'09 BIG XII Championship Preview: OU v. Nebraska

Arlington, TX--Maybe it was meant to be. Oklahoma and Nebraska in the Big XII Championship game seems more like old-school college football than seeing Kansas, Missouri or other teams from the North there. It only seems right for Nebraska to be good. Same for Oklahoma. Current Cornhusker head coach Bo Pelini is a former Oklahoma assistant coach. He was a co-defesnsive c oordinator for the Sooners in 2004 and helped the team win the Big XII Championship as well as a spot in the national championship game against USC (L, 19-55).

Pelini has moved on as have the Sooners. The coach has revived the proud Nebraska program and has them back in the double digit win category. The Sooners have keep steaming along having gone 52-14 since Pelini's departure. The Sooners and Huskers met in the 2009 regular season with the Sooners handing the Huskers their only loss so far when they beat them on November 7th by a score of 31-28. The game really wasn't that close. A B. Kinnie touchdown reception from Zach Lee in the fourth quarter with 55 seconds left pulled the Huskers within 3 of the Sooners and that is where the scoring would stop. Nebraska went on to win the rest of their games while Oklahoma did the same until they met up with Oklahoma State on November 28th and lost, 33-52.

The rematch in Arlington, TX at Dallas Cowboys Stadium should be another fairly close game. Oklahoma comes into the game without the services of Sam Bradford and Jermaine Gresham while Nebraska will be without right tackle Marcel Jones (dislocated shoulder) and most likely will not have running back Quentin Castille due to his broken hand. Castille is listed as "questionable".

Nebraska sits at #8 in the BCS rankings while Oklahoma sits just behind them at #9. On paper it appears the Sooners may be too much for the Huskers to handle, esp. considering the game in Arlington might as well be Norman South due to how well the Sooner Nation travels to games and especially to championship games. Nebraska knows all too well about the talent that stands on the Sooner sidelines but when one looks at the season's statistics, it's the Huskers who have had the better season, in wins/losses as well as pure numbers. As a matter of fact, the only area the Sooners have bettered the Huskers is in total passing yards (3942 to 3225). Nebraska has put together better numbers in all other categories.

Fans and media expect a great game. The winner of this game is assured of a BCS bowl game to end their season while the loser will play in one of the Big XII non-BCS bowl games. Good luck!