Ah, Saturday. You can always tell when the weekend's coming, because just like Christmas lights, soon the tents and RV's will start moving into Norman so early in the week that they never go away, but there's always the most come Friday night. They block off the duck pond parking lot, and some RV's even block the road (Brooks) north of the duck pond.

Billy Vessels lives on

OU had its first national championship in 1950. Around that time, OU also had its first Heisman trophy winner. Now, OU has another first after this weekend - its first "Heisman Park," starting with a statue in honor of the legendary running back. From the sound of the dedication ceremony on Friday, Sooner fans should be expecting a new statue of a Heisman winner every year... for at least the next three (for Steve Owens, Billy Sims, Jason White) years, if there should be no other Heismans headed the Sooner's way.

Another early kickoff

At least it's a half hour later. Come 11:30 a.m., the Sooner Schooner left the field led by the OU Ruf/Neks and the Sooners kicked off against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

Sooners #1 foe: the sun

What happened to the fans from last week seated in section 26? How about 22? 12? 8? 102? If one were to visit all of these sections, and virtually every section in the stadium, he or she would have no problem finding an open seat. Perhaps it was due to OU's 10-17 loss to Texas Christian University's Horned Frogs last week, but as the stadium looked emptier and emptier (especially section 26, the northernmost student section) as the game carried on, the most likely culprit was the weather. Despite the sun, More than 83,700 fans showed up, marking another sold-out stadium.

Student section

Ever since last season, the front-row student fans always have white t-shirts with a Superman logo "S" in red. Some of them had facepaint, some had wigs, some even had capes with "OU" on the back. However, the entire student section received crimson foam #1 fingers, a la "OU chant" style, similar to the ones fans received at last year's OU/Texas game.

Visiting team

This wasn't last week's purple-clad Frog fans. The Golden Hurricane faithful brought cheerleaders and a pep band and a few hundred fans wearing blue. For the brief moment Tulsa led 9-7, this section almost sounded louder than the rest of the stadium. They stayed the entire game, applauding their spirit groups and team as they left the stadium.

Deja vu?

Just like last week, the Carl's Jr. field goal for $1000 and a Bob Stoops autographed football didn't go through the uprights. However, another double-take for fans occurred when OU's and Tulsa's marching bands played the exact same song, "El Toro," for each of their respective halftime shows.

When it was over

Whenever the heat got to you, or after Adrian Peterson's amazing scoring run with about 3 minutes left. A majority of fans stayed until that exciting play, but more and more left as more timeouts were called by Tulsa in the closing minutes.

Final score:

OU: 31

Tulsa: 15
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