Steve Silverman

Pressure.

It is squarely on the shoulders of Gary Pinkel and the Missouri Tigers as they prepare to face Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game on Saturday.

The Tigers have had a brilliant season and by virtue of last week’s win in the Border War over Kansas, they deserve to be ranked No. 1 and a chance to play the Sooners. But it has been a sudden, swift climb up the ladder. Not only to win the conference but to have a chance at playing for the national championship in January.

As well as Chase Daniel and Martin Rucker have played this season, now they are in with the big boys. The Sooners have been there before and Mizzou knows it. Tiger defensive tackle Lorenzo Williams acknowledged the experience edge Oklahoma has, saying the Sooners have “played in 20,000 or 30,000 championship games.”

Perhaps a slight exaggeration. However, the Sooners have played in 5 Big 12 championship games in the last eight years and they have won 4 of them. The Tigers are looking for their first conference football title (Big 12 or Big 8) in 38 years.

The moment will not make cowards of the Sooners. They already know their lines.

The opportunity is there for the Tigers to step up and become stars. But it is also an opportunity to show that they don’t belong. How do they know that failure is not around the corner? They haven’t been there before and they have to prove it to themselves as well as their competition.

If that wasn’t enough, they will have to contend with the shadow of Ohio State. If Youngstown, Ohio native Bob Stoops and his crew can stop the Tigers, the Buckeyes will be the likely beneficiary and get a chance to play West Virginia in the national championship game.

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A former Youngstown State head coach by the name of Jim Tressel will be among the Sooners’ biggest supporters. The Ohio State head coach will be going for his second national title in his seventh season if Stoops and his players have their way.

But even if the Tigers play their best game in San Antonio, it may still be Oklahoma’s day. The Sooners won when the two teams met in Norman on Oct. 31. The 41-31 score indicates that both teams moved the ball well and more offensive fireworks are likely at the Alamodome.

Stoops is not taking anything for granted, but his team has won 9 of its last 10 and they have confidence against Missouri. He does not think his team played anywhere near its best game in the first meeting with the Tigers and his team still managed a 10-point win.

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“They’re a good team, we recognize that, but we feel that we match up well with them obviously in all parts of the game,” Stoops said. “We think we can play better than we did in the first game.”

On the other hand, the Tigers believe they should have won the first game. They had four turnovers, including a late fumble returned for a touchdown. That and three Chris Brown touchdown runs gave the Sooners the win, but the Tigers are confident that they can take the rematch because they believe they are ready for the big stage and they have running back Tony Temple, who was out against Oklahoma the first time around with an ankle injury.