Notebook

With talk of tonight's Big 12 Championship game being a grind-it-out battle between Oklahoma's and Nebraska's running attacks, a couple of good quarterbacks might be useless at times.

But OU quarterback Paul Thompson says he doesn't expect another game of just 11 passes, like he had in last week's win over Oklahoma State.

"You understand what the coaches' plans are and I'm definitely confident in our game plan," he said. "I still think that we're confident as an offense that we can throw it more and it will be maybe more balanced (tonight).

"We'll take what the defense gives us and game-plan it out that way to end up on top at the end."

• New faces: Thompson was a part of the 2002 and 2004 OU teams that won the Big 12 title and even though he's a senior, Thompson says this is a new era. "I was part of championships here with Jason White , Mark Clayton and that era," Thompson said. "It's kind of a new era with the guys, maybe not as many guys that people recognize on the outside. It's like a new era of players, a young team, and I'm looking forward to getting that first championship for them."

By Scott Wright and George Schroeder