The debate will be vicious and unrelenting. Both the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners will stake their claim for the higher spot in the BCS, and thus the ticket to the national championship game. However, when determining the most deserving team to go to the big game, there's not enough merit in just looking at who blew out whom and by how much.
It's too simple. That's not a good judge of what team is better. We can admit that there's not much difference in the caliber of the two teams. Both teams are elite level offenses with solid defenses, generally put. So what separates them? Here's why Texas should be ranked as the better team.
It's a matter of resilience. Oklahoma has lost its last four bowl games. This year's Oklahoma team failed in the fourth quarter, while Colt McCoy's Texas dominated the final minutes. Colt and his team showed that not only can they put up stats, they can squeeze out the sweat and passion when it counts.
Mack Brown's teams of recent years know how to win close and in big moments. Yes, this team lost to Texas Tech on the last play in Lubbock, but that is one loss amongst other wins. Find an example of OU beating an elite level (top 5) football team in a hard-fought battle.
In the last four years, Texas is 3-1 against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry. The Longhorns are 4-0 in bowl games including two thrilling Rose Bowl wins (one national championship). Oklahoma is 0-4...losing once to Boise State, mind you. Yes, they showed they're good against Texas Tech, but it's becoming more apparent that we had a Red Raider team that could not win huge games outside of Lubbock.
In addition, Will Muschamp, the defensive coordinator for the Longhorns and heir apparent to the head coaching position, was the defensive coordinator for Auburn the last couple of years, and guess what? He helped Auburn to a 20-17 victory over Tim Tebow's Florida team last year in the Swamp (though Florida was not as good). He was one of the few who was able to shut down Tebow in a year when the quarterback won the Heisman.
But maybe that's moot. Maybe it doesn't matter who we think has the ability to handle the SEC or win the games that test a team. Maybe it's all about who can top 60 points, and who can only get to...52. However, I think we know better.
Where is Oklahoma's resilience this year? If this has basically been reduced to a debate over whether Texas or Oklahoma is the better football team, who cares if Oklahoma can blow teams out with 60-point efforts instead of 50-point efforts? What about the moments that define great sports teams, the moments when a team is tested and pushed to the brink, when the players have fallen down and must get back up?
Texas was down 14-3 in the Red River Rivalry after a demoralizing Oklahoma touchdown, but Colt McCoy and company stared in the face of defeat and overcame, dominating the fourth quarter and delivering a resounding victory. Show me Sam Bradford's poise and perfection against a Top 5 opponent in crunch time.
This is about the national championship. Nobody is blowing out Florida, and probably not Alabama either. The better team is the one that can win when it counts.
Texas is that team.
8 comments Last one added 7 months ago — Leave a Comment
icemanbdm 7 months ago
Being down 14-3 is all but dead these days?
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Ravi Antani 7 months ago
Yeah, that might have been too strong. :)
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Iceman 7 months ago
i just hope one of these teams makes it to the national championship game. against florida, that would a killer game.
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Richard Davis 7 months ago
Hey, Ravi, those bowl games were played years ago by different players. Losing those bowl games doesn't make Oklahoma worse this year.
What the ranking is about is WHO IS THE BEST TEAM RIGHT NOW?
Oklahoma lost Ryan Reynolds, the leader and brains of the defense, and that is the only reason Texas had that stupendous comeback, going down the middle where a true freshman played his first game. Texas would have lost if Reynolds had not been hurt. Box is playing well now.
Also, OU only had 49 rushing yards in the Texas game. Since then, the last 5 games, OU has been running around 200 yards per game, they are much more balanced. All the freshmen and sophomores that were still in a steep learning curve when they played Texas are now playing in their stride.
Who do you really think would win if they played today, with all of those improvements? If you were a betting guy, I could clean out your bank account. Your article left out so much important material that your writing is sophomoric. Maybe you will improve too.
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Charles McFarland 7 months ago
Richard's post puts forth the continuing nonsense that OU got better after the Texas game. Texas didn't beat an up-and-coming OU team. OU was playing great (and ranked No. 1) before the Texas game. And Texas beat them. The whole team, and not just the 2nd-string middle linebacker. It is further nonsense to blame the whole loss on one player. The OU/TTU game showed that OU has a whole lot of talent on both sides of the ball. If you win as a team, don't you lose as a team? Or is Texas still undefeated, with true freshman safety Blake Gideon taking that loss?
