Tramel's ScissorTales: Why these are the OU glory days of the Red River Rivalry

These are the Sooner glory days in the OU-Texas rivalry. 

I know it doesn’t feel like it. I know the Sooners annually are big favorites, then have to huff and puff to win in the Cotton Bowl. The cascading routs of 2000 (63-14), 2003 (65-13), 55-17 (2011) and 63-21 (2012) seem a long time ago. Which they were. Nine years is forever. 

The norm these days is for OU to eke out a victory, like the 53-45 four-overtime game of last October. Or the 29-24 comeback in 2017, on Baker Mayfield’s touchdown pass to Mark Andrews. Or the 39-27 Big 12 Championship Game win, a cushion provided by Grant Calcaterra’s remarkable catch. 

That 12-point margin in Arlington in 2018 is OU’s only win over Texas by double digits since the 2012 rout. 

But this is what rivalries are supposed to be about. Tight games. Tough victories. Forget the point spreads. 

And OU has excelled in those situations. 

The Sooners have won three straight against Texas, and if they win Saturday in the Cotton Bowl, it will be one of the five best stretches for OU in Red River history. 

OU’s longest winning streak in the series is six, 1952-57. The Sooners have two five-game winning streaks, 2000-04 and 1971-75. Other than those, OU’s only four-game winning streak was 1985-88. 

So 2018-21 could enter rare air. 

The Sooners last year were coming off their best decade against Texas. In the ‘10s, OU was 8-3 against the Longhorns. 

And OU’s 7-3 record since 2011 is the Sooners’ best 10-game series stretch since going 9-1 from 1948-57. 

Nothing from the recent past or even this season suggests a blowout will be back. A gritty afternoon in hot Dallas is what we should expect. The Sooners have been winning more than their share of those. 

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Let’s get to the predictions:  

Oklahoma vs. Texas in Dallas: Sooners 26-24. I always pick who won the year before. In this streaky rivalry, such a theory has served me well. 

West Virginia at Baylor: Mountaineers 19-14. Upset special. I’ve seen each team live, and both play quality defense. Neither quarterback is much of a playmaker, but WVU’s Jarrett Doege has a slight edge over Baylor’s Gerry Bohanon. 

Texas Christian at Texas Tech: Red Raiders 31-30. Tech’s season seemed in disarray after a 70-35 loss to Texas, but the Red Raiders won in Morgantown. Win this game, and Tech suddenly is 5-1 and everyone loves Matt Wells. 

Georgia at Auburn: Bulldogs 27-10. The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, they call this game. If Georgia and Auburn wanted to be picky, they could drop the “Deep” and pilfer the title from North Carolina-Virginia, which first was staged 245 days after the initial Georgia-Auburn game and hasn’t been nearly as relevant. 

Arkansas at Ole Miss: Rebels 28-27. Remember the old NFL Playoff Bowl from the 1960s? The National Football League would stage semifinals, with the winners advancing to the championship game and the losers meeting in a consolation game. It was a stupid idea. Well, this is the college version. Arkansas (at Georgia) and Mississippi (at Alabama) played huge games on a national stage last week and were thoroughly trounced. So they get to lick their wounds here. 

Louisiana State at Kentucky: Wildcats 22-14. Kentucky hasn’t beaten LSU since that wild three-overtime win in 2007. I don’t know what’s crazier. That game, or the fact that UK-LSU has been staged only twice since then. 

Alabama at Texas A&M: Crimson Tide 34-10. Aggies were geared up all summer for this game. Then they saw their team. 

South Carolina at Tennessee: Volunteers 38-9. Some penciled in Josh Heupel for a rough first year on Rocky Top, and maybe that still will happen. But beat the woeful Gamecocks, and the Vols are 4-2.  

Vanderbilt at Florida: Gators 62-7. Think OU-Kansas. 

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North Texas at Missouri: Tigers 51-14. Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz fired defensive line coach Jethro Franklin after Mizzou’s 62-24 loss to Tennessee. Drinkwitz fired d-line coach Brick Haley last off-season, after one year on the job. Nothing like planting seeds for firing people.   

Penn State at Iowa: Hawkeyes 16-12. The game of the day. First touchdown wins. Better yet, first mistake loses, which means we still might get a four-quarter game. 

