Sooners fans: Are Red River Rivalry chances too good to be true?

Somewhere between South Bend and Norman a transition occurred.

Going into the Notre Dame game, Sooner fans were hopeful for a good year, a 9-3 season or, if the stars aligned a 10-2 win-loss mark;  and maybe an Alamo Bowl around Christmas time. But after the Sooners dispatched the Fighting Irish in convincing fashion those same fans now expect  Oklahoma to win them all.

So, when the Sooners were clinging to a precarious three point lead late in the 4^th quarter against TCU, the reaction to Brennan Clay’s 76-yard touchdown run was more a collective sigh of relief than it was an exuberant celebration.

Never mind the game wasn’t over. TCU came back to make it close again. But then Blake Bell reminded us all why he is now the starting quarterback, by “belldozing” two Horned Frog defenders for a first down that sealed the 20-17 win and lead the Sooners to Red River Rivalry week undefeated.

Meanwhile, all is not well in Austin. Even though the Longhorns are back on a winning track – after horrible losses to BYU and Mississippi at the season beginning – it has become a foregone conclusion that this year’s OU-Texas game will be the last RRR for the senior coach in the Big 12.

The ‘horns were saved on Thursday night in Ames by the Big 12 refs, who nullified an apparent fumble that would have given Iowa State a win and Texas its third loss of the year. Instead, Texas “won” 31-30, even though some Austin area fans were hoping their own team might lose so the nightmare of this season would end sooner, rather than later, or at least present  future optimism that a new coach would bring.

Some Texas folks are not looking forward to this game against Oklahoma. And, if the number of tickets they are putting up for sale on Stub Hub is any indication, they’d just as soon skip the game for Fletcher corny dogs.

One host on Austin radio sportstalk FM 104.9 (the “Horn”) put the Texas fans’ expectations this way:

“Those boys from Oklahoma are going to look across the field at these players from Texas, then come across and chop their heads off and crap down their necks. That’s how they play football at Oklahoma,” he said, following Texas’ spotty performance at Iowa State.

Still, as Oklahoma fans know, sometimes when things are too good to be true, they often are.

So, on the eve of the 108th playing of the Oklahoma-Texas game (or if you are dyslexic and south of the Red River the Texas-Oklahoma game) the Sooners are 13 point favorites – a slimmer margin than one might expect, mostly because Vegas knows weird things happen in this game.

For example, regardless of the respective strengths of each team, someone will return a kickoff for a touchdown. There will be a tipped pass that results in an interception. An inopportune fumble will occur either early, or late.

That’s just the way it is in that noise bowl called the Cotton Bowl, crammed in between the pig barn and the Ferris wheel at the Texas State Fair. 

But this year, the Longhorns, knowing once beloved Mack Brown is likely on the verge of forced retirement, may want to win this one for the ‘Gipper and play an inspired game.

Or, the Sooners, knowing their defense is capable of manhandling the Longhorn offense, may put another smack down on the steers and win the Golden Hat by more than 30 points.

Regardless, the Oklahoma fans believe Bob Stoops has a special team.  That’s what a 5-0 start to the season will do to fans spoiled by past success and probably unreasonable expectation.

Has it ever been any different?

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UPDATE: Sooners LB Corey Nelson has been diagnosed with a torn pectoral muscle suffered in the TCU game. Coach Bob Stoops said Nelson will likely miss the rest of the season.