If this season's taught us anything, it's that anything's possible, even a Sooner victory inside the Cotton Bowl

Author’s Note: This would be the latest installment of my column that also appears in the GAMEDAY section of The Norman Transcript and, because it’s Texas week, that section goes out Friday, rather than Saturday, hoping to put it in the hands of Oklahoma fans heading south for the game, and because of that it’s available to my readers right here right now, rather than tomorrow. To be clear, I still recommend the whole section as a game-day resource, so maybe pick it up on your way out of town? Also, thanks for reading, it’s never taken for granted.

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Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables yells during the first half of an NCAA college football game against the Texas at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. That game did not go well for the Sooners, though last year’s edition of the Red River rivalry did. Saturday, OU and Texas meet again.(AP Photo/LM Otero)

Earlier in the week, Brent Venables tried intimating that whatever it is Texas might be doing, it has nothing to do with Oklahoma; about which, of course, he could not be more incorrect.

“That’s not a measuring stick for myself or for this program,” he said. “Their success doesn’t have anything to do with ours and their lack of success doesn’t have anything to do with ours …

“We’re focused on us, the things we can control. We compete on the field once a season, and it’s big game, always is, but they’re all big.”

He’s right about the two teams meeting once a year, and maybe about his program focusing on what it can control, but the rest of it?

Sorry.

Most games are big only when you lose them. Some are big because you win them. Some are big because circumstances.

Temple? Not big.

Houston? Almost big because OU almost loss.

Tulane? Not really.

Tennessee? Big.

Auburn? Big for how OU prevailed and for not dropping to 0-2 in the conference.

Texas? Big for many reasons, beginning with it being Texas.

Sure, both programs recruit the nation, but they recruit against each other more than they recruit against anybody else.

If Venables and the Sooners were to go nowhere in the SEC simultaneous to Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns going nowhere in the SEC, it might be worth another season or two of grace before each coach received his walking papers.

But if OU loses five games this season and five games next season and Texas remains a top 5 or 10 program, beating OU both of those seasons, Venables might be all out of grace.

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