Oklahoma-Texas was high-level drama. How about an encore?

Confetti from a college football weekend.

Dillon Gabriel

Those who count the money and the clicks and the TV ratings at Southeastern Conference headquarters remain happy with the upcoming arrival of Texas and Oklahoma.

Those who must assemble football teams to compete with them do not.

The Longhorns and Sooners seem destined to turn their farewell Big 12 season into the most memorable since Texas’ Vince Young skipped his way to a BCS national championship in 2005. Their annual snarlfest at Dallas’ Cotton Bowl was one of those games that overloads the mind and exhausts the nerves, all the way down to the final Hail Mary, which the Longhorns’ Quinn Ewers somehow heaved into the end zone while he was being hit, yet again.

Oklahoma knocked down the ball and the Longhorns’ chances of an undefeated season, winning 34-30. The Sooners remained unbeaten, and second-year head coach Brent Venables continued to douse the fires of a disappointing 2022. But this is not where the story ends. It’s extremely likely that Oklahoma and Texas will qualify for the Big 12 championship game, and the winner of that, barring any other losses, would be able to submit a shiny application to the College Football Playoff selection committee.

Summarizing this one would take a dissertation. Ewers threw interceptions on his first two series and was sacked five times overall. He still went 31 for 37, and Texas didn’t have to punt after the first period.

The Longhorns got a touchdown by blocking a punt, but couldn’t get a touchdown from the Oklahoma one-yard-line. But in the fourth quarter, Jonathan Brooks burst for a 29-yard touchdown and Bert Auburn kicked a field goal. Texas led 30-27 with fewer than two minutes left, and the Sooners had no time outs.

But Dillon Gabriel, the high-mileage OU quarterback, only needs a crack in the portal to change locations or a crack in the door to win games. Gabriel quickly competed three passes, all for first downs, including a 28-yarder to Drake Stoops, whose dad coached a few large games for the Sooners in his time. After a Texas pass interference penalty, the Sooners put wide receiver Nic Anderson in motion, moved him from right to left and into the left corner of the end zone. Gabriel lobbed the six-yard game winner to Anderson, whose dad Rodney scored a few touchdown for Stoops’ dad in his time, too.

“Oh, my,” said center Andrew Waym. “That was like a movie scene.”

Massive transfers would seem to fray college football’s fabric, especially when it comes to bloodlines. But Gabriel, who grew up in Hawaii, will be a Sooner forever. He came to Oklahoma last year as a pinball, bounced from stem to stern by the decisions of those around him.

Gabriel had committed to the U.S. Military Academy. McKenzie Milton, who had found his way to Central Florida from Hawaii, convinced Gabriel to follow him. Gabriel played with distinction there, and when it came time for his eye to wander, he showed up at UCLA. He expected Dorian Thompson-Robinson to turn pro, and not return for yet another year (no truth to the rumor that DTR actually ran the single wing for Red Sanders).

But when DTR decided to return, Gabriel figured UCLA coach Chip Kelly would pick the most comfortable option, a Bruin veteran instead of a stranger. Then Lincoln Riley migrated from Oklahoma to USC, and Caleb Williams decided to follow. That opened the way for Gabriel to come to Norman.

Oklahoma had come to expect its quarterbacks to hold Heisman trophies. It also expected winning. The Sooners in 2022 went 6-7, their first losing record since 1998. They lost to Texas, 49-0, with Gabriel hurt. From that day to this one has been a hard vigil. Linebacker Jason Kanak called it “364 days of disrespect.”

But in the end they pushed Florida State hard in their bowl game, losing 35-32, and in fact had five losses within the margin of a touchdown. That doesn’t cut much ice in Oklahoma, but Venables had been Bob Stoops’ defensive coordinator before he helped Clemson win national championships, and now he is taking advantage of his mulligan.

The Sooners are plus-11 in turnover margin and have 15 takeaways, and in six games they have given up just seven touchdowns. They got through the late stages of the Texas game without two of their starters in the secondary. But in the end they had to have quarterbacking magic to escape, and Gabriel had been a mystery to Texas all day. He ran for 115 yards in 14 carries Saturday, and completed 23 of 38 passes.

“This was a tough day for us last year,” Venables said. “My hands are all over that. But there are no limits to what we do the rest of the way and no excuses, either. We have everything we need. My message was, celebrate hard but don’t celebrate long.”

Next year the Red River Rivalry will be a different conference game. The SEC may find it hard to celebrate.

