No tricks, no treat for Sooners
Only one team arrived at the Cotton Bowl prepared to throw the kitchen sink at its opponent and it wasn't the team that needed to do it
It was the fourth quarter, 6:27 remained, when Texas took over on downs, the ball at the Sooner 32.
It was all but over.
Texas led by 24 points, Oklahoma had yet to gain 160 yards, all drama had been dashed.
Still, that was when Longhorn coach Steve Sarkisian opted to have wide receiver Matthew Golden throw a pass to tight end Gunnar Helm, spanning 30 yards, setting Texas up 2 yards from the end zone and two snaps plus an extra point from forging the final score, 34-3, in the 120th meeting of the Red River rivalry.
You can call it Sarkisian being a poor sport and you’d have a fine point if you did.
Nonetheless, whether the Texas coach was or wasn’t operating within accepted norms of the game, his trick play remained most notable for other reasons.
Namely it was the third one he’d called, the first being another toss from Golden, well under-thrown, to fellow wide receiver Ryan Wingo and the second being a reverse to Wingo that went for 25 yards on the Longhorns’ first possession of the third quarter.
Texas was a 16 1/2-point favorite and the game was going quite well for it each time Sarkisian called for trickery.
He didn’t need those plays to dominate OU, yet he came prepared to use them and he did.
But you know who really could have used a few plays like that, needed a few plays like that, whose fans were dying for a few plays like that?
Brent Venables, that’s who.
Unless it’s on offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, only it’s not, because he’s got to be empowered to develop and call them and that starts with Venables, too.
Indeed, OU could have used anything out of the ordinary, unexpected, or not-so-danged vanilla to try to score more than three points inside the Cotton Bowl Saturday afternoon. Yet, all it offered, if it even counts, was a shovel pass from Michael Hawkins to Bauer Sharp for three yards facing third-and-2 three plays into the fourth quarter.
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