks with overlapping family trees, drunk Indians and dusty prairies.  Texas, on the other hand, is the greatest state in the Union with miles of pristine coastline, the Hill Country, clear running rivers and the most beautiful women in the world.  By any measure, Texas, and especially Austin, is just a much, much better place to live than Oklahoma.  So why would any recruit choose OU and Norman over UT and Austin?  That is precisely the question.  The unfortunate fact may just be that the game of football lends itself to the low brow, where the people of Oklahoma easily out grade Texans.  My theory for a long time has been that because there ain't shit in Oklahoma, in order for them to keep from killing themselves out of despair of where they live they have to have something and that one thing that they have is Sooner football.  They've thrown everything they've got (which isn't much) into it.  Texas, on the other hand, has a lot of other stuff going on.  We're winning national championships in other sports and sending our athletes to the Olympics.  We're enjoying the grandeur of the state and all of the metropolitan fancies of our cities.  So we're distracted.  For us, even though we love our football, we're a more genteel and sophisticated culture and so we don't need a victory on the gridiron for our very survival like they do.

Look no further for evidence that my pet theory is true than in the respective symbols of our two universities.  The Longhorn and the Sooner.  The Longhorn is a majestic symbol of the tough and independent nature shared by all Texans.  While a Sooner is, quite literally, a cheater.  You see, when the federal government was giving away all of the land in Oklahoma (even the Indians didn't want it), poor people from the slums of northern cities, who were duped into believing that the land was actually worth having, came in droves.  At an appointed time these people were supposed to run out on the prairie and post a flag on the plot of land they were claiming.  Well, the worst of these degenerates left the line early to place their flags before anyone else - leaving the line sooner than those more given to fair play.  Thus, a Sooner is really just a cheater, though any fan of OU would probably rationalize it as being resourceful, if they were smart enough to think of it.

So the hatred really springs from the fact that, by all rights, UT should dominate this series and OU shouldn't be viewed as a rival at all.  They should be viewed as what they are - our poor defeated neighbors to the north who don't have many teeth and even fewer homegrown football players who are any good.  Instead, we are forced to treat them as near-equals because of their successful football program and to deny all other evidence of their inferiority to the contrary.

The Teams

By all accounts, including my own observations, the teams are very well matched this year.  Both QB's are playing out of their minds.  Bradford is probably a smidge better passer who takes fewer chances but McCoy is a much better runner.  Both teams have very solid offensive lines, with OU having a slight edge in experience and UT having a slight edge in talent.  OU has better running backs; UT has better receivers, but neither squad clearly outclasses the other.  Both defenses are steller with UT having a better front seven and more depth, while OU has more experienced defensive backs.  In games like this, between two evenly matched teams who play solid football, it usually comes down to turnovers.  The second thing that most often determines the outcomes of games like this are big plays.  Turnovers and big plays shift the momentum of the game and give one team a serious advantage over the other to score, at least on that series.  Turnovers, especially, put the smell of blood in the water and if a team can seize on that the game can get out of hand in a hurry.  Third most important would be penalties.  A well- (or poorly, depending on who you root for) timed penalty can change the outcome of the game, but these two teams are well-coached and the odds of it coming down to a yellow hankie are small.  If it did, that would be a shame.

The Horns

So far, I'd grade the team out as an A-.  They haven't faced any good teams though, so it's hard to tell.  They have dominated inferior competition, which is the mark of a really good team.  Their latest win, over Colorado, was unconventional and that makes me a little nervous.  But I think we are in a good place coming into this game.  The bad news is that we really miss Irby (Did you see the interception that bounced off Greg Smith's hands against CU?).  We also haven't had any of the running backs separate themselves.  This has surprised me.  I expected Vondrell to come off of his Mad-Dog inspired offseason and be the man and put any of the questions to bed.  But that hasn't happened.  What has shown itself is that we have a stable of decent backs who all have something slightly different to offer, but none of them are great or can do it all.  Mack said exactly what I'd like to hear going into the OU game regarding this group of backs.  He said that they were going to study film of the last five games and figure out what each guy does best.  Presumably, they will rotate them in and out with plays and in situations that suit their respective talents.  I do worry that because Major is the running backs coach that Davis and/or Brown has been limited in their decisionmaking ability to make a call on a particular guy, but that's probably just me overanalyzing.

The most pleasant surprise of the season has been the defensive backfield.  Those guys are making big hits and deflecting passes.  They've been giving up a lot of yards and they are ranked low nationally as a squad, but they are well beyond where I thought they'd be.  Put it this way, they aren't the liability that a Joe Walker-led group would be, for sure.  Gideon may be my new favorite player.

The Game

Whatever happens, it's going to be exciting.  I'd really like to see Muschamp have many occasions to yell, "Boom, motherfucker!"  I think if we get pressure on Bradford that we will certainly win the game.  That's going to be hard because of their quick counts and good offensive line, but we've got the manimals.  I really hope they don't look at the Colorado game and say, "Okay, Ogbannaya is the guy."  He had a great game, but it was flukey.  He's not an every down back in my opinion.  If they start him and give hime five or more carries in the first quarter they are going to waste time again looking for "the guy."  I really hope our young DB's get off to a good start.  They are playing with confidence right now, as they should be, but if Bradford gets to them early, look out.

The Prediction

Horns 30, Cheaters 20

You heard it here first.

Full post as published by Cursed With Ambition on October 07, 2008 (boomark / email).