Sooners sure to be hyped for Tech game in Norman

Oklahoma still has a slim chance to win the Big 12 South Division, and Sooners seniors will be playing their last home game Saturday.

Under most circumstances, that's reason enough for a Top 25 team to go play well.

It remains to be seen whether No. 17 OU will be extra motivated with Texas Tech coming to town for a game at 6 p.m. Saturday. After all, over the next few days, the Sooners are sure to see replays of Taurean Henderson's controversial last-play touchdown that gave the Red Raiders a 23-21 victory last year in Lubbock.

The Raiders say they aren't sure whether it'll have an effect.

"It's a long season,'' Tech linebacker Brent Slaughter said Monday. "You play a lot of games. In the Big 12 South, like coach (Mike) Leach always says, every game's a rivalry. So I'm sure they'll be hyped up for this one as much as any other one.''

In last year's game, with four seconds left and Tech at the Oklahoma 2-yard line, Tech quarterback Cody Hodges checked into a running play and handed to Henderson.

Oklahoma linebacker Rufus Alexander met Henderson a yard or more from the goal line, starting his fall, and Henderson lunged for the end zone. Officials signaled a touchdown and, after an agonizing wait for both teams, video replay officials upheld the TD.

The way the Sooners saw it, Henderson hit the ground first ... before he stretched the ball to break the plane.

That was just part of the crazy ending. There were three plays reviewed in the final 31 seconds and, whether right or wrong, OU fans seethed over the officials' spot on a fourth-and-3 pass to Danny Amendola that gave Tech a first down and over the Henderson touchdown.

Stoops

Tech coach Mike Leach downplayed the implications on this year's game.

"It's hard for me to speak to any of their motivations,'' Leach said. "You've got a lot of games like this. When they get done playing us, they've got to go play Oklahoma State. Before playing us, they had to play A&M at Kyle Field. At some point, you've got to make them all important, and I'm sure that's probably what their focus has been.''

Leach has insisted since the end of last year's game that all the calls were correct, saying things such as Henderson "still hasn't been tackled.''

"There's nothing controversial about last year's game,'' he said when reporters raised the subject again Monday. "There's some disappointment (on OU's behalf), but there's nothing controversial about it.''

Tech, which is 6-4 this season and 3-3 in the league, seems to have plenty to worry about, regardless of whether the Sooners hold any lingering grudge. OU has won four games in a row and has done just fine, thank you, without all-everything running back Adrian Peterson. Since Peterson went down Oct. 14 with a broken collarbone, his replacement, Allen Patrick, has been more than serviceable.

Leach

Patrick, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound junior from Conway, S.C., carried 32 times for a career-high 173 yards in Saturday's 17-16 victory at Texas A&M and scored a touchdown. It was his third consecutive 100-yard performance, coming on the heels of a 110-yard game against Colorado and a 162-yard afternoon at Missouri.

The Raiders, or just about any other defense in America, would rather take their chances with Patrick if the choice is him or Peterson.

Last year, Tech kept Peterson in check through three quarters, but he wound up with 108 yards and scored a go-ahead TD late in the game.

"That dude is some kind of good,'' Slaughter said. "It's real fun to play against a guy like that, because you know you're going to be watching him for a long time in the league (the NFL). I know he'll have success there. I can't say that we'll miss playing him, though.''