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Ravi Antani 7 months ago
First of all, stop insulting people. Keep it classy around here. Second, you're assuming Texas hasn't improved as well. Texas has a number of freshmen at vital positions who have improved drastically since OU. Against OU, the primary running back was Chris Ogbannaya, a senior who was not designed to be a primary running back. Since then, freshman Fozzy Whittaker The same can be said about Texas' freshman and sophomores. ||
Both of Texas' starting safeties are freshmen. The secondary is the position where building experience improves players drastically. A few games under the belt, and these guys have played worlds better. ||
Part of the reason the Sooners ran 49 yards on Texas while boosting that number to over 200 in the next few games is that Texas' rush defense is 4th best in the nation. I am sure that the running game is highly improved, but it's blind to say that the running game is automatic. The teams OU has run all over are Nebraska, Texas A&M, Kansas State, and Kansas. Another point of concern is the Oklahoma defense. ||
In the last few games, Oklahoma has allowed Kansas to score 31 in Norman, Kansas State to score 35, and Nebraska and A&M to score 28. Texas shut Kansas to 7 on their turf. Texas has allowed Missouri, Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Baylor to score above 20 (and NOBODY above 40). Those are four of the best offenses in the nation, and then 21 points by Baylor. ||
Also, keep in mind, Bradford plays the fourth quarter in these blowout games, or a decent amount of it. Colt is out before the 12 minute mark if Texas is blowing a team out. ||
I'm not saying Texas is worlds better than Oklahoma. Nobody would say that about either team, either way (except you apparently?). I can understand you thinking Oklahoma is better, but to have the conviction to say "If you were a betting guy, I could clean out your bank account" without thinking about the fact that Texas is improved and Oklahoma has major weaknesses...don't be so quick to insult my material. Disagree with it all you want, but don't call me sophomoric. ||
These teams are pretty evenly matched, because both have made improvements and both have weaknesses. I avoided all of this in the article because they will be talked about elsewhere, but the focus of this article was to shed new light on the issue with this specific point in mind, something that others may not talk about. ||
Now, you say "those were different players" in those losing efforts by OU. First of all, a good amount of the players, the leaders OU has now, the seniors, were in those bowl games, so partly, it was not different players. Second of all, the consistent losing efforts illustrate a culture problem, a preparation problem, that is of major concern. A talented OU team losing four bowl games (OU was about to go to the national championship last year if it was not for Tech) starts to be a culture problem, a coach's problem. ||
Stoops is a fantastic coach, but there has to be concern about how he prepares his players. Until he proves that he can prepare his players for these games on "neutral" sites against fresh opponents from different conferences he doesn't see year after year, most people should be uncomfortable sending his OU team to a national championship game a few hundred miles from where the Gators' home. It might have only consisted of our senior class, but Mack Brown got his Longhorns ready for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, a breath away from USC's stomping ground. Can Stoops be ready for Miami against the Florida Gators, or the Alabama Crimson Tide? (Edit: Hmm, all my paragraphing and formatting isn't coming through...oh well, you'll live)
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ed bland 7 months ago
this article is insightful and objective. it has brought up points that i believe other scribes have overlooked.
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robert brown 7 months ago
i dont care for the BCS either but its the current system. So it consits of 3 areas, power rankings, voters and polls. I know The aruement seems to rest on Texas beating Okla but Okla did trounce the team,Tech that beat Texas, by 44 when Texas lost to same team as #1 by 6..what a circle. Okla in the power rankins played stronger non conference schedule, cincinatti who is ranked in top 20 as well as TCU and cincinatti prob be in the BCS Sugar bowl..Okla has better stats in winning points etc. So it doesnt just come down to one lose with Texas...besides Florida lost at home! against and unranked team! If we keep the arguement because Texas beat OU 1 game then i agree with stoops Texas should not be ranked higher that Tech, the team theat beat them...I hate its up to the BCS but if Texas was third and did same as okla did to tech..i'm sure Texas fans would also would like to see Texas in title game. So not matter what we say it will be what it will be
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