… and now we know—55-17.

There’s really not much to say about the “come to Jesus” thrashing the young Longhorns received at the hands of an Oklahoma bully ready to show off what really good football teams look like. Texas ran off a string of four wins against mediocre (or worse) teams. The OU game was a test. A chance to see how far down the road to redemption these young Texas Longhorns were. Turns out they're just down the block and in no danger of running away. The Horns have a long way to go before adding themselves to the list of elite national teams.

The Longhorns, particularly the offense never seemed to get over their nerves about playing on this huge stage. Texas missed assignments, coughed up five fumbles (lost three) and two interceptions (three of those five turnovers were returned for touchdowns), ran for only 36 net yards and gave up 367 yards passing to Oklahoma QB Landry Jones who looked very much like one of the best quarterbacks in the college game today. Yes, it was that bad, and those stats will not beat anyone, especially not Oklahoma.

So I won’t waste anyone’s time with breakdowns on the game—questions like, why did the quarterback rotation suddenly change every series rather than play by play; or, where were all trick plays, I think I counted only three; or, why didn’t Texas run the “Wild Fozz” wildcat formation as they had every other game; or, why couldn’t Case McCoy get the ball anywhere near his receivers; or, why the cornerbacks and safeties appeared to be running in slow motion against Ryan Broyles and his friends who simply got everywhere Sooner. No, I see no reason to ask questions like that.

Instead, let’s just keep it short and maintain perspective. Oklahoma is a National Championship caliber football team, Texas is not (I know, state the obvious why don’t I).

This game should not diminish the hopes and dreams of Longhorn Nation.

Sometimes children need to hurt in order to learn. The Longhorn young’uns just got educated in the school of hard knocks and they should come out of this stronger for it.

Head Coach Mack Brown understands this. It’s his job to keep this ship afloat. “I think a game like this will help them,” he said after the game. “The speed of the game, [and Oklahoma's] got great players. [OU] did a great job mixing up their coverages and their blitzes, and were around [the quarterback] a lot. So it'll have to help them down the road. And they'll be more ready for this next week when they see a really good Oklahoma State defense.”

The team gets it too. “You learn so much from a loss like this,” explained freshman quarterback David Ash. “You learn what it takes to play at the level Oklahoma plays. They are a great team and you get exposed to that. We are a young team and the great thing is we have so much potential. We just have to keep working and sticking to what we believe in, which is hard work and getting better every day and doing what Texas football stands for.

The Longhorns youth movement will pay dividends. Losing to OU, while always painful, is not the worst thing that could happen to this team. The worst thing that could happen would be dwelling on this loss and allowing it to overwhelm the confidence built up over the last month.

Those looking for a silver lining can look at a defense that held OU to 86 yards rushing; Malcolm Brown who fought hard for every one of his 54 yards on the ground; and Fozzy Whitaker ran back the longest kick-off return in Texas history, 100 yards, tying a record set by Johnny “Lam” Jones.

Now the team must move on. "We know we have a big game coming up next week so we have to put this one past us," said senior linebacker Emmanuel Acho after the game. "We have a 24-hour rule, win or lose, and it’s on the seniors to make sure the team has a good mindset going into next week, and that’s what we’re going to do. We have to put this one behind us and start planning for the next opponent."

That next opponent is Oklahoma State, also a very good football team, a top five ranked football team. They don’t give up much to their Sooner cousins up the road. Texas needs to learn fast or next Saturday will be just as painful.