Crimson And Cream Machine, an Oklahoma Sooners community

And then, with 29 seconds left in the half, Alabama kicked a field goal to add to the lead, making the score 17-6. It had to be hard for Texas players and coaches to watch Alabama just grind them into submission. But there really wasn't much to be done about it. McCoy was in so many ways the soul of this Texas team. The Longhorns clearly lost all hope of winning when they realized he would not play. All Texas coaches could really hope to do was get to halftime and try to infuse some belief and energy back into the players. The kickoff was returned to the Texas 28. There were 23 seconds left in the half. There was no reason to think Texas, with its backup quarterback, was going to score against Alabama with 23 seconds left. The Longhorns just wanted to run out the clock. Texas' Tre' Newton took a handoff and ran for nine yards -- enough to discourage Alabama from calling timeout. The clock ticked: 17, 16, 15 ... and then it stopped. Texas had called timeout. Texas ... had ... called ... timeout. Inexplicable? No, that word doesn't quite cover it. Mack Brown called timeout. Why? Was he thinking his team could score against Alabama in the last 15 seconds of the half from his own 37? His quarterback was 1-for-9 with an interception for minus-four yards. Well, anyway, who notices clock management at the end of halves? No, the timeout made no sense. But, hey, so what? Texas would undoubtedly pull out some safe play -- soon it would be halftime. There was no reason to get up in arms about it all. Then, Gilbert dropped back and, as the rush came on, he indeed tried to throw the safest pass in the game: the shovel pass. Some call it the shuttle pass. Others the shuffle pass. Whatever it's called, nothing bad can happen. It can't be intercepted. If the ball is dropped, it's counted as an incomplete pass. It's safe.

Trent Williams has a chance to become Oklahoma’s fourth starter at the center position this season. Also, Ryan Reynolds lost his appeal for a 6th year of eligibility and offensive lineman Jeff Vinson is transferring out along with Jameel Owens.

Yahoo! Sports reported Gill had agreed to take over for Mark Mangino, who resigned Dec. 3 after a two-week investigation into his treatment of players. The Lawrence Journal-World and ESPN.com also reported Gill, 47, had accepted the job.

You read our Q&A with Double T Nation yesterday. My responses to their questions are posted today.

Reason #1 :: Sacks = Losses: I wish I could give you some great statistic about how when this team gives up sacks the Red Raiders tend to lose. That's really not the case. In losses, the Red Raiders are giving up 2.25 sacks per game for 123 yards and in wins, it's 3.00 per game for 160 yards. The only thing that I can say with absolute certainty is that the continued inability to protect the quarterback is having a certain negative effect on the rushing game (more on this below). Meanwhile, as discussed yesterday, the Sooners are terrific at rushing the passer and getting behind the line of scrimmage, good for both 2nd in the nation. In fact, DT Gerald McCoy has 13.5 TFL for the year and the below-mentioned Jeremy Beal has 16 TFL.

Do you guys remember Tom Keegan? He’s the LJW writer who was on record saying that Kansas would beat OU last Saturday in Lawrence. Now, after Oklahoma’s 35-13 beating of the Jayhawks, he’s changed his tone a bit. "It’s time to lower expectations for a squad that made it through the soft nonconference portion of the schedule undefeated and in doing so remained a mystery. How good were these Jayhawks who in their Big 12 opener extended their record to 5-0 with a narrow victory against Iowa State? Was a road loss to Colorado the next week merely a fluke? The mystery is gone. The answers to those questions are, not very good, and, no, it wasn’t a fluke."

OU players typically are not made available for interviews after a Tuesday practice. Bradford, who re-injured his right shoulder last week against Texas, has been ruled out of this week's game at Kansas. The 25th-ranked Sooners kick off at 2:30 p.m. against the Jayhawks in Lawrence. "The MRI showed no different damage than what was already there," Stoops said. "So his path will be determined here in the next couple of days." Stoops said Bradford would "answer a couple of questions and address that for a few minutes after practice tomorrow," and talk about "what the plan will be" regarding his availability for the rest of the season, whether or not he'll have surgery, and, if he does take the rest of the season off, his concerns about returning in time for next April's NFL Draft, where he's projected as the potential No. 1 overall pick.

We really didn’t need a press release to tell us this but here’s one anyway. My opinion hasn’t changed on him not returning to the team this season and the fact that he’s taking a few days to visit with and discuss things over with family and doctors gives me some assurance that he’s looking long-term and won’t be back this year and most likely at all. Brian Simmons has also been ruled out for Saturday’s game as well.