Other confetti:

Louisville 33, Notre Dame 20

— When coach Scott Satterield left for Cincinnati last year, Louisville didn’t need consultants to identify a candidate. Jeff Brohm was Louisville’s quarterback when Howard Schnellenberger got Louisville’s program rolling, and his brother Brian played there, too. Brohm came from Purdue and Brian is his offensive coordinator, and the Cardinals are 6-0. On Saturday a stadium-record crowd of 59,081 watched them throttle Notre Dame.

— Louisville sacked Irish quarterback Sam Hartman four times and picked him off three times. The game was tied 10-10 until Jawhar Jordan, a transfer from Syracuse, ran 45 yards for a third quarter touchdown.

— Notre Dame (3-2) plays host to USC next week. For the Cardinals, an unbeaten regular season isn’t a fever dream. They do not play ACC powers Florida State, North Carolina or Clemson.

USC 43, Arizona 41 (3 OT)

— Caleb Williams didn’t light up the L.A. Coliseum with his passing. Instead he ran for three touchdowns and kept his cool as USC threatened to self-destruct, eventually keeping the Trojans undefeated.

— Williams ran for the final 2-point conversion, and Mason Cobb broke up Arizona’s 2-point bid, to lower Arizona’s record to 3-3. But in many ways it was a promising night for the Wildcats, who led USC 17-0, fell behind 28-20 and then put the game into overtime when Noah Fifita, the backup quarterback, hit Jacob Cowing with a 3-yard touchdown adn then Tetairoa McMillan with a conversion.

— Williams had only 14 completions for 219 yards, as the Wildcats unleashed a stout pass rush in the first half. Arizona committed 12 penalties, including two roughing-the-passer calls that energized USC. It was far from a clean win, however, and would have been a humiliating loss, mainly because USC had first-and-goal from the one-yard-line to win in regulation before Williams was forced to recover his own fumble, and a bad snap foiled a game-winning field goal try.

Georgia Tech 23, Miami 20

– In 1978, Giants quarterback Joe Pisarcik could have taken a knee and preserved a win over Philadelphia. Instead he tried a handoff and botched it, and Herman Edwards picked up the ball and ran to the 19-17 win. It became known as Moby Fumble and the Miracle Of The Meadowlands. It hadn’t been seen again until Saturday, when Donald Chaney took Tyler Van Pelt’s handoff and fumbled to Georgia Tech with :24 left. Haynes King made the Hurricanes pay with a 44-yard game winner to Christian Leary, who was pelted with plastic bottles from the fans of the U.

— The Hiccup at Hard Rock lowered Miami’s record to 4-1, and the Hurricanes still have to play North Carolina, Clemson, Florida State and Louisville. They have the players to handle it, since they outgained Georgia Tech 453-250, but Van Pelt seemed to regress in this game, with three interceptions.

— Georgia Tech is 3-3 and has bounced back from a home loss to Bowling Green. Brent Key made a difference in the program when he was named interim coach last year and wound up getting the fulltime job, and after Bowling Green he promoted to Kevin Sherrer to defensive coordinator, which seemed to work.

Wyoming 24, Fresno State 19

— Craig Bohl’s teams come to play every Saturday, and the Cowboys raised their record to 5-1 by knocking off 24th-ranked Fresno State, which had won 14 consecutive games. .

— The Bulldogs’ defense had forced 40 consecutive three-and-outs coming in, but Wyoming, which has only lost to Texas, got three touchdown passes from Andrew Peasley in the second quarter alone. Peasley, a transfer from Utah State, has made Josh Allen proud with his play.

— And when the Cowboys needed a stop in the final minutes, they got an interception from Cole Godbout, who is a 6-foot-4, 290-pound nose tackle, a redshirt grad student and a former wrestling star in Wisconsin.

UCLA 25, Washington State 17

— The Bruins rose to 4-1 and gave the Cougars their first loss of the season thanks to a defense rarely seen around the Rose Bowl. UCLA intercepted Cameron Ward twice and sacked him three times, and held Washington State to 216 total yards.

— The Cougars led 17-12 after three quarters despite getting pummeled statistically, but UCLA leaned on its running game. Keegan Jones ran for two scores down the stretch, and Carson Steele gained 140 yards. UCLA had the ball for over 38 minutes and ran the ball 53 times.

— D’Anton Lynn, whose dad Anthony once coached the Chargers, is UCLA’s defensive coordinator this year, and the results are obvious. The 17 points the Bruins gave up are a season high, and UCLA’s five opponents have scored 61 points, total.