Published November 26, 2005 12:54 am -
Horning: No substitute for victory
Commentary
By Clay Horning, Sports Editor
The Norman Transcript
This is an old test.An Oklahoma State fan calls into a radio show and asks the question.
Who is Oklahoma’s biggest rival? Duh, the answer is Texas. The caller, a Poke — not that there’s anything wrong with that! — then asks which game is most damaging for the Sooners to lose? Duh, Oklahoma State. So, the caller asks, which is the bigger rivalry?
And it goes round and round.
That little exercise typifies the Sooner season.
Texas remains OU’s biggest and greatest rival. There’s a lot more hate when it comes to Texas.
Guaranteed, when the Cowboys play the Longhorns, the Sooner Nation roots for the Pokes.
But which game is more important to the program?
The one they’re playing today.
A lot of it remains the fact that OSU has been a mediocre program over time and the Sooners’ next quality loss to the Pokes will still be their first.
But it’s still an aside. OU still must win.
For two straight seasons, OSU could have been the first team to derail OU’s national-title hopes. And yet, this year is still more important.
Heck, OSU victories the last two seasons don’t even keep OU out of the conference championship game.
It’s like this: Sooners win and it’s a good season. Sooners lose and it’s a bad season.
The great season is gone. But as poorly as OU played early, even getting to 7-4 looked impossible. And here the Sooners are, in position to go to San Diego or San Antonio in their rebuilding season. Because if Shreveport felt like Pasadena in 1999, this time around it would feel like, well, for crying out loud … Shreveport.
Nobody wants to lose to a team that made Baylor look like USC, even if OU made Baylor look like Texas Tech.