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  March 13, 2018 10:13 PM PDT

  FORT WORTH, Texas -- ?? While Oklahoma gets a fresh start in pursuit of its 10th Big 12 title, coach Bob Stoops doesnt expect the Sooners to have to change their focus after two September losses pretty much ended their playoff hopes. Cheap Blue Jays Jerseys China .We havent performed as well as we need to, Stoops said. But to say, all of a sudden, Oh, now were going to get focused and try harder, I dont believe that. Our guys have been working hard. We need to execute better, I get that, but guys have been putting in the effort ahead of this.The Sooners (1-2) play their Big 12 opener Saturday at No. 21 TCU after their early losses to second-ranked Ohio State and sixth-ranked Houston.The morale is great, Oklahoma receiver Mark Andrews said.In the same media preseason poll that had Oklahoma as the Big 12 favorite, the Horned Frogs (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) were picked to finish second.While TCU gained national attention with a 2005 season-opening win at then-No. 7 Oklahoma while in the Mountain West Conference, this will be the fifth Big 12 meeting between the two schools. The Sooners lost 37-33 in their last trip to Fort Worth two years ago, and won the other three league matchups by a combined 11 points.Everybody wants a trophy. In order to get the trophy, you have to get a piece of their trophy, TCU defensive end Josh Carraway said. Right now, Oklahoma has the Big 12 trophy, and weve got to take it from them.Some things to know when Oklahoma and TCU play:MAYFIELD AND PATTERSONWhen asked at the Orange Bowl last year which team disappointed him the most in recruiting, Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield said TCU kind of drug it out and never offered a scholarship while he turned down other offers. Mayfield then went to Texas Tech and became the first true freshman walk-on quarterback to start a season opener for an FBS school, then transferred to Oklahoma after one season. TCU coach Gary Patterson took a different tone than in December when responding this week, saying, Im past it. Hes in a great place, and wishing him luck. Mayfield said, All that last year got blown out of proportion, so thats way in the past.SPREAD IT AROUNDNew TCU starting quarterback Kenny Hill has completed passes to 16 different receivers, including 11 in the SMU game. Hes a hard guy to get a hold of when hes running around, Stoops said of the dual-threat quarterback. That and the ability to spread the ball around as much as they do in the throwing game.SOME STREAKS AND NUMBERSThe Sooners havent lost consecutive games since October 1999, Stoops first season. Theyve won 35 consecutive regular-season games following a loss. ... TCU has at least one sack in a school-record 34 consecutive games. Only Ohio State has a longer active streak (38). ... Oklahoma has won seven consecutive true road games since losing at TCU two years ago. ... In a 33-3 win at SMU last week, TCU didnt allow a touchdown for the first time since 2014.TIGER TURNED FROGWR John Diarse, an LSU graduate transfer classified as a football junior, has 13 catches the last two games for TCU -- he had 28 in two seasons for the Tigers. Diarse was sidelined briefly last week after a hard hit that led to a targeting penalty and ejection for an SMU defender. Diarse returned and caught to catch a 75-yard TD pass on the first play after halftime. When he took a shot in the end zone, a lot of guys would have taken themselves out of the ballgame, Patterson said. He represents what youre trying to get to as a football team. Youve got a guy whos tough, mature.DFW DOUBLEAfter its conference opener in Fort Worth, the Sooners will return to the Dallas-Fort Worth area the following Saturday. They play No. 22 Texas in the annual Red River rivalry game at the State Fair of Texas, about 40 miles away in Dallas. Oklahoma split that two-step in 2014.---AP college football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org Cheap MLB Jerseys Authentic . Varlamov made 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal and scored in the shootout as the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night. Roberto Osuna Jersey . Vettel, who has already clinched his fourth straight F1 title, enters the finale with a chance to equal Michael Schumachers 13 victories in a year and match the record of nine consecutive wins by Alberto Ascari in the 1952 and 1953 seasons. http://www.cheapbluejaysjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-josh-donaldson-jersey .com) - The Pittsburgh Penguins placed forward James Neal on injured reserve Tuesday. It is a good time to be an All Blacks fan, weve got nothing to complain about really.It was good to see a contest in Hamilton last weekend and I thought the Argentinians did themselves proud for 50 minutes. But the impact of the bench and the class of the All Blacks to weather the storm and come through was quite pleasing to see.I enjoyed the game and it was great to see someone like Julian Savea find some form again. Once again Beauden Barrett was a class act and Ryan Crotty had a great game. Ben Smith just keeps on producing.Argentina were always going to target the All Blacks up front. They are big and strong and pride themselves on their set-piece. They like it in close and I think the frustrating thing for Aaron Smith was that they targeted in and around the fringes and they picked him out a few times.Really, running at Aaron Smith is something that should never happen in a game, you should always protect your half-back around