DALLAS — They meet in the parties and pubs the night before the game. Meet in the I-30 traffic jam above Fair Park. Meet on the Midway and meet in the livestock barns and meet in line to buy coupons that will provide the bounty of beer and turkey legs and corny dogs.
And they meet on the 37th parallel of college football, the Cotton Bowl's 50-yard line seats, where a thin strip of concrete separates crimson from burnt orange, where barbs are tossed and smack is talked as Sooners and Longhorns prizefight below.
But this October, even the fans who turn fanatic when they enter the Texas state fairgrounds are talking a little softer. Talking a little gentler. Talking a little more to themselves.
Texas' crime wave in Austin, Ryan Broyles' hand in the gas can? No longer prime topics of conversation.
Mack Brown's two-game win streak on Bob Stoops, the OU fan who tore the Texas fan's scrotum? No longer on tongue tips.
Too much self-analysis needed to waste time on the other guy.
Texas, in a word, stinks. What else can be the verdict about a program that has laid seven duds in its last eight games, dating back to last November? Nary a powerhouse on the schedule those last eight games, yet UT is 5-3 with a couple of close-call victories.
Oklahoma stunk, too, last Saturday, wasting a 24-7 lead and losing 27-24 at Colorado in a game in which the Sooner defense played poorly, the offense played worse and the kicking game went up in flames.
The Stoops/Mack era spoiled us into thinking OU-Texas was automatically special, a divine right of kings. But with each at 0-1 in the Big 12, these ancient, proud foes take on a new persona.
Desperate.
"Desperate is a bad word for sports,” Brown said this week, after his most lopsided home loss, 41-21 to Kansas State. "But it's an important game for us, with both losing last week.”
What's wrong with Texas? Boy wonder Colt McCoy has lost his touch, not to mention his health, thanks to constant battering by defenses that pour through UT's offensive line. K-State ran wild for touchdowns on kickoff, punt and interception returns, a sign of disorganization.
What was wrong with Oklahoma last Saturday? Sam Bradford completed 1 of 8 second-half passes, OU's defense got outschemed and the kicking units looked like John Blake specials.
"Tiger Woods, lot of days he shoots 71 or 72, still wins the tournament,” said OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, a golf nut. "You've got to be good enough, when you're a little off, you still win. Last week, we weren't.”
The Sooners should win today. When you've stumbled once, optimism remains. When you've stumbled like Texas, losing to Kansas State twice and Texas A&M, barely beating mediocre Iowa in San Antonio and Arkansas State in Austin and Central Florida in Orlando, pessimism reigns.
"This is kind of a crossroads we haven't been accustomed to at Texas,” said senior linebacker Scott Derry. "We haven't been used to losing. That's why it feels so bad on Sundays; we don't know how to cope with it. Not a lot of guys have done it, not even in their high school playing.”
Here's the diagnosis. Humility. OU and Texas are accustomed to being humbled by each other. They are not accustomed to being humbled by mid-range Big 12North teams.
Neither are the fans of either side. Normally, they walk the fair with buttons bursting and tongues a blazing. Walk the fair with chutzpah galore.
Not this time. This year, this game demands a little more reverence. Desperate teams call for desperate measures.
