who your home stadium is named after. Yes, that’s right, former Oklahoma Sooner All-American Darrell Royal. You won’t ever see a Sooner stadium named after Fred Akers or Major Applesauce.

Oh and by the way, call me when you have seven national championships on the board.

Boomer Sooner

The ‘horns aren’t Baylor, either. It should be a really good game. The winner gets to go through the rest of their cakewalk schedule….er…wait a minute.

The Texas Longhorns this year have the opportunity to do something that could unmistakably frame them as the most awesome team since the ’93 Huskers. Forget the ’05 squad, all they had to do was beat #1USC and #3 Ohio State and oh yeah, #5-? Texas Tech.

UT has the opportunity to beat #1, #3, #7, #16 and #17 while sprinkling in Baylor and TAMU in there somewhere, then hopefully Mizzou will have recouped to let UT beat them again in the Big 12 Title game.

Ok, maybe I’m dreaming. But I think OU may be in for a surprise. They may be thinking: Porous Secondary. No Pass Rush. Mistake-prone. Can’t play to their potential. No intensity. No mental toughness. If we need them to fumble, they will.

This has typified the ’horns “since Vince”.

I used to get so angry at a group of athletes (at UT) whose only peers were the group from OU (you guys have fantastic athletes-too), but would find a way to screw up a season in the most inexplicable ways. Biting on the screen. Biting on the flea flicker. Guys running open, I mean WIDE OPEN streaking down the field catching touchdown passes while UT secondary players are looking at each other wondering “Did I have him? No, you had him! Well, nobody had anybody”. A Team that allowed a guy named Jordy to become a top NFL prospect. A team that fumbles at the most inopportune times. Two Words. Jamall Charles. One word-lackadaisical coaching. Oh, that was two words, too.

But this year, I am heartened somewhat by a team that has only fumbled 3 times. Colt’s only thrown 3 picks. I like seeing passes broken up by corners WHO ARE ACTUALLY COVERING GUYS DOWNFIELD. A pass rush. Wow. With a virgin group at secondary, that helps. These people aren’t make those stupid, frustrating errors that UT has a long history of making. It’s a new feeling, but I remember it from recently, it was, yes, 2005…..

So, yeah, bring on the Sooners! UT needs to find out who they are! Is UT for real? Is OU for Real? Up until Saturday, it’s all talk. But we (the fans) are the lucky ones.

We get to watch two great football teams in a great situation play what should be a fantastic game. So as a UT fan I say GO Longhorns. As a football fan I say Go Sooners! It will be a great game…

I’m just glad the ‘horns are starting to take things seriously, like, you’ve got to play the game. You can’t just walk into the stadium and because you’re the ’Horns, everyone will just roll over for you.

It’s just been really frustrating the last two years watching a group of athletes under achieve, who should be competitive with almost every program, but because of not being in it mentally, making the types of mistakes that lose ball games, particularly against “weaker” opponents. Two words. Kansas State. No Longhorn should talk too much trash until we hand it to Ron Prince in a brown paper bag in 2010. If he’s still there…

No, I don’t have a thing about K-State. I’ll be ok….

Stoops’ teams don’t seem to make those mistakes, the killer ones that cost you ballgames. The other thing about Sooners is dealing with adversity. Two words. Oregon Ducks. Two more words. Onsides Kick. Two more. Ripoff. Ok, maybe that was one word.

Anyway, how do I break RRR down? Running game? OU. Quarterback? Even. O-Line? OU. Receivers? slight OU. Tight end? OU (Two words-dislocated Knee (Irby)) . D-Line? slight UT. Secondary? OU Linebackers? Draw (but the hit that guy put on the Baylor QB last week was impressive)

On paper, it looks like OU wins. But that’s why I say it could be a surprise. The unknowns will be answered this week. Can the UT “Virgin Secondary” Cover and tackle? Can the UT D-Line get pressure on Sam thru OU’s O-Line? Will UT Turn the ball over? If all the answers are yes, I think UT may actually win by a healthy margin. But that’s why I say surprise-Nobody knows those answers of UT because they haven’t played a recognized national power team.

Of course, if two of three of those answers are are no, it could get really ugly for Bevo.

Can UT Score on the OU Defense? More than likely. I hear a lot of comments about OU special teams, but I’ve seen some returns on UT, particularly kickoff, that concern me.

So, OU get’s to answer some questions this weekend too. You kicked TCU pretty good, but they seem to fold in games against top teams. UT beat them last year while they were making a lot of noise about breaking out into national prominence. You guys have played a pretty comparable schedule otherwise. And that’s the other difference with UT this year. Last year, UT struggled against the WEAK teams. Down to the wire against Arkansas State to the point you have to recover an onsides kick? Give me a break. But this year, the teams we’re supposed to beat 52 to 10, we’ve been beating 52 to 10.

But what will UT do when they face a REAL team? That’s why it’s so great. OU will help us answer all those questions. It’s a test. What will your grade be? Will you pass? Will you weather it without injury?

If UT blows OU out, THEN we can start RRR trash talking until next year. If OU blows UT out, the opposite is true. If both teams leave it all on the field and it comes down to the final minutes/seconds, it will be a classic.

One of the three questions should be “Will UT NOT turn the ball over?” instead of “Will UT turn the ball over?”

There, I’ve conclusively proven I am not actually a Rice Owl surreptitiously participating in the OU Sports Blog.

Surreptitiously?