Craven: Staggering lack of talk around Red River Showdown

[caption id="attachment_19286" align="alignright" width="300"]Photo by Justin Armstrong Photo by Justin Armstrong[/caption] The lack of buzz is a deafening silence. Texas takes on Oklahoma in the Red River Showdown on Saturday at the Cotton Bowl and no one seems to care. Growing up in Texas, that is hard to believe. Sure, the fan bases care because it is football and we always care about our own team’s success and failures, but the doom and gloom surrounding the Longhorn program makes the game seem like an afterthought to many around the state and the country. Texas made headlines this week by engaging in Twitter beef between some of the older Mack Brown recruits and the younger Charlie Strong recruits. There are 85 scholarship players on every team. Every team in the nation has a faction of players who don’t like each other. A football team is like a big extended family and we all know there are a few people in each of our families we don’t particularly like, but we deal with them and keep it inside closed doors. The Longhorns 1-4 record doesn’t help build buzz this season, but Texas/OU is still one of the great traditions in college football. Two teams from bordering states with long histories of success converge on the Texas Fairgrounds to enjoy fried food, trash talk and football. In many ways, it is the perfect illustration of what sports encompass in this nation. A win against Oklahoma can turn the Longhorn season around and cool the talk about a locker room divided and a head coach already on the hot seat just 18 games into his tenure. Smart people see the challenges Strong inherited by the old regime that left the program in a mess Darrell K. Royal couldn’t clean up in two seasons. My grandfather worked for the Texas football team for over 40 years. I spent my childhood traveling to south Dallas to watch the Sooners and the Longhorns go to battle on the football field. There are few things in football as beautiful as seeing half the stadium in burnt orange and the other half in crimson. Add a corn dog and it's heaven for a football fan. This year feels different and that is sad. The dark cloud following the Texas program is making the rivalry game an afterthought and the only Band-Aid available for Strong’s program is a victory.