those areas. But they certainly got through which means they broke some tackles.And when TJ Perenara came on for Smith he showed that he is as strong as many forwards. He can weather that sort of close quarter battle, hes a nuggety; a very powerful half-back. It was probably better suited for Perenara against the Pumas and if you get an opportunity in that environment, and they are few and far between, you take them with two hands.I always felt he was No.2 and he has had a great year and his form towards the end of Super Rugby was outstanding. It did seem when the side was first selected that Tawera Kerr-Barlow was favoured ahead of him, but I would have picked Perenara to be clearly the No.2 and he certainly proved it at the weekend.The planning that is going on in and around talent identification and bringing players through is a science in itself, but I think the All Blacks coaches are proving theyve got a really good grasp on not just the All Blacks in 2016 and looking at 2017, they are looking for the next World Cup and probably beyond which is something that has never really happened before.If you look at yesteryear and the way things used to work, youd get an All Blacks coach come in probably for a tenure of four years and then you would change him. There was always a call for his head and someone else to take over if you go through the Grizz Wyllies, the John Harts, the Laurie Mains. You can go all the way back for decades when there was always the case of: Who is the next All Blacks coach going to be?Now its more business orientated and if you look at Steve Hansen he is like a CEO with deputies around him. That means his job is not under threat and hes clearly developing. This goes as far back as Graham Henry because Henry always advocated helping to develop his deputies.He did that with Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith and it created a situation where any one of those three coaches could have been the All Blacks coach. Henry made everyone take ownership of that role and now Steve Hansen has carried on that momentum. It just seems to be a really professional way of running a sports team.Look at every other country. Michael Cheika has just come in after Ewen McKenzie. You can look at the woes of the South Africa coaches they have had over the last 10 years.New Zealand, by comparison, has got stability and business is good and growing. The structture in and around the management, and while nothing is perfect, it is as close to perfect as you can get. Russell Martin Jersey. The New Zealand rugby public also seems much more attuned to what is going on, especially when you compare the All Blacks with the Warriors who now have another new coach. What the All Blacks have is something the rest of the world will be obviously jealous of: leadership.Its good management, professionalism and this goes right up to Steve Tew, the chief executive of New Zealand Rugby. He should take a real bow over whats been created with the on-field performance because at the end of the day hes the CEO and he has so much trust in Steve Hansen who is delivering on every front.Those guys are going to work with no monkeys on their backs, theyve got a clear job in hand and theyre developing deputies. Theyre actually thriving.It is a sport, but if this was business they could be described as raking in the profits because of the development they are doing in the form of players.So far as South Africa this weekend is concerned I dont know if we can expect much more than what we have already seen out of South Africa. Theyve got some injury woes and in the locking department they are two players out already. And Willem Alberts coming in, he is the sort of crash-and-bash player, the arm wrestle-type rugby player and thats what South Africa will look at.They will see what Argentina did and where they can put some pressure on the All Blacks. They will try and replicate that because it is, and always has been, a good part of their game. That arm wrestle type rugby is what theyre good at and Argentina showed theres a fat mans track right down the middle and if you can crack that and create something off it you can find holes in the All Blacks defence.They always rise to the play the All Blacks; theyre our greatest foe. Were going to get a Springboks team that will believe they can beat the All Blacks because unlike Argentina, there is no monkey on their backs. Theyve beaten the All Blacks time and time again over the years, although it hasnt been in recent years, but theyll be wanting to chance their arm and do their best.Ultimately, though, I think the All Blacks have got way too much firepower and they know what the Springboks will deliver and they will have done work on where Argentina exposed them.Its one thing analysing how the All Blacks got exposed last week but its another thing expecting the All Blacks to run out and let those sorts of errors occur again. They will have been well and truly addressed now and if youre looking one week behind it is too late in the All Blacks environment.One final point regarding the Chiefs post-season dramas, I think as a parent if there is any lesson that came out of that I sat my 16-year-old boy down and showed him exactly what could happen. I think if every parent in New Zealand could take some lessons out of it and pass that knowledge on then that is the only way we are going to change the culture in our community.It is a community issue, not just a rugby isolated issue, and I think whenever something bad goes on thats the best time to learn and pass on to those who are in the best position to learn. ' ' '