Texas co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin made Oklahoma’s defense look silly in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl when he was the offensive coordinator at Boise State.
Four years later, Bob Stoops and defensive coordinator Brent Venables unleashed their ravenous Sooner defense on Texas like a pack of wolves. The main course at this year’s Texas State Fair? Deep fried Bevo with a side of fried mashed potatoes. As if the Red River Rivalry needed any more flammable grease to cause a spark, Stoops kept his foot on the throttle, while maybe keeping his memories in Phoenix, for 60 minutes. The result was a Texas-sized beat-down of the young Longhorns 55-17.
Question: is there an over/under on how many spots No. 3 Oklahoma will drop in the Associated Press poll come tomorrow? The Sooners started the year atop both polls and haven’t done anything yet to make one believe they’re not one of the top teams in the country. But more recent primetime wins by LSU and Alabama have put the SEC West rivals ahead of the Sooners in the AP poll.
Not that it really matters now; rankings are subjective, and all OU has to do is keep winning and Bama/LSU will take care of itself. The former is a manageable task for Oklahoma. Although the Big 12 had five undefeated (now four) and top 25 teams heading into Week 6, the Sooners are still the class of the league, with a season-ending game in Stillwater against Oklahoma State looking like the final hurdle to a BCS championship game appearance.
But it’s hard to look at today’s win by Oklahoma and not realize that it was just as equally attributed to Texas’ total ineffectiveness as a team as it was OU’s dominance. Call it youth, call it whatever you want, Texas just wasn’t ready for an opponent like Oklahoma and they for sure aren’t the No. 11 team in the country.
The Sooners defense cashed in on Texas’ mistakes by causing five turnovers, three of which were returned immediately for touchdowns. In all, OU’s defense scored one less touchdown than their offense (four touchdowns).
Texas’ best play of the day -- a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by RB Fozzy Whittaker -- was actually their biggest mistake of all. Why? It gave the ball back to Oklahoma’s offense right away. The Sooners would drive 83 yards in two minutes and score a touchdown to go up 34-10 right before the half.
Yep, that kind of game.