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Game Essentials

Game: Brut Sun Bowl

Opponent: Stanford Cardinal (8-4)

Television: CBS

When: 1 p.m. Central Time, 12 p.m. Mountain Time

Where: Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, Texas

What’s on the line?

EL PASO, Texas — The Sooners are in pursuit of their first bowl victory since the 2005 Holiday Bowl against the Oregon Ducks, while the Stanford Cardinal are playing in their first bowl game since 2001.

Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh said a victory against OU would put his program on the map and Stanford would benefit from it over the next few years.

“We are looking at it as the most important game of the year,” Harbaugh said. “There’s an old cliché ‘you’re only as good as your last game,’ so we’re gonna live with this one now for the next nine, 10 months. There’s going to be a lot of recruits watching this game. There’s going to be a lot of people that will see Stanford football for the first time.”

Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops and many OU players said they are excited to be playing in the Sun Bowl and want to end the season on a high note.

A bowl win is a bowl win, and even though the Sun Bowl is not as prestigious of a bowl game as the Sooners have become accustomed to over the past decade, OU will be more than happy to return to Norman with a championship trophy.

The Sooners will win if … they can limit senior running back Toby Gerhart’s production and force Stanford’s offense to become one dimensional. The Cardinal will be without freshman quarterback Andrew Luck, who broke a finger in his right hand against Notre Dame, and are starting senior quarterback Tavita Pritchard. If the Sooners can force Pritchard to throw into their talented secondary and pressure him early and often, they should be able to hold Stanford’s high-powered offense in check.

Also, redshirt freshman quarterback Landry Jones and OU’s offense needs to improve upon their 16.2 points per road game average. They cannot rely on scoring one or two touchdowns even if the defense plays its best game.

The Cardinal will win if … Gerhart has the same kind of success against OU’s front seven that sent him to New York City for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Gerhart ran for 1,736 yards with 26 touchdowns this season and ran for more than 100 yards in 10 of Stanford’s 12 games. If he can run the ball successfully Thursday, then he will open up the offense for play-action passes and take pressure off of Pritchard.