Michigan State at Rutgers: Spartans 26-17. The Scarlet Knights played Michigan tough, then were walloped by Ohio State. Will they get back up for Michigan State? 

Michigan at Nebraska: Wolverines 27-24. Upset Michigan, and the Cornhuskers could fashion a nice winning streak. They beat Northwestern last week and have Minnesota and Purdue upcoming. 

Maryland at Ohio State: Buckeyes 48-14. The Terrapins had a Friday night window on national television, at home, in a battle of unbeatens against Iowa. And got beat 51-14. Uh-oh. 

Wisconsin at Illinois: Badgers 18-17. Bret Bielema hosts his former school, which is staggering for a lack of offense. If Illinois pulls off the upset, Wisconsin will wonder why Bielema isn’t coaching in Madison. 

Stanford at Arizona State: Sun Devils 28-21. Only three Pac-12 teams have fewer than two losses. Arizona State and the Oregon schools. The Pac needs ASU to go on a run. 

Utah at Southern Cal: Utes 31-27. Former OU commit and Texas signee Cameron Rising is 1-0 as the Utes starter, having beaten Washington State 24-13. Beat USC, and Cameron will be Rising. 

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Oregon State at Washington State: Beavers 33-22. I wonder if this is a big rivalry? It should be. The two lost tribes of the Pac-12. 

UCLA at Arizona: Bruins 34-14. The evidence is somewhat solid that ‘Zona is better than Kansas or Vanderbilt, but the case has yet to go to the jury. 

Notre Dame at Virginia Tech: Hokies 23-21. Upset special. Virginia Tech is up and down. But so is Notre Dame, and the Fighting Irish might be mentally whipped after losing to Cincinnati. 

Virginia at Louisville: Cardinals 38-31. I keep staying high on Louisville. Maybe some day I’ll learn. 

Florida State at North Carolina: Tar Heels 43-21. Funny conference, the Atlantic Coast. UNC has played four league games and is 2-2. But seven ACC teams have played just one conference game. 

Georgia Tech at Duke: Yellow Jackets 37-27. The ACC has 14 teams. At this point, I would unequivocally rule out only one from conference title consideration. That would be Duke. 

Wake Forest at Syracuse: Demon Deacons 30-19. You can rule out Syracuse, if the Orange doesn’t win this game. Wake would have a three-game lead on Syracuse, with a tiebreaker. 

Memphis at Tulsa: Tigers 44-24. The Golden Hurricane is favored. Please explain. 

Temple at Cincinnati: Bearcats 27-21. Can Cincy handle outrageous success? We start finding out. 

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Houston at Tulane: Cougars 42-31. The Green Wave’s highwater mark for the season came with that onside kick recovery on Owen Field, where they had the Sooners scared out of their pants with two minutes left in the game. 

Southern Methodist at Navy: Mustangs 41-34. SMU at Cincinnati, November 20. Mark your calendars. 

East Carolina at Central Florida: Knights 30-14. Gus Malzahn isn’t winning at UCF the way I thought he would. Better gird up in Orlando. 

Boise State at Brigham Young: Cougars 30-21. The Broncos have fallen to 2-3, and BYU is showing no signs of letting up. 

Wyoming at Air Force: Falcons 32-23. The Cowboys are unbeaten, but Air Force is the better team. 

San Jose State at Colorado State: Rams 26-24. The Spartans barely skated past New Mexico State last week. Egads. 

New Mexico at San Diego State: Aztecs 31-6. San Diego State is an under-the-radar team for a major bowl berth. Keep your eye on the Aztecs. 

New Mexico State at Nevada: Wolf Pack 52-22. Kansas State’s win over Nevada looks better and better. The ‘Pack has beaten California and Boise State. 

Middle Tennessee at Liberty: Flames 27-20. I like “Middle” as a university name. Middle Oklahoma has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?  

Texas-San Antonio at Western Kentucky: Roadrunners 34-31. UTSA is unbeaten. Let’s keep them that way in this battle of great nicknames (WKU is the Hilltoppers). 

Connecticut at Massachusetts: Huskies 12-10. One of the worst matchups of all time. Literally. UMass is 1-22 in its last 23 games. UConn is 3-32 in its last 35 games. Their collective victims during those stretches are Rhode Island, Wagner, Akron and, you guessed it, Massachusetts. 

Last week: 29-19. Season: 242-65. 

