You've got to hand it to Kliff Kingsbury, not only is he producing outstanding results in his first season as the Texas Tech head coach he's also wise beyond his years. With an unblemished record on the line this Saturday, Kingsbury was cool calm and collected while addressing the media this week. He was sure to make the point that, with so much football left to play that this game is a long way off from settling the conference championship.
"I don't know. We're in week eight, so there is no championship on the line. So we'll go out there and give it our best shot. It's a huge challenge anytime you go to that stadium. It's one of the storied stadiums in college football. Their fans are crazy, hostile, intense. It's a great college football atmosphere."
The last time Kingsbury was in Norman, as a member of the Red Raiders, was the 2002 season. Oklahoma won that game by a score of 60-15 but the now Tech head coach did make his first ever career start against Stoops and company in 1999 and its a memory that he still cherishes after leading the team to a 38-28 upset win.
"Yeah, that was my favorite start ever because it was Coach Dykes last game, and we knew that we were 5-5. He had been bowl eligible for ten, 11 straight years, and we wanted to send him out on top. That team rallied around me and around him, and found a way to get a win against a very good OU team."
He may be the youngest coach in the Big Twelve but Kingsbury has already learned the art of using a bunch of words to say nothing at all. When asked about the 2013 Sooners he might as well have just said blah, blah, blah because that's about all we got in the way of a general opinion about the Oklahoma football team.
"Speaking offensively, their defense schematically has changed a bunch from last year. He does a good job bringing people from everywhere, very athletic, fly around, fundamentally sound. It will be a very, very good challenge for a young quarterback.
Their offense with the big quarterback, he's hard to bring down. They have very talented receivers, a running back that can take it the distance anytime. It's a huge challenge. We know that going on the road there. So we'll have to play our best game."
He did go into a little more clarification when asked about the keys to beating Oklahoma's defense.
Yeah, protecting it (the football)first and foremost. They're a ball-hawking defense. Get their hands on a bunch of balls. So they're good against the rush, against the pass. They're just overall very well-coached, very disciplined defense so, it will be a challenge to move it in all phases.
Of course the Texas Longhorns appeared to have provided a road map for beating the Sooners but Kingsbury says that you can't put a lot of stock into that because of the nature of the rivalry.
"Yeah, they ran the ball very well. They won the turnover battle and pretty much everything else. That's one of those games that you can't put too much stock in it because you never know. One team could be 0-8, and the other could be 8-0. It's a toss-up because of the emotions and everything that goes into that game. We don't look too much into that."