It never seems to fail! This topic will rear its ugly head in almost every post here at the Crimson and Cream Machine but how much of it is truth? We all know that Texas is a pool of talent ripe for the picking and many times the Oklahoma Sooners have dipped down in their bag of tricks to pull an Adrian Peterson out of Texas. Much of this is due to a significant difference in population though. A density of an area determines the outcome of home much talent exists there. So by simply math we have - the more densely populated the area the more talent, the less densely populated the area the less talent. Now UT fanatics like to claim the Oklahoma Football Roster is full of their "Texas Boys" without any basis on that. Some will go as far as saying four of the Heisman Winners to come through OU only won the award because of these "Texas Boys." I figured, why not take a look at this years team (a championship caliber one at that) and the projected starters just to see how much truth could be found in these statements. Here is a quick look.
The highly potent score at will offense boasts only four players from the state of Texas| Texas | Non-Texas |
| C Ben Habern |
LT Donald Stephenson |
| RT Jarvis Jones | LG Gabe Ikard |
| TE James Hanna | RG Tyler Evans |
| WR Trey Franks | WR Kenny Stills |
| WR Ryan Broyles | |
| QB Landry Jones | |
| FB Marshall Musil | |
| RB Brennan Clay |
The lock down defense matches the offense with four players from the state of Texas although I am not sure you can count Tom Wort as a "Texas Boy." For those of you who don't know, Tom Wort isn't even from the United States but did play high school football in New Braunfels, TX. This brings the number back down to seven total from the projected starters being from Texas. (Also Austin Box would have been the starter at MLB and he is from the great state of Oklahoma!)
| Texas | Non-Texas |
| DT Casey Walker | DE Frank Alexander |
| MLB Tom Wort | DT Stacey McGee |
| OLB Travis Lewis | DE Ronnell Lewis |
| CB Demontre Hurst | OLB Tony Jefferson |
| CB Gabe Lynn | |
| SS Aaron Colvin | |
| FS Javon Harris |
Cold hard facts! In total, out of the possible 23 starters (not including special teams), Texas has landed eight spots on the Oklahoma starting roster. To put this into percentage perspective - 34.78% of the starters are from Texas leaving 65.22% of the starters hailing from somewhere else. You could always make that argument that I left the back ups off the list and so on but the starters are going to get the most playing time. Therefore, they have the most direct impact on the outcome of the game. When kids from Texas claim a majority of the starting roster, then you might have an argument that OU can't win without "Texas Boys."
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