A Texan Sooner's OU/TX

It's OU/TEXAS weekend people!!!!! (cue Party in the USA background music). Time for fried food, DART busses, OU friends, West End madness, seas of crimson and orange, and most importantly a beatdown of TEXAS!!!!!

OU/Texas is a seriously major event for 98.7777% of the OU fanbase , but for Texas(the state, not the school)-bred Sooners, the stakes are even higher. You see, I have to live amongst these heathens (Texas fans) every day of the year.

And I have to hear about how "foolish" I was to leave "the great state of Texas" to go to Oklahoma. This is usually followed by a "Hook 'Em Horns," or some other extolling of the greatness of Texas football. Mind you, most of these loudmouths are t-shirt fans who never took a single hour of credit at UT. I am telling you, the arrogance of this fanbase knows no bounds. They talk like they are 4-0, and we are 0-4. It's laughable! They literally think they are like the best ever. They have had our number though, as of late, and it's time to put a stop to that REALLLLL quick.

So to me, this game is of the utmost importance. I have to take these fools down a peg or 20. I NEED a year of bragging rights now moreso than ever. It's a lot easier to bear a loss when you can drive back to the sheltering OU-centric bubble of Norman, where other mourners can share in your grief. Instead, if we lose (which is NOT going to happen!), I will hear about it non-stop from pretty much everyone around me. Even people who don't give a rip about football think it's funny to get me riled up by dissing OU football (I can't imagine why that would be humorous...)

This year, I even put my pride on the line for this game. Betting money is for pansies (and people with money). If we lose (which is NOT going to happen!) I will be forced to don a UT shirt and sing Texas Fight. I'm really nauseous even thinking about it. Burnt orange is SO not in my color wheel. BUT if (WHEN) we win, OU will have two new crimson-wearers!! No doubt they will find that they look so much better in crimson and cream than that other pukey old color, and they will become fans for life. So as you can see, I am really, REALLY looking forward to us winning. I only made this bet because I have total confidence that we can, and will dominate and win this game. I guess the best thing about being a Sooner stationed in Texas is that when we beat them to a pulp, I will have a lot of very satisfactory gloating to do. And BUH-LIEVE me they will alllll be hearing about it, loud and proud- BOOMER SOONER!!!!

It's Not Crazy

I am totally obsessed with the following video of the "It's Not Crazy, It's Sports" series of commercials on ESPN. It combines 3 of my favorite things puns, Star Wars nerd culture, and college football.

The point of it is, we all do crazy things for college football. This weekend, I hauled my sick butt to the miserably humid game, sat in the rowdy student section, and screamed my brains out, effectively making me more sick. But I got to see my team win, and win in a beautiful fashion. We looked inspired and fierce. A total 180 from last week. And that's the point. It's not crazy, it's sports. What's the craziest thing you've done in the name of sports?

Calling Captain Planet

After watching the "no huddle" version of our game today on FSN, reading lots of different opinions and articles, I have finally come to terms with our performance in Saturday's game against Utah State. I am not all gloom and doom about it- I just know we have to make some serious corrections and come out ready to play against Florida State, because they will be ready for us. This week will be very telling of the rest of our season, I think.

I also think the keys to our success can be boiled down to the principles of one 90s Cartoon Superhero- Captain Planet. What might this eco-loving, green-haired freak be able to tell us about the state of OU Football, you may ask? Think about the elements presented in the show: Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Heart.

Earth- What on EARTH was happening in our secondary? There were some serious busts in coverage. That is all too easy an issue for opponents to expose. Time to shore up this part of the D, or we are going to get torched time and time again by teams much better than USU. And I don't think Landry has the wherewithal to win in a shootout. Which brings me to my next point.

Fire- I have to ask this of Landry- Where's the FIRE? Through much of the game he had little or no composure. In some cases, he just seemed to panic and crumble. Even Stoops called him out on it. I'd hate to see him in a crisis situation. Hopefully he can pull it together and start using better field vision and decision-making.

Wind- Foolish penalties and mental errors definitely knocked the WIND out of us. The two personal fouls on Wort exemplified this, as they gave the momentum to USU. Penalties will kill you every time, and they are self-defeating. The other team is going to try their hardest to beat us- we don't need to give them any help.

Water- WATERed-down play-calling makes us very predictable. Of course we want to keep our cards close to the chest against what should be an easily-beatable opponent. I'm just saying, we better be ready to bring more than "run Demarco up the gut" and "pass play to Broyles" to the table against these tougher teams to come.

Heart- We have got to start playing with some HEART. Did we every really look fired up in this first game? Not that I could tell. Much as it pains me to give any sort of credit to Boise State, they played the game last night with a tremendous amount of heart. We've got to play through our schedule with courage and determination, or we are not going to be able to compete with the teams that truly show the desire to win. I always thought the poor kid on the show who got stuck with "Heart" was getting the raw end of the deal, but now I realize, it's like the most important one.

Like I said, I compiled, borrowed, hooked onto these ideas from a lot of different sources. But I think they make a lot of sense. And if we do these things right, we have a much, much higher probability of success. Gooooo Planet! I mean, Sooners!