Like all Sooners and Longhorns, Joe Castiglione and Chris Del Conte have their differences. Take this week at the Texas State Fair, and no we’re not just talking about Saturday’s football clash.
“Thursday afternoon we’ll get in a golf cart and go taste every fried food that’s known to man,” says Del Conte, now in his fourth year of threatening his arteries as Texas athletic director. “I go to Fletcher’s and I get my two Corny Dogs. I’m not worried about the fried peanut butter and all that. Joe will dabble in everything new that’s there. And then he’ll give you a dissertation on every single item.”
In terms of their day jobs ...
“We certainly don’t vote the same every time,” says Castiglione, OU’s 23-year athletic director. “We vote as we believe to be in our best interests, whatever the issue.”
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The most pressing issue of late has been conference relocation. Castiglione and Del Conte were in lockstep on that one. OU and Texas are headed from the Big 12 Conference to the SEC no later than 2025.
And that makes a rich irony worth exploring: During a week their football teams and fan bases wish to inflict maximum damage on each other, the Sooners and Longhorns have never been more tightly linked.
“I would say so,” Castiglione says. “We’re going to a new conference together, so there may be any number of elements we talk about together, how to make the transition or adjustment.”
When that transition becomes messy and uncomfortable at stages, as all realignments do, OU and Texas should depend on the bond between their two ADs to see them through.
Castiglione and Del Conte had realignment in their history together years before the SEC came along.
“The transition of TCU getting into the Big 12, I talked to Joe every single day about what we wanted,” says Del Conte, who was TCU’s AD when the Horned Frogs joined the Big 12 in 2011. “He was basically Magellan navigating the water for Texas Christian to get in. It was because of our personal relationship.”
That dates back as long as Castiglione has been OU’s AD.
“I was an administrator at Arizona,” Del Conte says. “I met Joe at the Fiesta Bowl Frolic in 1998, which was a retreat ADs, football coaches and basketball coaches used to go to. We just hit it off.”
The conversations that have followed over the years have been helpful for their respective schools, and meaningful to the two men.
“We’ll talk about NIL. We’ll sit down and have a discussion about the national landscape,” Del Conte says. “We have discussions about our wives. We have discussions about our priests. We have discussions about the Catholic church, about our family history.”
“The more I got to know Chris, the more I learned what a special person he is,” Castiglione says. “I actually tried to hire him several times.”
“Maybe 2001, ‘02 or ‘03,” Del Conte says. “Jeff Long had gone. Kirby Hocutt had come and gone. Joe would always try to get me to take the job. ‘Are you gonna come work for me?’”
Del Conte stayed loyal to Arizona until Castiglione advised him to take his first AD job at Rice in 2006.
“Two or three years later, the Texas Christian job came open,” Del Conte says. “Joe was very instrumental in talking to Victor Boschini (TCU’s chancellor) about me taking that job ...
“When I called Joe and said I was gonna take the Texas job, he was like, 'Oh boy, here we go.'”
Castiglione called it a “phenomenal hire” at the time. He isn’t backing away from that now.
“He is the best fundraiser that I have ever seen in college athletics,” Castiglione says of Del Conte. “I don’t think he has a peer. I’ve been around a lot of them who are awesome and do a wonderful job, but he is extraordinarily talented in that area. I’ve learned a lot from him.”
Del Conte has gleaned at least as much from Castiglione.
“Joe is a thoughtful leader, slow to react. A wise soul who sees everything from all angles,” Del Conte says. “I’m impetuous at times. I’ll be running off the road and he’ll reel me back in. ‘Hey big man, you’ve lost your marbles.’
“I truly love him. He’s not only a dear friend to me, he’s family.”
That sentiment won’t go down easy in Austin and Norman this week. The heat of this rivalry can melt the kindest gestures from one side of the Red River to the other.
It is important sentiment, though. In the big picture where OU and Texas leave everything they have known in the Big 12 Conference for new athletic lives in the SEC, “I love you” is more important than “I beat you.”
“Every time Joe and I hang up the phone, and we talk two or three times a week, we say those three words,” Del Conte says. “We know this game is brutal. We both want to win. We know what the rivalry means. But there’s deep-seated respect for each other.”
Expect that to strengthen wherever OU and Texas go, together, as long as their two athletic directors are in charge.
This is for practical reasons.
“There are opportunities for the schools to benefit when they have a good working relationship,” Castiglione says. “I look at it like one of the great candies of all time: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. You talk to one side, they might say it’s chocolate with peanut butter. The other side might say it’s peanut butter with chocolate. But either way the combination brings out the best in the other, so you might as well embrace it.”
This is for personal reasons.
“He’s just a wonderful person,” Castiglione says of Del Conte.
