We used to call him Big Game Bob. And it came up earlier in the season because, gee whiz, just what was the last humdinger Stoops and the Sooners claimed?

Plenty, if they’re all big, but they aren’t.

They’re all necessary.

He’s the conference coach of the year and he has guided the Sooners back from an abyss of NCAA criminality, criminally poor officiating and a collarbone break that robbed OU of the nation’s best running back.

Really, Stoops and the Sooners have already done it.

Just getting to tonight’s championship game is a feat among feats, and yet the job must still be finished. Anything short of victory and the entire season will have a yeah, but … quality to it.

Further, whatever luster Stoops has lost by failing to whip the top 10 the way his teams used to, much of it can be regained.

Nebraska’s no top-10 team, but the Huskers are all that’s left.

The body of work simply requires one more, well, body.

And it’s a Husker.

As for the players, it’s not the national championship they might have thought they’d play for one day. And still, for all that’s happened, they’ve come even further to get to this game then they ever could have conceived the whole ball of wax might require.

They’re a special group. But they won’t feel like one without winning.

What’s on the line? Just a conference championship and the way they’ll remember the season for the rest of their lives.

And it’s letting the latter get away from them that will hurt more if the game gets away from them.

But they took care of Missouri at Columbia, Texas A&M at Kyle Field and Texas Tech after being down two touchdowns. All they have to do is wrap it up.