Aaron Cooke/The Daily

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out this weekend will mark OU’s biggest game of the season and could catapult the Sooners toward a national championship. It will feature two great quarterbacks who run their offenses to perfection.

But neither of them are the key to the game.

Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy are both obviously very dangerous, and they have deservedly gotten much of the national attention surrounding the game.

But really, their skills cancel out. Everyone is expecting them both to step up under pressure and play well.

So who will be the X-factor? Who will be the difference between victory and defeat?

Will it be DeMarco Murray? He has yet to really show the explosiveness we saw from him last season. But it will be hard to expect him to thrive this weekend against Texas’ stout run defense.

Will it be one of Sam Bradford’s seemingly endless list of weapons at receiver? In OU’s five games, four different players have led the team in receiving. It’s a foregone conclusion that someone will step up again.

The key to this game for the Sooners isn’t part of the offense.

The players who will ultimately determine who wins this game will be the duo of cornerbacks Brian Jackson and Dominique Franks.

At the beginning of the season, the secondary was considered to be one of the team’s greatest weaknesses. But Jackson and Franks have both played exceptionally well.

Jackson has been in almost perfect position on every pass he has faced in the last few games, and he was an instrumental part of holding Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin to just 75 yards passing.

Franks’ name has almost never been called the last few weeks because the players he covers are never open and thus never see any passes.

But this week will mark their biggest challenge yet. Colt McCoy is by far the most accurate and efficient quarterback they have faced, and Texas’ top two receivers — Quan Cosby and Jordan Shipley — are the best 1-2 punch they have faced.

It has been good to see both Jackson and Franks make such large strides in a short amount of time, and it has been in their best interest to be gradually introduced to superior opponents.

This matchup would have worried me if it had been played at the beginning of the year. But seeing how dominant Jackson and Franks have looked, I’m confident they will be able to slow down the Texas attack enough for OU to come out on top.

And since my last score prediction was so close, I’ll go ahead and try it again: Sooners win 38-28.

— Corey DeMoss is the sports editor and a journalism senior.