If we’ve heard it once, heard it a bunch of times this week about their being no magic formula to fix what has ailed Oklahoma in the last two weeks.

The Sooners have gone from flirting with being ranked in the top five to being humiliated twice and out of the rankings entirely.

Agreed, no magic formula. But you can rely on what’s happened in the past and use that same attitude and execution to apply it to now.

OU can go back two seasons ago, beginning 0-2 in Big 12 play. Dead in the water. Facing Texas in a proverbial do-or-die game.

Different staff back then, but first-year head coach Brent Venables has his own experience to reflect back on. He doesn’t have to go too far with a Clemson team in 2021 that was once 4-3 and everybody thought the wheels had fallen off.

How did it work out? OU played another memorable Red River Showdown against Texas, showing its mettle in a 53-45 4OT victory. The Sooners, of course, wouldn’t lose another game the rest of the season, winning the Big 12 championship and the Cotton Bowl.

The Tigers, forgotten about in terms of being a playoff contender, finished with a six-game winning streak, including beating Iowa State in its bowl game.

The blueprint is there. OU has done it. Venables has done it. Now? It’s time to accomplish the feat together.

"A year ago, I was on a Clemson team that was 4-3, and everyone wanted to burn everything down,” Venables said. “We've got the worst players and coaches in America, in the history of the game. And that's having been to six straight playoffs, and four of the last six national championships and six straight conference titles.

“But that team made a decision to get better and not allow themselves to be influenced by the outside noise, only be influenced by a straining to do everything you can to improve every day. One practice, one meeting at a time. That's literally how you do it.”

It’s a balancing act, for sure. You need emotion, but you can’t play on only emotion. For a team that has committed so many errors in the last two weeks, discipline and playing sound is the biggest priority.

But OU knows. You don’t get the losses back to TCU or Kansas State, but you could springboard yourself into the second half of the season.

“It's definitely a great game to prove ourselves,” defensive back Justin Harrington said. “Two back-to-back losses, it's a great chance. You can see the last couple years you can see the pattern. It's definitely determined the season.”

In the last decade, the script has always been flipped for the Red River Showdown. It’s always been an undermanned Texas team somehow finding a way to be competitive.

And the Longhorns have. The regular season matchup between the two has been decided by just a one-score every difference every year since 2014. Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts at quarterback, it hasn’t mattered.

It’s always tight, which is why the 2020 win anchored by Spencer Rattler has been brought up a bunch this week. If a turnaround could happen then, and it did, then why not again?

“That’s kind of been the focal point. Those leaders, those older guys that are on this team,” running back Eric Gray said. “They’re saying, ‘We’ve done this before. We’ve dropped two before and still won the Big 12 championship.’ So it’s not out of the question. It’s not like everything gone and done now. We’ve just got to keep moving forward and keep pushing on.”

It won’t happen just because they’re OU. If that reality hasn’t set in at this point, then there truly is no hope at all.

There’s a reason OU made the strides in 2020. Same for Clemson in 2021. You fight together. You strain together. You bring the discipline and the execution and go to work.

“We knew that at the time things weren’t going to great,” said linebacker DaShaun White about 2020. “But it’s one of those things like our belief system never really wavered. I can really say that about this team as well.

“Nobody’s just in panic mode yet. And think that’s just, we follow our coach. And he’s not panicking so it’s really easy for us to kind of take a deep breath, shake off the disappointment of the last few games and continue to build, build, build and I think that’s what’s most important.”

No shortcuts. It’s the process. If everyone still has bought in and is all about the process, that will show up against the Longhorns. Maybe lightning can strike a third time?

“It's got a chance to be a great story,” Venables said.

That first chapter to the redemption story needs to be Saturday at the Cotton Bowl.