Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

’Horns beat Sooners last fall, but Oklahoma won Big 12 tiebreaker, made BCS title tilt.

Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford will face his first real test today against Texas since returning from a shoulder injury.

MCT PHOTO

DALLAS — First came the flyovers. Then the Big 12 tiebreaker that helped Oklahoma win the league title. A few months later in Austin there was — briefly — an asterisk.
The annual Texas-Oklahoma rivalry at the Cotton Bowl is always a grudge match. Today’s game between the No. 3 Longhorns and No. 20 Sooners also carries national title implications and promises to be extra spicy after what happened last season.
Forgot? Here’s a rundown.
Texas beat Oklahoma to vault to No. 1. A few weeks later, the Sooners, Longhorns and Texas Tech were in a three-way tie in the Big 12 South. The border battle then became the banner war.
A plane circled the stadium at Oklahoma’s regular-season finale with a banner: “Texas 45 OU 35 — Settled on a Neutral Field.” A few days later, a flying message over Austin teased Texas with “Hey Mack, quit whining. U knew the rules.”
The Big 12 tiebreaker went to Oklahoma. The Sooners went to the BCS title game in Florida and Texas got bumped to the Fiesta Bowl.
Still seething months later, the Texas staff claimed the 2008 Big 12 title on the champs wall in the team complex, putting an asterisk next to the year before coach Mack Brown ordered it taken down.
So now Texas tries to get revenge against a team it beat last year.
“I’m sure they’re a little bitter,” Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford said. “We’re a little bitter they beat us last year. I’m sure both sides are going to be amped up.”
The Longhorns (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) insist they’ve put the past in the past and that today is about trying to win league and national titles in 2009, not replaying 2008.
“OU had nothing to do with keeping us out,” Brown said. “We lost at Tech. It was on us. We should have been mad at ourselves for letting it get out of the control of our own destiny.”
Texas opened this season at No. 2 eyeing three goals: the Big 12 and national titles and a Heisman Trophy for QB Colt McCoy. The first two are still in reach if they keep winning. McCoy’s trophy campaign needs a boost.