Oklahoma has developed a consistent M.O. under Bob Stoops: run roughshod through the Big 12 in the regular season and conference title game, then fall flat on its face in a major bowl. Only the Vince Young-fueled Texas juggernaut of 2005 has kept the Sooners from BCS relevance throughout virtually all of this decade.

The Longhorns can again derail OU’s national hopes this weekend, but to date no one has even remotely given the Sooners a test this season. Baylor was the latest to collapse under the weight of the country’s top-ranked team, and with No. 3 Missouri not on Oklahoma’s regular-season schedule, Stoops’ machine could well roll into the Big 12 title game - very possibly against Mizzou - undefeated and seemingly untouchable.

We’ve seen this before, obviously. But will this year be more like 2000 (national championship) or 2003 (embarrassing Big 12 title game loss to Kansas State) or 2004 (Orange Bowl demolition at the hands of USC)? We’ll know a lot more after they’re finished with Texas.

Nashville Now

Speaking of finished, how about Auburn’s tryst with the spead offense? Tommy Tuberville decided (wink, wink) to try the new attack after the Tigers struggled under former offensive coordinator Al Borges, who helped lead them to a 14-0 season in 2004. Probably didn’t hurt, in retrospect, that Jason Campbell, Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown were in the backfield, come to think of it.

Regardless, Auburn’s lack of punch last year was laid at the feet of Borges, and Tuberville turned to coaching vagabond Tony Franklin, considered a pioneer of the spread and in exile at Troy (Ala.) after a bitter divorce years earlier at Kentucky with Hal Mumme.

The results, such as a 3-2 win at Mississippi State, have often read more like English Premier League agate than SEC clashes, and last weekend’s 14-13 loss at Vanderbilt - Vanderbilt? - was clearly the last straw. Tuberville has vowed to return to a power running game (which anyone else with backs of Auburn’s caliber would never have scrapped in the first place) to climb back to respectability with Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama looming.

The reality is that the loss to the Commodores probably had at least as much to do with unbeaten Vandy as anything else, but the head coach at least is apparently seeing the (enormous) error of his ways.