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Oklahoma, in what has become an annual tradition, has once again slipped out of the national title race with a shocking loss to a vastly less talented conference foe.
Over at Crimson and Cream Machine, Joe Esco is seeing a pattern, and he's not liking it:
If nothing is done and serious changes are not made, what OU fans witnessed Texas go through will seem like a vacation compared to where I believe this program is teetering on the edge of, which is potentially a complete disaster.
Indeed, the complaints voiced about Texas in 2010 -- complacency from the players and the coaches, lacking an offensive identity, failure to game-plan to the strengths of their team -- are quite similar to the ones being voiced about Oklahoma in 2012.
Here's the kicker to his story though:
There have been signs that the recruiting is no longer on the same level as it used to be. Whether it was the coaches waving of the metaphorical white flag by conceding the top Texas recruits, players they used to fight tooth and nail for, to the Longhorns then being happy with the leftovers. Or the shift away from what has always been the lifeblood of the program, Texas recruits, to a more national approach. Or the now evident struggle to acquire commitments from top targets at positions of need. Things have slipped and when it comes to recruiting, it does not take much of one to make a noticeable impact throughout an entire program and rarely, if ever, is that impact a positive one.
Stoops has made a living plucking players like Adrian Peterson out of Texas and bringing them north of the Red River. If he's incapable or unwilling to do that anymore, that could be a serious problem for OU.