There just aren’t many years that you have both the talent and the schedule to compete for a national championship. For Oklahoma this was a year to do it.

       And let’s use the word WAS because that chance has disappeared.

       What happened yesterday in Boulder was a stunner. It was embarrassing for OU. It was a complete meltdown on offense, defense and special teams. How to you blow a 24-7 lead against a team that isn’t very good?

       This was one of the biggest stunners in Oklahoma history. Forget about Boise last year. Boise was a good team. The Sooners were only seven point favorites in that one. They were a 22 point favorite against the Buffaloes.

       There still are some things that I can’t figure out. Where was Malcom Kelly? He’s only one of the top receivers in the country. There are only three things I can think of.

       The Colorado defense did such a good job at defending him. I have a hard time believing that one. No. 2–Sam Bradford didn’t look at Kelly. And No. 3–the OU coaches just didn’t call his number. I can’t wait to hear what Bob Stoops says at his Tuesday press conference.

       How could the OU defense crumble like it did? Colorado came ino the game regarded as a good defensive club and bad on offense. So how did it move the ball at will in the second half?

       It was obvious the Sooner defense got tired because the OU offense couldn’t get any first downs. But still you have to come up with stops on third and long and fourth and long situations.

      How could the offense be so bad? The receivers should get an F for their effort. Their were too many dropped passes. Sam Bradford looked good in the first half. He was seven of 11, with two of thise incompletions being drops. In the second half he looked tentative and had problems.

       I thought the offense was extremely conservative. It became very predictable. The offensive line didn’t do a good job. There weren’t a lot of holes for the running backs and ghe protection for Bradford wasn’t the best.

      This was a year you had to think the Sooners could win a national title if they got good quarterback play. And that was happenng. They would be favorite in every game they played. There weren’t the difficult road tests like Stillwater and College Station, where they always struggle.

      If the Sooners do not run the table and win the rest of their games and get to a BCS bowl, this season is a total disaster.

The battle lines were drawn and it was quite easy to figure out what side everyone was on in the Mike Gundy-J. Carlson debacle.

Coaches and former players loved what Gundy said. They liked the way a journalist was put in place when attacking another athlete. If a journalist can criticize a coach or an athlete, why can’t they fire back?

On the other end side of the spectrum, journalists stick together. They don’t like when a coach acts like that. So it was no surprise when Gundy took a big hit from the national media people. This was expected.

I’ve said it over and over again, I have no problem that he called Carlson out. I just wish he would have done it in a different way. I think he should have done it behind close doors.

This former Oklahoma State standout quarterback should have learned from former coach Pat Jones. Jones wasn’t winning a lot of games in his final years at OSU. But he wound up hanging on because the media liked him.

By the way, Jones thinks it was a mistake the way his former signal-caller handled the situation. He thinks it will hurt him in the long run. However, I do think Gundy has won over players and fans with the way he did things. However, in the end, Mike Gundy will build his future on his won-loss record. . .

IVE BEEN WRONG a lot before, and I’ll probably be wrong once again, but I still contend that the OU game with Colorado will be a lot tougher than just about everyone expects.

Maybe to me it’s just a matter of history. But Oklahoma has struggled in Boulder the last couple of decades. I realize this Cololrado team isn’t as good as others and this OU team is one of the best that has played there during this time period.

But you at the time Bob Stoops has been at OU, he’s had tremendous teams. And the bottom line is that only a handful of conference road games have been easy. This is the first true road test for the Sooners this year.

I think it’s a perfect tune-up for the Texas game. OU is going against a good defensive team and Sam Bradford will be playing against a hostile crowd for the first time in his career.

I think Colorado will make it interesting for awhile. The problem the Buffaloes will have is moving the ball. Freshman quarterback Cody Hawkins has been very inconsistent. If OU doesn’t hurt itself with a bunch of penalties or turnovers, it comes away with a victory in the Rocky Mountains.

I’ll go Oklahoma 31, Colorado 10. And Oklahoma State 52, Sam Houston State 17. Let’s see how Rhett Bomar does against Big 12 competition once again.

There’s no doubt Oklahoma State’s win over Texas Tech was a matter of survival. You lose that game and you’re not going to a bowl game. You win and suddenly there’s new found hope.

The Cowboys took what the Red Raiders gave them. They ran the ball at will. Zac Robinson did what the OSU coaches had hoped Bobby Reid would do–help move the ball with his legs. He did it the entire afternoon.

The Big 12 isn’t very good this year and that gives the Pokes hope. They can go to places like Nebraska and Texas A&M and win those type of games. But they could also lose those games and get beat at home by the likes of Texas, Kansas and Kansas State.

