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.

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.

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.