The upside of the rivalry being down

By Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript

November 01, 2008 01:43 am

— The consensus seems to be the biggest reason Oklahoma-Nebraska isn’t the rivalry it used to be is the basic fact the Sooners and Huskers don’t play each other every season any more.
It stands to reason, but it’s still only the second biggest reason and quite possibly a distant second. Because the biggest reason this rivalry has lost its luster is Nebraska hasn’t held up its end of the bargain.
But Dr. Tom left and Frank Solich turned out be a solid coach but not much more, then Steve Pederson couldn’t find anybody to coach the team and wound up with Bill Callahan, so what are you going to do?
The funny thing is, it’s almost better this way.
Not for the rivalry as it stands now, but for the rivalry as it once was. Believe it. If this was 2000 or 2001, when the Husker-Sooner winner was sure to be ranked No.1 in the next set of polls, do you think anybody’d be very pumped to wax nostalgic about the good old days?
A pair of top 5 teams sure would make tonight more exciting, but would it have made the week any better? Would anybody care that a bunch of the Game of the Century’s cast of characters was in Norman Friday night, reliving a game played almost 40 years ago?
And if the nation was watching what will begin at 7 p.m. tonight at Owen Field instead of what will begin at 7 p.m. tonight in Lubbock, Texas, do you think Bob Stoops would have been nearly so charming this week?
Because one of the coach’s best sides is the one he offers when playing host to the history of the program, even the parts of it he could only have heard about while growing up in Youngstown, Ohio.
“It’s amazing the championships, the conference titles, all of it. The great players, the great coaches, the records. I don’t know how to say it. I love it,” Stoops said. “I understand that you don’t get this at a lot of places.”
Really, almost none.
Think Stoops would even be asked about the history of the program if it was Nebraska between the Sooners and the top spot in the land instead of a Texas team they’ve already played?
So that’s the upside of the rivalry being on the downside.
Nostalgia.
True blue (or Big Red) nostalgia.
Stoops thinks he probably watched the Game of the Century live, but can’t quite recall where. Not that it’s kept him from referring to the Sooners as “we” even if it’s Bud Wilkinson’s, Chuck Fairbanks’ or Barry Switzer’s Sooners he’s talking about.
Earlier in the week, asked about a highlight film that included moments from the Game of the Century being shown the players, he was asked if Jack Mildren’s touchdown pass was part of the package.
“Yes, it was,” Stoops said. “The one that puts us ahead in the fourth quarter.”
You just have to love it, because it’s not like he’s trying to claim a history not his own nearly so much as he’s trying to sidle up to a history he wants to be connected to.
So there’s that.
Today, in the hours leading up to OU’s having its way with Nebraska and in the wee hours after the rout is complete, fans of both schools, hanging around each other (not a lot of hate in the rivalry, then or now) will reminisce, recall past battles between the two Big Reds that actually had people talking well beyond the boarders of the two states and clink mugs or 12-ounce cans of beer with good-luck wishes attached.
If they were Nos. 1
and 2 in the nation, who’d have time to wax about the past.
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com