On Sale at Newsstands Sept. 5!

Hello there, and welcome to another season at the corner of Lindsey and Jenkins. Judging from the weather, we have skipped over September and proceeded straight to October, which is just as well. Given that we have had something like 37 days over 100 degrees this summer, I fully expected an all-out steam bath for the opener, much like the UTEP game in 2000, where the kickoff temperature was in the area of 106 degrees.

I was running slightly late to the game, and was disturbed when I got in there and the first thing I saw on the big screen was some sort of weird weather report from Gary England that ended with his head digitally Frankensteined onto Josh Heupel’s body. I could have done without seeing that.

Kudos to the guys at Digital Image who put together the pregame videos. The “There’s only one Oklahoma� tagline has legs, and they put it together better this season. I particularly liked them leading off with Jack Mildren saying “There’s only one Paul Thompson.� Obviously an edit, of course, after Rhett Bomar knuckleheaded his way off the team, but very classy.

They also avoided any head-scratchers like last season’s “There’s only one Bubba Moses,� accompanied by footage of one of the few passes Moses caught in his Sooner career.
Speaking of the aforementioned knucklehead, and he will only be spoken of briefly, he’s lucky that the University didn’t charge him for all the money he cost them just in wasted printing.
Word on the street was that the Sooner media guide, which was already partially printed, was scrapped and redone to expunge him and J.D. Quinn therefrom.

Between that and the posters that had to be reprinted, the price tag number I heard bandied about was in the neighborhood of 40 large.
I don’t know if they just weren’t paying attention, or they do things differently in Alabama, or what, but the UAB cheerleaders with their big flags did something before the game I’ve never seen before. They were standing in the southwest ramp to run out and lead the team onto the field. Ran out they did, but by themselves. The team didn’t start onto the field until the cheerleaders had already found their way all the way over to the southeast corner, where they were stationed.

Now for the game itself. To be honest, the way it played out didn’t really surprise me. We always seem to struggle in season openers, and while it certainly wasn’t a work of art, it beats the heck out of losing, which was what happened this time last year.

Read the entire Road Warrior Column in the Sept. 5 issue of Sooner Spectator, on sale Tuesday at newsstands!