Oklahoma has a Texas problem, and I’m not just talking about the Longhorns.
Dating back to the 2013 regular season, OU is just 4-4 in road or neutral site conference games in the state of Texas. If home games are included, the Sooners record against Texas squads improves to just 6-5.
In the five years prior, those numbers were much more favorable to OU. The Sooners notched winning percentages of 62 percent and 70 percent against Texas schools on the road and overall, respectively.
There are several points over the last 15 years that could account for this slight, but noticeable, shift in power. The most obvious is conference realignment.
It’s not just the fact that the Big 12 lost Texas A&M, Colorado and Missouri and replaced them with West Virginia and TCU.
But when that happened, two teams — TCU and Texas A&M — saw a significant upgrade in conference affiliation. That, coupled with the rise of Baylor and the steadiness of Texas on the recruiting trail, meant a smaller player pool for OU to pick from in the state of Texas.
And while the Longhorns are likely to blame for the loss of Texas A&M and Nebraska, the Sooners are indirectly responsible for TCU being in position to join the conference.
It was 2005. Oklahoma was coming off of a national title appearance in which it was thrashed 55-19 by USC. Its opening game that season was against the lowly Horned Frogs.
Head coach Gary Patterson was entering his fifth season as the boss in Fort Worth. In the previous four seasons, he amassed a 32-16 record and one bowl win. Objectively, it was the best period in school history.
The No. 7 Sooners fell 17-10 to TCU in Norman on that first Saturday in September. Quarterback Paul Thompson turned in just 109 passing yards. Adrian Peterson managed just 63 yards on the ground.
That was the Horned Frogs’ introduction on a national stage, and 10 years later, Oklahoma is still feeling the effects.
“For us, it meant people started to take notice,” Patterson said.
TCU made sure of that. The Horned Frogs won 11 games in 2005 and in 2006. After an eight-win campaign in 2008, they kept the momentum going with four straight seasons of 11 or more wins, including a 13-0 season featuring a Rose Bowl win in 2010.
A year after that Rose Bowl victory, TCU accepted an invitation to join the Big 12.
“It was a challenge winning the Rose Bowl … and there’s been a lot of people that told us we couldn’t do a lot of different things,” Patterson said in 2010. “I do believe that if the Big 12 did not feel like we would be competitive in the league, then they wouldn’t have asked us.”
Oh, TCU has been competitive all right. After a pair of adjustment seasons, the Horned Frogs are now sitting at nine wins with two games left on the schedule. Until an injury, quarterback Trevone Boykin was leading the Heisman discussion.
And while that victory over Oklahoma isn’t solely responsible for the rise of TCU, it was the first thing in a string of events that put the Sooners and Horned Frogs in the same conference.
“Well 2005 was 10 years ago, so a lot of different players, a lot of different things but obviously it helped us kind of to come onto the scene,” Patterson said. “The thing I think what’s helped TCU the most is that we’re started being able to make a name four ourselves and you know we’re still climbing that mountain.”
For one, TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte had some work to do. He drove down to Austin to meet with then-Texas AD Deloss Dodds. The two spoke for five hours.
The next morning, TCU had secured an invite to the Big 12. Ironically it was Sooners AD Joe Castiglione who gave Del Conte the good news.
“I don’t know what you did, but it worked,” Castiglione told him. “We got the vote. The Frogs are in.”
Ten years later, OU will again face TCU as a big favorite, but this time, the stakes are even larger. The loser will be eliminated from a shot at a conference title and, in OU’s case, a berth in the College Football Playoff.
The Sooners can thank themselves for that.