Mike Gundy needed that win in the worst way. It will silence his critics for awhile. And it will also give his team a much needed dose of confidence. . .

OKLAHOMA WASN’T perfect in its win over Tulsa. But when you come away with a 41 point victory there can’t be too many complaints.

In the first half there were too many Golden Hurricane receivers running wide open. The OU secondary appeared to be soft at times. Tulsa quarterback Paul Smith did a great job getting away from the Oklahoma pass rush and finding his open targets.

The game was very predictable. The Sooners would have their way against a weak Tulsa defense and the Golden Hurricane would pick up a lot of yardage on Oklahoma. When you play an offense like a Tulsa or a Texas Tech, those teams are going to gain a bunch of yards. The trick is keeping them out of the endzone.

The Sooners lost John Williams with a season-ending injury. That definitely isn’t good news. The D-end position is probably the thinnest on the team. Now untested guys like Alan Davis and Jeremy Beal are going to have to help and give productive depth.

By the way, there may be a lot of Oklahoma fans who think this week’s game against Colorado will be a breeze. I don’t think so. In fact, other than Texas it might be the most difficult game left on the schedule. Boulder has not been an easy place for the Sooners to win the last couple of decades.

We found out when Miami came to town that Oklahoma is a really good offensive team. Say what you want about the Hurricanes, but they will still be one of the best (if not the best), defense OU faces during the regular season.

And by the way, how stupid was it of Texas A&M’s players popping off about how their offense would put all kind of points on the board when it played Miami last night. That game was a classic mismatch.

Again it shows you just how good this Oklahoma offense is when it’s clicking. A&M’s offense looked like it was in slow motion going against the speed of the Hurricanes defense.

So we know the Sooner offense has been tested. But what about the defense? We’ll find out a lot more about this unit tonight in Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane have a deverse offense that can move the ball up and down the field. Paul Smith will be one of the better quarterbacks Oklahoma will face this year.

I think if the Sooners hold Tulsa to under three touchdowns it would be very impressive. The OU defensive coaches know this is a big challenge. But the bottom line is the fact OU has a lot better quality of athlete on both sides of the ball.

Bob Stoops’ offense should roll in this one if it doesn’t turn the ball over. The Golden Hurricane defense isn’t very good. It gave up nearly 700 yards to BYU a week ago. . .

OKLAHOMA STATE has a gut-check this weekend with Texas Tech coming to town. Mike Gundy has to have a tonic to get his club to regroup after his team appeared to be in complete disaaray last week at Troy State.

You would think the Texas Tech offense will march up and down the field against the OSU secondary. However, didn’t we think that two years ago when the Raiders were stunned in Stillwater and handed the Cowboys their only Big 12 win of the season in 2005.

What OSU has on its side in this one is that its at home and that Texas Tech is not a good defensive team. Both Rice and UTEP have had its way with the Raiders defense. So the Pokes offense has to get going and score at least 30 points to have a chance in this one.

What happens this weekend? I’m going with Oklahoma 49, Tulsa 21. And Texas Tech 35, Oklahoma State 31.

It just can’t get any better for Oklahoma. And it just can’t get any worse for Oklahoma State.

This just wasn’t supposed to happen. The Sooners were the ones who were supposed to have the quarterback problems. And it was the Cowboys who were supposed to have one of the best offensive teams in the country.

How did this happen?

This is just crazy stuff. The Sooners are sitting on a pedestal right now. We all knew this team had a chance to be very good. But this good? It just looks like a well-oiled machine. That doesn’t appear to be any weaknesses.

The biggest problem Bob Stoops may have at this point is trying to keep all of his running backs happy. There just aren’t many things that he has to worry about right now. Or course that could change.

There could be some injuries. Obviously the guy they can’t afford to lose is Sam Bradford. He just hangs in there making play after play. The quarterback position was supposed to be a question mark. There were very few who thought it was going to be a strength. I definitely didn’t after watching the first two major scrimmages of the summer.

Coming into the season the coaches said they thought they would be better at linebacker, this despite losing Butkus Award nominee Rufus Alexander. Their prediction has become true as both Ryan Reynolds and Curtis Lofton have been outstanding.

Everything seems too good to be true for OU fans. They may be waiting for a game with a lot of turnovers. Or a game with no emotion. Let’s see what happens on the road the next two weeks. If the Sooners steamroll both Tulsa and Colorado, there aren’t going to be a lot of Texas fans with a bunch of confidence when they enter the Cotton Bowl the first Saturday of next month.

