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EL PASO, Texas – If the Sooners want to end their three-game bowl drought, they are going to have to find a way to make the Stanford Cardinal’s offense one dimensional in the Brut Sun Bowl Thursday.

But the catch-22 to that concept is that OU is going to have to do something few teams were able to do this season: shut down Stanford’s Heisman-runner-up Toby Gerhart.

Gerhart put together one of the most impressive seasons by any running back in recent history by rushing for 1,736 yards with 26 touchdowns. In Stanford’s 12 games he eclipsed the 150-yard mark four times, which is twice as many times he was held to fewer than 100 yards.

“Going into the season we said that 2,000 yards was what we’re shooting for, and most of us just kind of laughed,” Gerhart said. “I never really thought about the Heisman, but at the back of your mind that’s something you’re always thinking about. I never really envisioned it being there.”

Slowing Gerhart down is going to be a difficult task, but if the Sooners’ stingy defense plays up to form then there is a realistic shot of keeping the Cardinal off the scoreboard.

Stanford will be without the services of freshman quarterback Andrew Luck, who is out with a broken right hand, and will start senior quarterback Tavita Pritchard. Pritchard started 19 games and threw for 2,747 yards with 25 touchdowns and 22 interceptions for the Cardinal before losing the starting quarterback position to Luck.

“We have a lot of confidence in Tavita Pritchard and total confidence in the ways he is going to perform and play,” Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh said. “[Playing Pritchard] hasn’t changed our approach at all.”

Harbaugh’s confidence in the fifth-year senior may not be enough to beat OU’s pass defense. The defense is ranked No. 22 in the nation, so Gerhart said he has no objections to running the ball 30 or 40 times against the Sooners’ No. 7 rush defense.

“Whatever it takes to win,” Gerhart said. “Forty carries, 30 carries, as long as I can keep running we’ll keep doing it.”

The Sooners’ defense said it is ready to face a challenge like Gerhart, but it is going to have to prove its mettle if it wants to make Pritchard a key component to the Sun Bowl. Whatever happens, it should be an exciting matchup between a power runner and a stout defensive front seven.

“When you start talking about our run game versus their run defense it’s quite apparent to us that this is a game where we’re going to out scheme our opponent,” Harbaugh said. “Their first two, three steps into the gaps are very, very explosive; very impressive front seven.”