OU football: Big-time football is back

Big-time football, on both sidelines, returns to the old stadium on Jenkins Street today after an eight-year hiatus.

Through quirks in scheduling and old-fashioned bad luck, epic showdowns have avoided Owen Field like a bill collector.

But now comes a game — OU-Texas Tech — that smacks of the old Big Red battles with the Sooners and Nebraska.

Late November. Conference supremacy. National stakes.

To celebrate, even the air bites shrewdly, after a deep Indian Summer, announcing that this game is different.

"It’s business as usual,” Bob Stoops said, "but let me tell you, there still is a vibe of excitement. Everybody realizes the importance of the game.”

Just in case he’s wrong about that, a quick refresher. Second-ranked Texas Tech, 10-0, stays on a national-championship track with a victory. No. 5 OU, 9-1, gets back on a national-championship track with a victory, though it’s a little more convoluted.

Plus you’ve got the Heisman duel between Tech’s Graham Harrell and OU’s Sam Bradford, the coaching ties between Stoops and Tech’s Mike Leach, the side story of the Texas Longhorns, who are cheering like mad for the hated Sooners and a three-way tie in the Big 12 South.

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