Oklahoma State is another matter. It’s going to be difficult to buy into some of that hype next year. Every school comes into a season with optimism. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, that’s what you need.

But every year you hear how the Cowboys are going to be an improved defensive team. It never happens. Everytime they play a good offense they get lit up. The coaches may be different. The players may be different. However, the results are the same.

Mike Gundy has quite a chore right now. How does he get this team to regroup? How does he get them to play with a lot of confidence? And how does he keep this team from being divided with a quarterback controversy?

He’s going to earn his money the rest of the season. Texas Tech is a huge game. You win it and you’re talking positive again. You lose it and this season will become a total disaster.

There are those who have thought the Pokes were moving closer to the likes of Texas and Oklahoma. But until they figure out how to play defense, they are moving more in the direction of Baylor.

This isn’t a make or break game for Oklahoma State tonight at Troy. It’s a game that if you lose it could break your season. If you win there will be people who say it’s no big deal because you’re supposed to win a game like this.

This is a game that should have never been scheduled. The Cowboys have a killer road schedule this year with games at Georgia, Texas A&M, Nebraska and Oklahoma. This one wasn’t needed.

I can’t remember the last time going into an OU or OSU game that no one (other than players and coaches) knew who the starting quarterback was going to be. It seems obvious right now that the Cowboy coaches feel more comfortable with Zac Robinson running the show. But does that mean they’ll pull the plug on Bobby Reid?

Robinson appears to be the better passer of the two. He has not been prone to making the big mistakes like Reid has made. And those who have watched him in practice say that he’s a better runner than Reid.

Troy is a pretty good offensive team. It will give the Cowboy defense a very good test. But on defense it has major problems. You would think that Mike Gundy’s club would be able to run the ball right at them.

With the Big 12 season starting next week with a game against Texas Tech, the Cowboys have to get things straightened out. And to start with they have to figure out who their quarterback is going to be the rest of the season. We may find out an answer to that question tonight. . .

HOW IN THE WORLD does Bob Stoops get his team pumped up for Utah State? That has to be a very difficult task. The Aggies are coming into this encounter with a 0-2 record and are a 46-point underdog. I want to figure out which team is worse–North Texas are Utah State?

The big key is to stay away from the injury bug. That has been big thus far this year. Allen Patrick should be back at full speed. There may be some that have forgotten just how good this senior running back was last year when he filled in for Adrian Peterson.

Oklahoma is a team playing with nothing but confidence. And there should be more that is attained against the Aggies. Sam Bradford’s numbers should continue to soar.

This will be the easiest game by far the rest of the season. Things get much more interesting after this one. You have the in-state rivalry with Tulsa next week and then a road trip to Colorado after that. And it’s been light years since the Sooners have had an easy time in Boulder.

This Utah State game that could get sloppy. The Sooners are coming off that big win with Miami. Stoops does an excellent job in spots like this when his team is a big favorite. This could be one of his bigger challenges in this regard this weekend.

I’ll pick Oklahoma State to win by 10 and OU steamrolls Utah State by 50.

No matter what the polls say right now, the three best teams in the country are LSU, Oklahoma and USC. And that’s the order I would rank them at this time.

The Tigers and the Sooners almost look unbeatable right now. But you know how that goes. Did anyone think OU could get beat by Kansas State in the 2003 Big 12 championship game? Of course not.

These two teams start with great defense. They just make life miserable for opposing quarterbacks and running backs. Both units have tremendous speed.

We’re going to know a lot more about USC this weekend when they play at Nebraska Saturday night. I was not overly impressed with the Trojans opening win against Idaho. This isn’t a great Nebraska team. It had problems beating Wake Forest on the road.

However, Lincoln is one of the toughest places to play in college football. Those Cornhuskers fans have been talking about this game for months now. They will be jacked up.

USC has been a terrific road team the last several years. We are going to see how the Trojans react in this setting. And if they get by this test, they still have difficult road assignments at California, Oregon and Arizona State. . .

IS THIS SAM BRADFORD story getting to be pretty amazing? I heard a few critics saying he wasn’t the real deal after that North Texas opener. There’s no one with any negative comments now after what he did to Miami.

Kevin Wilson and his offensive staff need to be given a lot of credit for wheat they have done. They have put together an offense that is so versatile. The Sooners have so many weapons and they are using them all. And they are doing a great job of putting Bradford is a position where he can succeed.

