Posted: 10.04.2001 Could this week get any longer?
I have that same "I'm about to hurl" nervous-nausea brewing up that I used to get before every big softball game back in junior high. And before every big game during "Big Red October" that OU played last year. Yes, I darn-near puked before we left for the Nebraska game, and did toss my cookies before the Orange Bowl. So sue me. I'm Sooner born and Sooner bred and when I die I'll be a Sooner dead. I'm serious about football. (Hell, I graduated from OU over six years ago now, and I still can't bring myself to capitalize the word texas. No true Sooner can, IMHO.) And now the OU/tx hype has hit the media...there's no turning back...no matter how much Sooners want to cling to the numbers 63-14. No matter how much our stomachs churn with anticipation, and dare I say "fear" at the potential of this year's outcome -- texas is steeled and out for revenge for the whoopin' they took at OU's hands last year. We all know that. Revenge is a deadly weapon to have in your arsenol. Brent Musburger boldy stated on the national telecast last year that "the eyes of texas have been blackened". Every major sports publication is declaring it's time for texas to put up or shut up -- and prove they're more than hype. texas hasn't had a national championship since 1969, and this year is their best shot. And it all begins -- or hopefully ends -- against OU on Saturday... Here's a little more on the storied rivalry from the ESPN Classic website:
"For the last 72 years, the OU-tx game in Dallas has been part Mardi Gras and part Super Bowl. It is one of the rare games still played at a neutral site, the others being Army-Navy and Georgia-Florida. During my years as a newspaperman and talk show host, I covered seventeen Super Bowls -- four of those in New Orleans. OU-tx has the feel of a Super Bowl because the city is commandeered by the fans the night before the game, and the crowd on Saturday afternoon is split straight down the middle, one half burnt orange and the other half crimson.....
.....Saturday, Oklahoma enters the game with the longest winning streak in the nation at 17 games. The Sooners are ranked No. 3 and the Longhorns No. 5. It is the biggest game of the year to date in college football and will go a long way in determining one of the representatives at the BCS title game in the Rose Bowl.
Now that Bob Stoops has resurrected a dynasty in Norman, and Mack Brown's unmatched recruiting has produced a national power once more in Austin, OU-tx again is at front and center.
But without the spark provided by the rollicking weekend in Dallas, this rivalry would not be America's best. With apologies to Army-Navy, Alabama-Auburn, Ohio State-Michigan, Florida-Georgia, Florida State-Miami, USC-UCLA and USC-Notre Dame, the season's most compelling game and the game's greatest rivalry, still belongs to Dallas."
Can someone please pass the Pepcid AC?
I'm weeping with pride! What a beautifully written statement. Just don't puke on me, ok? ;-)
¤ ¤ posted by Todd on October 4, 2001 at 04:41 PM ¤ ¤
Deal! ;-)
¤ ¤ posted by Robyn on October 4, 2001 at 04:43 PM ¤ ¤
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