NORMAN — Texas A&M chewed up considerable chunks of Owen Field turf with precise execution Saturday night.

And then the Aggie Band left the field.

It was a far better effort than their football heroes, who all but dropped out of the Big 12 South chase in a 42-14 loss to Oklahoma.

As the testimony of nearly all the 85,044 butts occupying seats rather than propped in concession lines revealed, the Aggie Band in all its glorious tradition will forever captivate crowds at home and on the road. The backup show, the A&M triple option, is a tradition of offensive football that was placed on life support nationwide nearly two decades ago.

Having collected 63 yards at halftime, A&M’s 21-0 deficit was a hole that the band had a better chance of marching out of. At that point, Aggies quarterback Stephen McGee led the team with 33 yards on keepers and in effect was forced to come out and chunk the ball to have any shot at staying in the thick of the Big 12 South hunt.

Ironic, perhaps, was the fact that A&M’s touchdowns were engineered by the passing game. McGee found wideout Martel Bennett barely in the back of the end zone to spoil what was looking like the Sooners’ first shutout in 19 games and first Big 12 shutout since the end of the 2004 season. The other ended on a run after the Aggies basically went exclusively with an empty backfield for the best drive since before the Corps of Cadets resumed their seats in the corner of the end zone.

By then, it was garbage time. But the feel of the tempo was that garbage time began after the second-half kickoff.

“You do feel the more you’re moving the ball and scoring and the other team’s intention is to methodically move down the field, that their chances (of winning) decrease,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “I thought we were very disciplined against the option. They’ll shift around in motion trying to confuse you and get you out of position. Our guys were solid all day at being in position.”

The Aggies finished with 128 net yards rushing against the third-ranked team against the run nationally. Most of that 239-yard rushing average the Aggies had coming in, a figure that put them ninth in the country, came against that awful non-conference menu of Montana State, Fresno State and Louisiana-Monroe. Oh, and there was that Nebraska game three weeks ago, 359 yards that helped produce 36 points.

Yeah, against that same Nebraska team that was gigged for 76 points by Kansas on Saturday.

Not exactly a case for SportsCenter material. And the career of Dennis Franchione, whose record at A&M fell to 31-27, may well be on life support, especially with the smudge of his recent selling of insider information to boosters regarding team personnel, and games with Missouri and Texas left.

Coach Fran was lured away from Alabama five years ago to put A&M atop the Big 12 class. Instead, the Aggies’ pregame material had an excerpt concerning a “Program on the Rise,” noting its fifth-place standing among Big 12 teams since 2006. Fifth was not what Franchione was paid to achieve.

Meanwhile, first is where the Sooners find themselves with what’s becoming another tradition — an OSU collapse against Texas in Stillwater — and perhaps, a step up the scales of the BCS rankings after Boston College was upended by Florida State. OU entered the night No. 6 and await the new poll today.