Why Bob Stoops Doesn't Believe Texas Has the Upper Hand

Originally Published: Jul 28, 2010 10:33 AM CDT

Dean Blevins
Oklahoma Sports Sports Director - Oklahoma City

DALLAS -- The message from Bob Stoops was loud and clear. He’s unwilling to listen to the talk that Texas is on top of Oklahoma. That its four wins in five seasons is proof that the pendulum has swung.

Four OU players were impressive in their TV question and answer period this morning at the Big 12 Football Media Days. WR Ryan Broyles saying he’s up a few pounds to 185 and has improved mentally. DE Jeremy Beal saying the chemistry of this team seems to be right and that DT Adrian Taylor is working hard and he “hopes” he will be back from injury. LB Travis Lewis saying he’s more mature and that he’s “ten times better than at the end of the season and eight times better than in the spring.” And DeMarco Murray saying he’s motivated to shut up the critics who continue to talk about his being injury prone and that he’s faster after dropping down from 217 to 208.

But clearly, my chat with Stoops was the liveliest part of the morning. While never critical of Mack Brown or the Texas program, he resents the fact that most in the media fail to realize—or report—the truth as he sees it.

My straightforward question in the presser was “what are you doing to reverse the fact that Texas has the upper hand and has won four of five and played in the national title game a season ago. Does he need to make changes?”

He immediately became engaged stating that OU’s formula is working quite well, whether people want to accept it or not. He points to the fact that OU has won three of the past four conference championships.

Stoops has won six of seven Big 12 title games and his OU teams have played in four national title games, winning the one with the 2000 team.

Meantime, it is pointed out that in that time span Brown has won two. The 3 to 1 ratio is a point that Stoops believes is lost in the shuffle.

It’s fair to say that Stoops wonders how those facts would be presented if the roles were reversed. The answer is clear to many. And that’s what makes the rivalry all the more intriguing.

Texas rolls into the room as OU will be winding up. We’ll report the reaction to these points. Kickoff is a ways off. But the OU-Texas scrum is off and running.