Norman, Okla. ? You never know when a football team won’t show up.

Second-ranked Oklahoma, for instance, could have had an emotional letdown Saturday after last week’s satisfying win at Kansas State. The Sooners could have been looking ahead to next week’s Bedlam Series battle with Oklahoma State.

Moreover, OU’s players could have been overwhelmed by the distractions of homecoming. And, when on their first series, the Sooners were forced to punt after two dropped passes, you had to wonder if Kansas University had happened to catch OU at the right time.

Wrong. The only commodity scarcer these days than flu vaccine is an antidote for Oklahoma’s poisonous offense.

All week, all everybody had been talking about in the Red Clay Country was Adrian Peterson, the sensational freshman running back who was about to join a group of Sooner immortals by passing the 1,000-yard rushing plateau.

Saturday’s pre-game stories in the Oklahoma newspapers were top-heavy with paeans to Peterson, touting the precocious freshman as the greatest thing to come out of Palestine (Texas) since Christianity.

In much the same way, Kansas coach Mark Mangino decided the Jayhawks had a better chance of stunning the Sooners if his defense concentrated its anti-venom efforts on neutralizing Peterson.

And for three quarters, KU’s defenders put Peterson into remission, allowing him only 23 yards on 11 carries.

Not that it mattered, because the ancient quarterback produced more than enough poison. That would be, of course, Jason White. Yes, White won the Heisman Trophy last year, but that’s old news. Heck, this is White’s sixth college season — he was granted an extra year of eligibility because of injuries — and hardly anybody talks about him anymore with the new kid in town grabbing all the headlines.

Kansas coach Mark Mangino, left, and longtime pal Bob Stoops, Oklahoma's head coach, visit after the Sooners' victory.

I ran into Dean Blevins in the press box Saturday. Blevins, a former OU quarterback who now works as a sportscaster in Oklahoma City, can’t believe how little respect White has received this season.

“He’s 10 times better than he was last year,” Blevins told me, “and he’s about eighth in the Heisman Trophy running.”

Nobody wearing a Kansas uniform could offer a legitimate rebuttal. All White did was throw for 389 yards and four touchdowns without tossing a single interception against a team that had stolen six passes in its previous two games.

“He’s the Heisman Trophy winner, and he showed it,” KU sophomore quarterback Adam Barmann said. “He was in supreme command of their offense.”

All White seems to lack is cachet. He has the arm, he has the offensive line to allow him time to throw, and he has an underrated corps of receivers who not only have NASCAR wheels but the ability to make acrobatic receptions as well.

Hear Mangino and players: Oklahoma post-game Get the stats: KU vs. Oklahoma box score Photo Gallery: KU vs. Oklahoma Scorecard: Grade KU’s performance against OU Sooners lower boom Woodling: KU tames Peterson, so White steps up OU’s White has field day against KU Kansas QBs similarly so-so Notebook How they scored Other Big 12 scores Other NCAA scores

When Kansas shifted its attention to White’s passing late in the second half, the Sooners went back to the run, and Peterson proved by gaining 99 yards in 11 carries, mostly by busting tackles, there is no cure for such deadly talent.

Last year about this time, Kansas was playing Baylor. This year, the Bears, everybody’s favorite Big 12 punching bag, are absent from the Jayhawks’ schedule.

Sure, Kansas would rather have played Baylor than Oklahoma on Saturday, but KU has no control over the conference schedule. OU is on a collision course with the national championship. Kansas wants to notch enough wins to go to a bowl game.

In that regard, Saturday’s Iowa State game in Ames, Iowa, is the most important game the Jayhawks will play all season, because if they don’t win that one their chances of winning the required six games virtually will disappear.

Sometimes in the course of a football season all you can do is retreat, regroup and reload for next time. And be thankful Iowa State cannot make a trade to obtain White and Peterson.