The first shot was fired two summers ago when Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator Mike Stoops, fed up with the media hype surrounding Chris Simms, went on national radio and took the Texas quarterback down a few notches.

At the time, Simms was attracting some Heisman Trophy notice, in spite of the fact he had done practically nothing to deserve it. Stoops even referred to Simms as "Phil," a couple of times, referencing his former All-Pro quarterbacking-father-turned-broadcaster.

That had to hurt.

	The Sooners are 2-1 against Texas under Bob Stoops.

Then OU coach Bob Stoops weighed in. He wasn't happy that Texas coach Mack Brown, in explaining the 63-14 loss to Oklahoma in 2000, said his team "didn't show up" that day. To Stoops, it meant that Brown was detracting from the four-horsemen-plus-seven-blocks-of-granite-whipping his team had laid on the Longhorns down in Dallas.

Last summer, Oklahoma tight end Trent Smith, always a good quote, picked up the baton and ran all the way to Big 12 Media Day.

"Burnt orange makes me puke," he said. "I never wanted to play for a team with a cow on its helmet."

Seems the folks in Norman have been trying to rile their neighbors south of the Red River.

The Bob Stoops-Mack Brown rivalry has required less than three years to flower into this bed of thorns, much like the Barry Switzer versus Darrell Royal back in the '70s. Royal hated Switzer the same way a roadhouse man hates a Wall Street man.

As for NCAA violations, Royal pursued Switzer with the same fervor that Eliot Ness chased Al Capone.

Just the sight of Switzer cavorting on the OU sideline sent Royal into a tizzy. Now comes Switzer with a comparison that drags past tensions straight into the 21st century. On Bob Stoops, he said, "Sure he's brash. He reminds me of me 30 years ago."

It is doubtful that the Stoops staff despises the Brown staff with the equal virility of Switzer versus Royal. But there is friction between Austin and Norman that measures on the radar screen.

Brown was none too happy when, after OU's shellacking of Texas two years ago, Stoops lined up his players and coaches beneath the scoreboard -- OKLAHOMA 63, TEXAS 14 -- for a commemorative picture.

Stoops and company do not understand how the polls always rank Texas ahead of Oklahoma early in the season, or how the odds makers continually make the Longhorns the betting favorites for the Red River Rivalry.

	The Longhorns are 2-2 against OU since Mack Brown's arrival.

Brown is ruffled that the OU staff seems to be picking on his quarterback. This week, Mike Stoops was asked if he's noticed an improvement in Simms, whose completion percentage is 56.1 percent and touchdown-to-interception ratio 10-to-3. "It's hard to tell," Stoops said. "They haven't played a lot of quality opponents. When you play against good people, you're forced to make big plays when the running game is not working."

Take that, North Texas and Tulane.

Whether it is jealousy, bitterness, or scorn, this kind of posturing has been taking place almost since the real Sooners jumped the gun in Oklahoma, and the first steers were roped in Texas.

Texans were born to hate Oklahomans, and vice versa. The pendulum has been swinging in this rivalry since somebody blew up the first football.

Oklahomans were so worried about their postwar image that they called upon the football team to save the state. OU president George Cross called the Board of Regents together in 1946 to sell the notion that a championship caliber football team would erase America's perception of Oklahoma as nothing more than pickup trucks and cream gravy for breakfast.

Cross wanted to set the record straight about John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath." The Dust Bowl image had to go.

So Bud Wilkinson was hired as head coach in 1947, and his record during a nine-year stretch, which included winning streaks of 31 and 47 games, was 94-4-2.

Take that, Texas.

The Texas antidote to Oklahoma was Royal, who, ironically, had quarterbacked the Sooners to an undefeated season in 1949. He could barely stand the idea of coaching against his mentor, Wilkinson, during the Red River War. But Royal, in his second year of leading the Longhorns, went out and whipped his former boss 15-14 in 1958. So wrought with nerves was Royal after the game that he left the postgame celebration in the Texas locker room to puke outside.

Royal and the Longhorns dominated in the '60s until that fellow named Switzer came along a decade later. Switzer won four and tied one against Royal, who retired after the 1976 season when, according to the critics, he could stomach the sight of Switzer no more.

Cannons will fire, flags will wave and flasks will go bottoms up Saturday afternoon in Dallas when the two biggest rivals in college football rumble down the tunnel in Dallas.

In the meantime, Bob Stoops will try to turn down the volume on the entire affair. Earlier this week, he asked Trent Smith to "tone down" his comments about the Longhorns. And he's made an attempt at damage control himself.

Asked about his 9-1 record against top 10 teams, Stoops said, "I'm not trying to denigrate Texas. But our track record is pretty good in big games."

Asked if he was arrogant, Stoops said, "I've been labeled as confident or arrogant, but I promise you that I am not arrogant, nor is our team."

Meanwhile, Mack Brown has simply tried to turn the other cheek.

"I don't get into the other coach," he said. "It's the program that makes the difference."

Now that sounds like a bunch of hyperbole.

Jim Dent is the author of "Junction Boys" and "The Undefeated" and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. "Junction Boys" will be ESPN Original Entertainment's second original, made-for-television movie. The premiere is scheduled for Saturday, December 14 at 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.