After year of BCS bickering, Texas, OU collide Last season's 45-35 win 'seems like a long time ago' to McCoy

DALLAS — Somewhere in between the tiebreaker and the asterisk, the details started to get sketchy. The record book shows Texas and Oklahoma played football at the Cotton Bowl last year, but what most people remember about the 2008 edition of the Red River Rivalry is not the touchdowns, but the arguments.

The controversy went all the way to the sky, which is one reason not even the players can claim to have ignored it. Walking to class one morning last fall, UT defensive end Sam Acho and his teammates looked up and saw a plane towing a banner instructing the Longhorns to “quit whining.”

As for the game that started it all?

“It seems like a long time ago,” UT quarterback Colt McCoy said.

At last, the Longhorns and Sooners can put their grudge match back where it belongs — on the field.

Today at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, No. 3 UT has a chance to beat No. 20 OU and put itself in position to play in the Bowl Championship Series title game, just like the Longhorns did last October. This time, the Horns hope to avoid the post-Red River slip-up that led to a hotly contested Big 12 South tiebreaker (which OU won, despite the short-lived asterisk that hung on a UT meeting room wall designating the Longhorns as league champs).
No pep rally needed

UT coach Mack Brown said he's made no effort to play up the significance of today's game. He doesn't have to say anything to let his team know this isn't like facing UTEP and Colorado.

“They can tell the difference,” Brown said. “Those kids understand it. They get it.”

The Longhorns (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) have won three of the past four games in the series, but this will be their first big test of 2009. The Sooners (3-2, 1-0) are the first ranked opponent UT has faced.

After taking criticism for their weak schedule for almost two months, the Longhorns are eager to prove themselves.

“This game will be a measuring stick for us,” Brown said. “We'll know a lot more about who we are when we walk out of there.”

Said linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy, “It's an opportunity to show what Texas is made of.”
Aerial showdown

And it will be another opportunity for fans to see two of the best passers in college football face off in the same stadium. McCoy, last year's Heisman Trophy runner-up, is playing in his fourth Red River game; Heisman winner Sam Bradford is in his third.

But McCoy hasn't been as effective in 2009 as he was last season, and Bradford is playing just his second game since returning from a shoulder injury. Could this be the year when the defenses — both seemingly improved from the units that were shredded in a 45-35 game last October — take over?

“Something's going to have to give,” Brown said.

And as last year proved, dealing with the hype — asterisks, airplane banners, State Fair carnival rides and corn dogs — can be just as important as dealing with defenders.

“It's going to be a big game,” McCoy said, “and we're going to have to handle it all.”
Source chron.com