Now I have to admit I was wrong about them using running backs by committeee. If Allen Patrick hadn’t gotten cramps, he would have gotten about the same amount of carries that Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray got. But I don’t like the theory. I can’t see how a running back can get into any type of flow if he’s coming in and out of a game. And I still think Murray and Patrick are the two best backs and Brown can be utilized in short down situations, where he excels. . .

OKLAHOMA STATE HAS to get everything together the next two weeks. Mike Gundy says there isn’t a quarterback controversy, but he knows there is.

There’s a lot of people in Stillwater, including former coach Pat Jones, who think that Zac Robinson is the guy who should be leading this team. I thought before the year began that Bobby Reid could be an all-Big 12 type of quarterback.

Well after two games he hasn’t performed like one. Robinson is defintely the most consistent of the two. He looks like he’s the more accurate passer and those in the Cowboy camp say he’s the best runner.

One pleaant surprise for the Pokes has been their run defense. There was a lot of concern about the interior defensive line coming into this season. It has done a very good job thus far.

But the quarterback situation needs to be taken care of. Coming up are Troy State and Texas Tech. These are two games Oklahoma State has to win because the schedule gets tougher later next month.

Run the ball and stop the run.

That’s a very simple formula. But if Oklahoma is able to accomplish those two things there’s a good chance the Sooners are going to come away with a victory in their intersectional match-up with Miami.

There were time against North Texas last week OU had problems sustaining an inside running game, particularly in short-yardage situations. Many fans were saying the reason for this was the fact that Allen Patrick and Chris Brown didn’t play.

Bob Stoops had other ideas.

“I think the main problem is that early in the year it’s a matter of timing. In practices we don’t go down low in practice and block on the legs because we don’t want to get anyone hurt. So I think it takes a little time to get the players going. I’m not concerned. I think we’ll be able to get the job done.”

There has been a perception that Oklahoma is going to use the running back “by committee” this season. I’ll really be surprised it that happens. I think a key is to get the ball to Patrick and DeMarco Murray and much as they can.

“We’ll just see how the game is going. We’ll see what the flow is. If one of the backs is hot, we’re not going to take him out of the game,” says Stoops. “There will be a lot of variables on how we will employ our running backs. I just know we’re very talented at that position.”

Sam Bradford was really good in his Sooner debut last week. He did all the right things. He played with a lot of poise and the players will tell you that he had excellent control of the huddle. That’s so important.

Now let’s see what he does against a tremendous defense. Let’s see how he handles things on a physical level when the Hurricanes hard-hitting and super-quick defense is putting pressure on him. And let’s see what he does mentally when Miami changes things up and makes him audible at the line of scrimmage.

If Bradford plays well in this encounter, the Sooners could be rolling the rest of the season.

The key on the defensive side is to stop the Miami run game. Make them throw the ball. That’s been its downfall the last couple of years. Kyle Wright, who had been the starter the last couple of seasons, has been a major disappointment. That’s why he’s on the bench now watching Kirby Freeman lead the team.

Freeman is a nice athlete who can make things happen with his legs. However, make him throw the ball on third and long situations and he may have his problems.

The recipe for victory? Again, it’s quite easy. Don’t turn the ball over, stop the run on defense and be able to run the ball on offense.

No one, and I mean no one could have dreamed Sam Bradford would have a debut against North Texas like he did. Sure the OU coaches thought he was playing well in practice. But what was he could to do before 80,000 fans?

Now Bradford has confidence and the Sooner staff has a lot of confidence in him. That means a bunch.

But was this fool’s gold? Was his performance all about going against a very bad defense with not a lot of very good athletes? Sure, part of it was.

However, when you’re hitting 21 out of 23 passes and you’re completing your last 18 tosses, you’re doing something special. Oklahoma looked good, really good. The Sooner coaching staff has been very confident about this team. Now maybe we know why.

Let’s not get too excited though just yet. Miami is coming to town this week. The Hurricanes will probably have the best defense Bob Stoops club will face this year. If OU can win this game, then that means there’s cause for a lot of optimism for the remainder of the season.

The same can’t be said about Oklahoma State. The Cowboys performance at Georgia was a huge disappointment. Everyone knew this was not a vintage Poke defense.

When OSU faces good teams, it’s going to have to score a lot of points. This was supposed to be one of the best offenses in the country. It didn’t play like one against the Bulldogs.

Oklahoma State had been talking about this game for the entire off-season. It had put so much time and energy into it. Mike Gundy and his staff knew how important it was to his program.

Now he has to have his team regroup after just one game. What the Cowboys have to get right now is a big dose of confidence before they open their Big 12 season against Texas Tech later this month is Stillwater.