College Football | Texas coach Mack Brown's legacy secure

AUSTIN, Texas — For 40 minutes, Texas coach Mack Brown looked relaxed, cracked a few jokes and talked about his players, his wife and whether he's ever had a corny dog at the State Fair of Texas.

For the record, he hasn't. The only corn dog he's had was back in his hometown of Cookeville, Tenn.

What he doesn't have to talk about any more is his legacy and the ugly losing streak that dominated the Texas-Oklahoma series for five years.

From 2001 to 2005, the Monday before Texas played Oklahoma had to be one of the worst days of his entire year as Brown faced reporters and the tough questions about why he couldn't seem to get one over on the Sooners and coach Bob Stoops.

That might as well be ancient history now. With two wins in the past three years and a national championship in 2005, the ugly past has been put to rest.

All that matters now is the No. 1 Sooners (5-0, 1-0 Big 12) vs. the No. 5 Longhorns (5-0, 1-0), the quarterback battle between Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy, the game's impact on the national-championship race, the Heisman Trophy, the Big 12 and just about everything else.

In fact, he even started talking about it while the Longhorns were walking off the field last week after beating Colorado.

"We'll have everybody in America talking about the game," Brown said, "and that's what we want."

The old Brown would have insisted fans give his team a chance to enjoy the victory. The new Brown was talking about what a big game it was and breezily spoke about Oklahoma deserving the No. 1 ranking. He all but said, "Bring 'em on."

It was a five-game losing streak — including two horrific losses — that had turned the rivalry into a college-football soap opera with Brown as the melodramatic lead. Oklahoma's wins of 63-14 in 2000 and 65-13 in 2003 embarrassed him and the Texas program.

The series was so one-sided that, in Austin at least, it elevated Stoops into a mythic figure who couldn't be defeated.

Asked this week about his 6-3 record against Brown, Stoops dodged any direct comparison between the coaches.

"It's overall players. They have talented guys and we have talented guys, and we've been able to come through and make some more plays in some instances to get a victory," Stoops said. "I don't think that any one year relates to another. You've got to go earn it each time. Fortunately, we've been able to come out on top a few times."

No. 21 Wake Forest prevails

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Riley Skinner threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Boldin with 5:28 left to help No. 21 Wake Forest beat Clemson 12-7 on Thursday night.

Skinner was 22 of 34 for 186 yards and led the decisive 15-play, 78-yard drive in the fourth quarter for the Demon Deacons (4-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference). Wake Forest outgained Clemson 342-198 to snap a two-game losing streak in the series and remain the only Atlantic Division team with a perfect conference record.

Shane Popham — starting in place of injured kicker Sam Swank — had field goals of 22 and 32 yards for Wake Forest, and a dominant defense held the Tigers' vaunted ground game to 21 yards rushing on 23 carries.

Cullen Harper was 15 of 35 for 177 yards with an interception for Clemson (3-3, 1-2) in the Tigers' second straight loss. His 10-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Ford with seven seconds left in the third quarter put Clemson up 7-3.

Clemson running back James Davis finished with 25 yards, 50 below his average, while backfield mate C.J. Spiller had just 10 yards on two carries before injuring his left leg in the second quarter. The Tigers were just 2 of 14 on third downs.

Notes

• USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, who has a bone bruise on his left knee, went through a full session of practice and appears on track to start against Arizona State on Saturday. "It looks promising," USC coach Pete Carroll said.

• A day after firing offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said tight-ends coach Steve Ensminger will call plays for the remainder of the season.