“The relationship is built on admiration and trust and on the fact that we have this long history together. Every major decision that I’ve made, I’ve always had a call to Joe C,” Del Conte says. “Our personalities are way different, but the core of who we are is the same. We love the industry but we care about people first.
“My dad had a saying. ‘Be humble, serve others, be honest.’ Those are the three things I live by and Joe epitomizes them. That’s maybe why we cling to each other.”
No. 6 OU 37, Kansas State 31: Sooners' offense shows improvement in win over K-State; See all of our coverage here
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Oklahoma’s offense rose out of hibernation during a cloudy Saturday afternoon on the Kansas plains.
Two straight weeks of stagnant play had concerned Sooner Nation. There has been pointed criticism at everyone from Heisman Trophy candidate Spencer Rattler to coach Lincoln Riley to the offensive line.
Publicly, all those targets say they are only concerned about what is said inside the locker room walls. But privately, especially during a short flight home to Norman, there was undoubtedly some smiling in the plane’s cabin.
No. 6 OU beat Kansas State 37-31 Saturday in the Sooners’ first true road game this season.
While one game probably doesn’t justify an “I-told-you-so” argument for the offense, it was movement in the right direction especially with the annual showdown against Texas now in the crosshairs.
“For this group this year, not comparing to any other group any year, this was the best, most complete game we’ve played,” Riley said after the win. “We feel we can play a whole lot better. But I thought we got some run game established. We got into a little bit more of a rhythm.”
Rattler had one of his best games. The quarterback finished 22-of-25 passing for 243 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Riley said Rattler was “awesome” and had a really good week.
“He’s played at this level certainly during some good, strong stretches during the season. I think it was his most complete game,” Riley said. “He did a better job of starting fast and maintaining it the whole way through. Mentally was just into it the whole way. He did a nice job; he played well.”
Rattler has been solid in the passing game over the past six quarters. The quarterback has connected on 37 of 41 passes (90.2%) during that span.
He led his offense on two important drives sandwiching halftime to set the game’s tone.
With 90 seconds left in the second quarter, he guided the Sooners to a field goal by Gabe Brkic (27 yards) to help the team gather a 13-10 lead entering halftime.
OU received the second-half kickoff and Rattler quickly marched the team downfield for a touchdown, capped by Kennedy Brooks’ 2-yard scoring run.
“Every drive to us this game was important. We came into this game working on our consistency every drive. It just happened to be these two drives where we got into a two-minute situation,” Rattler said. “Had to drive down again and prove we could do it. Set Gabe up to kick it right through. Put us up by three. Coming after halftime, we knew we wanted to score. Knew we needed to score, and that’s what we did.”
The Sooners (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) had only three offensive possessions in the first half. Kansas State chewed up plenty of time and yards before intermission to limit OU’s touches.
It was similar to game plans by West Virginia and Nebraska — you can’t get hurt by OU’s offense if it doesn’t have the football.
For the third straight game, patience was tested on the Oklahoma sideline.
“After that first half and even throughout that first half, how mentally are we going to handle that? Man, you don’t think you’re going to get anything less than four possessions in a half; all of a sudden we have three,” Riley said. “I thought it showed some real mental toughness on our offensive guys’ part. We played complete ball against a good group.”
Brooks ran for a season-high 91 yards. His play, combined with a strong effort from the offensive line, helped open the playbook.
“Man just, I give all my credit to the O-line. I mean they made my job hella easy today,” Brooks said. “Made me find the holes so I mean, my role hasn’t really changed. I’m just here to do whatever I can to help my team, and today I just had a little bit more.”
Oklahoma was able to gain 17-point leads on two occasions in the second half, but couldn’t put the Wildcats away.
K-State quarterback Skylar Thompson was said to be “not likely” to play earlier this week. He ended up playing the entire game, completing 29-of-41 passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns.
He wasn’t the only nemesis for the Sooners. Deuce Vaughn led his team in receiving yards (10 catches, 104 yards) and rushing yards (15 carries, 51 yards).
“I assure you we have someone responsible for the tailback, and yet on national television it appears we’re not a very well-coached unit,” OU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “In any event I’m thrilled. Find a way. Find a way. I’ve got a big smile. You just can’t see it. Knowing we’re a 5-0 football team and I’ve talked about it before.
“It’s a one-week evaluation. It was good enough to win today. Our chief goal is to hold them to one less point than the offense does, and we got that done. And then we’ve got to get a whole lot better.”
OU survived the Wildcats’ comeback, which included Malik Knowles’ 93-yard kickoff return following Tyrese Robinson’s personal foul on a Brkic field goal. The Sooners’ Jadon Haselwood covered an onside kick try to secure the six-point win with 1:19 remaining.
Marvin Mims caught four passes for 71 yards to lead the OU passing attack. He averaged 17.8 yards per reception.
— Eric Bailey, Tulsa World
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