Somebody’s going to complain about it. Well, let them. Maybe OU will offer an apology. It might as well, because it would be the only one.

Perhaps not the toughest schedule Stoops has ever faced after the Sooners pound the Mocs and maybe not just the right matchups OU would prefer at this point in the season or that point in the season. But it might be the best schedule assembled yet when the object is winning a national championship.

The Sooners get Washington there. The Huskies sound good, but they’re not good. Cincinnati, however, is good, and the Sooners get the Bearcats here. TCU might be really good. But not top-5 good. And the Horned Frogs are here.

Kansas, a good team, is here. Missouri, maybe a great team, isn’t on the schedule until the Big 12 championship game. Texas A&M, tradition-rich but not very good, will wait for OU in College Station, while Texas Tech, sort of an historic thorn in OU’s side, is coming to Norman.

Bedlam is in Stillwater.

No team can have it all.

It’s clear OU did all it could.

Who knew Tryone Willingham simply didn’t have it.

Making the schedule, athletic director Joe Castiglione likely thought Cincinnati a speed bump on the way to a real test against TCU. Yet both will be tests, and both at home. And if the Sooners are anything like they ought to be, easily passed.

So hold your nose Saturday. You won’t have to again.

Clay Horning

366-3526

cfhorning@normantranscript.com