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OU had eight full possessions last Saturday against Kansas State. Seems low, but the Sooners were accustomed to it. 

OU had nine possessions against West Virginia, eight against Nebraska and 12 against Tulane. That’s 9.25 per game. 

That’s low. That’s way low, compared to the recent past. That’s crazy low, compared to the hurry-up offenses of Sooner yesteryears. 

But it’s not out of whack with the rest of the country. College football is undergoing a metamorphosis, which has been apparent with lower scores, quicker games and fewer plays. 

Texas is averaging 10.2 possessions per game this season, and that’s with some wild scores – 70-35 over Texas Tech, 58-0 over Rice, a 40-21 loss to Arkansas – that haven’t been prevalent in Norman. 

Gone are the days when Big 12 teams average 85 plays a game. The Mike Leach/Kevin Wilson/Dana Holgorsen days. 

OU and Texas each are averaging 68.8 snaps a game. That’s tied for 23rd-lowest among the 130 Division I-A teams.  

That’s not a badge of dishonor. Some of the nation’s best teams are averaging fewer. Unbeaten Coastal Carolina is averaging 63.0. Powerhouses dot the list with less than 68.8 — Ohio State 64.8, Michigan 65.0, Michigan State 65.4, Georgia 66.0, Alabama 68.0.  

The game is changing. Texas is running the ball like crazy. OU is moving the ball with a short passing game. Both control the clock. 

OSU is averaging 12.0 possessions per game against I-A opponents, but it’s not like the Cowboys are reaping a bounty of points. 

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And opposing offenses are slowing the game, too. Against OU, teams are going to extreme to keep Spencer Rattler’s offense on the bench. Sooner opponents are 12 for 19 on fourth-down conversions. Nineteen! I’ve never heard of anything like that. That’s 4.8 fourth-down tries a game. 

It all makes for nutty statistics. Like this. OU has punted eight times all season, the lowest in the nation. Texas, by the way, is second in fewest punts per game, 2.0.  

OU punted three times in the second quarter alone against West Virginia. That means OU has punted just five times in the other 19 quarters of the season. 

If OU wants more possessions, it’s on the defense to get the ball back more quickly. 

“Gotta play better early in the series,” Lincoln Riley said. “We’ve had a number of times we’ve gotten opponents down to third downs early in the series, and you’ve got to capitalize on those, especially early in the game. It’s so important as far as setting a tone that way. 

“We’ve done so many good things defensively this year, but we haven’t played our best early. It’s a big point of emphasis for us.” 

All of OU’s offensive stagnancy can’t be blamed on the defense. The Sooners have been tremendous the last six quarters (second half West Virginia, full game Kansas State), but they still rank just 21st nationally in points per possession, 3.0. 

That’s a good number, but it’s not up to OU’s standard.  

Still, if the Sooners want to create more separation so that fourth quarters aren’t quite as tense, it’s more on the defense. Especially Saturday, where Texas tailback Bijan Robinson is perfect for long drives. 

“Bijan is a tremendous player,” Riley said. “When you get opportunities to get them off the field and put them in those third down situations, us converting those will be important. The sooner we can do that, the better it is for more possessions for us offensively, the better it is for field position. 

“We’ve had a lot of third down stops but they’ve been in plus territory. Then you’ve got to stop a third down and then a fourth down. Against good offenses you put yourself behind the eight-ball there. It’s a big point and it will have a big impact on the game.” 

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James Posey blames the culture for super teams 

Most basketball fans don’t like the NBA trend towards super teams. The collection of all-stars on a very few rosters is good for the franchise that has them, bad for the franchises that don’t, and the ratio of have-nots to haves is about 10:1. 

But it’s not just fans who are turned off. Some players are, too. 

Current players don’t speak much about it, because they have to live and try to thrive in the environment. But past players occasionally chime in, as they did when Kevin Durant jumped from the Thunder to the Golden State Warriors. 

James Posey has chimed in. 

Posey was a 12-year NBA veteran, the sixth man on the Celtics’ 2008 championship team, and writing for basketballnews.com last week, he addressed the superstar-collection culture. 

Posey, who also played on Miami’s 2006 title team, blames society for its championship-centric attitudes. 

Posey wrote that “no matter how hard you work and no matter how much talent you have, winning and losing often just comes down to ‘chance’ plays and being in the right place at the right time. 

