Berry Tramel, Sports columnist
Berry Tramel: Oklahoma's been overrun by Cougars
College football OU, OSU have fallen, and more challenges are ahead
By Berry Tramel
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10
Published: September 14, 2009
Modified: September 16, 2009 at 2:36 pm
It’s a cougar world. And I’m not talking about the 40-year-old women who chase 25-year-old men.
When they’re successful, it’s a shocker, I’ll grant you. But not an upset on the scale of what we’ve seen the first two weeks of the college football season.
Photos by Steve Sisney and Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman
Multimedia
OU back on track
Sep 13Sooners return home with a victory over Idaho St 64-0 in Norman....
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America’s two biggest upsets have hit close to home.
Brigham Young over No. 3 Oklahoma.
Houston over No. 5 Oklahoma State. Cougars beat the
Sooners in
Arlington and Cougars beat the
Cowboys in
Stillwater, and what seemed capable of being a magical season in our state has gone splat.
Ten days ago, Oklahoma sported two top-10 teams and
Heisman Trophy candidates galore.
Now everybody is hurting. Both teams’ championship aspirations.
Sam Bradford’s shoulder.
Kendall Hunter’s foot.
Zac Robinson’s performance.
The only Heisman clips have come courtesy of OSU flanker
Dez Bryant, and even he hasn’t avoided the hurts. Cramps struck Bryant at a most inopportune time Saturday, just as a pass was headed his way. The ball went off his hands, into Houston hands, and the game did the same.
It’s all very discouraging for a season that looked so promising not so very long ago, when some of us dreamed of a Bedlam showdown for the
Big 12 South title.
Still could happen, I suppose, though both teams are going to have to get better if they want to remove
Texas from contention.
OU is who-knows-where, particularly as long as Bradford is sidelined. Pay no attention to the 64-0 pasting of outclassed
Idaho State. That game proved only that the Sooners still are capable of finding Owen Field.
Meanwhile, OSU completed the backward see-saw. Beat
Georgia, lose to Houston. What’s next? Lose to
Baylor, beat Texas?
These upsets actually have been valuable lessons for all concerned, and excellent reminders what a great sport this is when it doesn’t go all WWE and fix results.
Not all pre-ordained results are betting-related. Gross mismatches, like
OU-Idaho State and the upcoming OSU-
Grambling game, are no more moral.
Automatic victories are the scourge of college football. But when you put real teams on the field, anything can happen.
Look at
Ohio Stadium. The Buckeyes go to the wire with Navy one Saturday, then go to the wire with Southern Cal the next.
OSU-Georgia. OU-BYU. OSU-Houston. When it’s a fair fight, you never know what you might get.
It’s not even for sure the upsets are over for a while, since
Tulsa plays in
Norman on Saturday with another hot quarterback (
G.J. Kinne) and another mid-major roster with a chip on its shoulder. Don’t look now, but the mid-majors are kicking butt and taking names.
There is good news on the Sooner front; TU has no plans to change its nickname from Golden Hurricane to Cougars. But who could blame Tulsa if it did?
Berry Tramel: 405-760-8080; Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1.
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OSU STILL SUCKS ONE GAME WONDERS! OU WILL BEAT THEM BY 30!!
been printed weeks ago, instead of all the over-hype and mesmerizing BS that they continue
spew to keep their place on the OU/OSU gravy-train. It is a job to them to make the State T's
look good, and to make you believe you didn't see on TV or at the Stadium what you actually
saw. OU was a pathetically poor team on defense, tackling, absurd amount of penalties,
discombobulated on play calling by Wilson, out of sync. with everything, and a 64-0
whipping of a D-1AA school that finished 1-11 last season isn't a statement. HS, BS, get a
grip. OU is a bad team, has a chance to get better, but right now they are not a top-10
team, and rated where they are now, is a gift from the past. OU played a bunch of grown
men, and got their a$$ kicked. BYU program was built on mission's and beating OU was 1st
on the list for this season. Get a grip Stoops. OSU program was riding high, but like OU,
they sat around all week and read their press clippings. Houston has a Heisman Trophy
candidate returning at QB, and an offense that was in the top-10, last season, that was a
spin off of the offense OU is running with a few twist's. Gundy, god bless him, should have
known that they, Houston, can move the ball on anybody. Houston is a talented team. Bill
Young is not the problem. OSU's offensive line got whipped all day, and if Gundy went to the
back of the sidelines to draw up plays, then that shows his defense he has absolutely NO
respect for them. I think this cocky, brash, display he pulled last year ranks right up there
with the "I'm A Man, I'm 40" speech. Boone needs to spend a little time with him and make
him understand who sign's his pay checks. You figure it out.