There are those times in life when an inch becomes a mile, a second becomes an eternity. When those things occur and you have no power to change those situations, it is time to collect your attention and focus on your intent for the future. In our specific situation, next season begins in January and fulfills the intent of "Let there be no question."
Sometimes your very best is just not enough. That is the nature of competition in this life. While the moment of recognition may send you into an emotional rage or to intense introspection, the wise position is to understand your responsibility in the situation, however large or small it may be, to accept it and to focus outward. Life does not stop just because we get lost in a moment. In fact, that moment is a serious vulnerability if you have enemies at the door and your vigilance is wavering.
Life is not full of replays. But the generations of humans are a spiral in time and sometimes you will get the opportunity to balance the past and reset the future. It is the most human of things to grasp at what slim and diminishing hope that you may have. But when that finally slips from your grasp and you have still survived, life is about the future, about right now.
The Sooners will reap what they have sown, with or without our collusion. We will have our opportunity next October. There is nothing we can do at the moment that will alter their fate. I suspect there are many who are thoroughly enjoying our discomfort. This board is about expressing ourselves and, by definition, is not particularly stoic in the warrior sense. However, that ethic should guide some of our sensibilities. We're Texas - and we're big enough to take it. And we're strong enough to do something about it in the future.
The Horns, as a team, do not have the luxury of dwelling in the past. In a month or so they'll face someone who would just love to wax our ass and to prove this whole interlude was cosmic joke. You youngsters need a little of that Clint Eastwood squint, to screw your butt into the ground and "get mean, get real mean." Because the future is not kind by nature, and it is coming straight at us right now.
Hopefully, the Horns have buried this along with the other artifacts of this season and are strong and wise enough to face the future and begin the quest for next season when they alone can make sure there is no question about who is #1.