“I never understood why people tear down some of the greatest players we’ve seen just because they weren’t able to win a championship.” 

Posey is on to something. Players who are ringless – the Karl Malone, Charles Barkley crowd of generations past; the Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul club of today – are marked as somehow inferior players. 

Posey asks about Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett, two all-time greats who each won one NBA title, both relatively late in their careers. 

“If they hadn’t, would that have made them lesser players? I wouldn’t necessarily think so, but I know plenty of others who would,” Posey wrote. “That’s why, if you ask me, I understand why so many of today’s players decide to form super-teams. It’s the new wave — stars feel like they need championships to validate themselves, and they’re willing to get it by any means necessary.” 

That’s why Posey isn’t critical of Durant. 

“It’s gotten to the point where guys have sorta been trained to believe it’s the end-all, be-all,” Posey writes. “Even Kevin Durant — one of the most gifted players we’ve ever seen — felt like he wasn’t complete enough and that he wasn’t going to get the respect he deserved until he added a championship to everything he’d already done. For whatever reason, KD felt like he needed to win a championship by any means necessary, even if it meant joining a team that had already won without him. So, that’s what he did.

“Instead of being mad at KD for making that decision, we should be asking ourselves why he felt like he had to do so in the first place.” 

Maybe we can blame Michael Jordan, whose six NBA championships seemed to spawn endless arguments about greatness' tie to titles. Or social media. Or the ESPN culture. Or agents, who run the league.

Whatever, Posey makes some great points. This isn’t necessarily character flaws that send superstars scurrying for other superstars. It’s an underlying culture. 

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Take a Ride on the Reading: Texas Caesar 

University of Texas football always has been fascinating to Oklahomans. And to many others. 

The Longhorns have a great football tradition, but they’ve also underachieved, considering their location and resources, a combination that most consider the nation’s foremost.Texas thrived most under Darrell Royal, an Oklahoman who was a star for Bud Wilkinson at OU. Royal coached the Longhorns from 1957-76 and became such an icon that the UT stadium is named in his honor. 

But Royal’s coaching tenure came in turbulent times and reverberates to this very day. Oklahoma author J. Brent Clark sought to portray Royal’s place in those days, and the result was Texas Caesar. 

Clark chronicles Royal’s upbringing in Depression-era Hollis and his OU days, but focuses on Texas, where Royal “led the conflicted life of a warrior, father and servant to the rich and powerful,” Clark writes.

Texas Caesar attempts to explain how the power-broker system in Austin affected Royal’s life and career, as well as Texas football to this day. 

It’s a complicated subject. Clark is a friend of mine. He talked with me several times at his frustrations of getting to the meat of the matter. But read Texas Caesar, and you’ll have a better understanding of why coaching the Longhorns is not always the job it’s cracked up to be. 

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Mailbag: Mike Shannon’s retirement 

My note about the retirement of St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon resonated with at least one reader. 

Tony: “I'm with you with. A bit more of my baseball past dying with the retirement of Mike Shannon. The passing of Gibson and Brock last year, now Shannon retiring. I remember Shannon was a very hard-nosed player as well. Tales were around that he wiped the clubhouse floor with teammate, Curt Flood, once upon a time. 

“Several years ago, when ESPN first started airing classics, my boys and I watched Game 1 of the ‘68 World Series between the Tigers and the Cards. The pitching matchup between 31-game winner Denny McLain and Bob Gibson, who had the best statistical season ever, ensured a short game. Both pitchers would get the ball back from the catcher and were ready to pitch just as soon as they had the sign from the catcher. I want to say the game lasted 1:52! In that game, Shannon took one under the chin from McLain, and this in an era of wearing soft caps to the plate. Shannon got up, dusted himself off and got ready for the next pitch. No flexing, no charging the mound, etc. Best way to show up a pitcher in those days was to stand in and deliver a hit, which he did in that at-bat. 

“Good memories of my papaw, my dad and my boys as we were all big Cardinal fans. Papaw's hero was Ducky Joe Medwick, Dad's was Stan Musial, mine was Brock and Gibson, and my boys’ were Ozzie Smith.” 

Tramel: And there you have it. A perfect example of the generational connector that baseball was. Is it still? I don’t know. Are Tony’s grandsons fans of Yadier Molina? Therein lies the question of baseball’s future. 

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.