Sooners keep focus on finale vs. Cowboys

DALLAS -- In a way, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops is trying to keep his players from hanging around family and friends on Thanksgiving Day.

Stoops wants to keep his third-ranked Sooners (10-1, 6-1 Big 12) focused on Saturday's regular season finale against Oklahoma State, not looking ahead to the Big 12 championship game that follows the next weekend.

"I don't like the idea of them traveling, driving back and forth," Stoops said Monday. "And I don't like the idea of them sitting around the entire day making arrangements for the Big 12 championship games. That's all the family wants to talk about Thanksgiving night, and we still have Oklahoma State."

Oklahoma State (6-5, 4-3), bowl eligible for the first time in five years, can't knock the Sooners out of the Big 12 title game like it did last year.

But the Sooners still have an outside shot at making it to the Fiesta Bowl and playing for the national championship. They were also in contention for a national title chance last year before losing to Oklahoma State 16-13, but Stoops insists that's not what upset the Sooners the most.

"I'm sure people wanted to say it cost us a shot at a national championship. We never looked at it that way," Stoops said during the weekly coaches' teleconference. "What it did cost us was right in front of us which was for the Big 12 championship. They took that away and that stinks."

The Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game is one of three Big 12 games this weekend.

The other half of the teams in the league have already completed their regular seasons. Three of those are the only Big 12 teams not eligible for bowls: Baylor, Kansas and Missouri.

North Division champion Colorado (8-3, 6-1) ends its regular season Friday at Nebraska (7-5, 3-4).

Report:Texas A&M player died of blood clot

Texas A&M football player Brandon Fails died from a blood clot in his lungs that resulted from a leg injury, the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office said Tuesday.

The 18-year-old defensive lineman died Monday after collapsing as he was leaving his dorm room. He had complained of problems breathing and later died at a hospital in Bryan.

The blood clot that traveled to his lungs was initially caused by an injury to the leg, officials with the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office told the Austin American-Statesman and the Bryan-College Station Eagle.

The 6-foot-1, 307-pound Fails hurt his right knee in practice and had knee surgery Oct. 22.

The medical examiner's office made the initial ruling about the massive pulmonary thromboembolism after conducting an autopsy Tuesday.

Elsewhere

NEBRASKA: Coach Frank Solich plans to name a new offensive coordinator next week, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper reported that Solich planned to give up his play-calling duties.

Also Tuesday, Solich said he suspended place-kicker Josh Brown for Friday's game. The senior from Foyil, Okla., was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence early Sunday in Omaha.

-- From wire reports