AUSTIN -- Some rivalry. Texas coach Mack Brown sent Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops flowers.

	Josh Heupel leads all Big 12 quarterbacks with 16 TDs.

What the heck is going on in this century-old border war? The blood feud reduced to a bunch of daisies?

Actually, Brown sent Stoops the flowers last summer for the birth of the Oklahoma coach's twin sons, Issac and Jake, born in June.

"As you get older in this business, you understand you're not fighting with the other coach," said Brown.

Easy for him to say. He beat Oklahoma 34-3 last year.

As for Stoops, he was puzzled by the flowers at first.

"I was sitting there thinking, 'I'm not supposed to like this guy,"' he said.

"So I like the man for about a week. But like the good book says, you hate nobody," Stoops said.

The niceties aren't the only things changing in this rivalry.

Saturday's matchup in Dallas features the Big 12's two best passing teams. It's a far cry from the grind-it-out running attacks the schools used in their glory days.

"They like to wing it," Texas cornerback Ahmad Brooks said of passing attack Stoops brought to the Sooners.

Do they ever.

Oklahoma (3-1, 1-0) has the nation's third-ranked passing offense behind junior-college transfer quarterback Josh Heupel.

The Sooners average 341 yards passing and Heupel leads the Big 12 with 16 touchdown passes.

He also already has set single-game school records for passing yards (429), total offense (410), touchdown passes (five), completions (37) and pass attempts (54).

Texas, meanwhile, has its own high-flying passing attack behind quarterback Major Applewhite. The sophomore has passed for 11 touchdowns and a league-leading 1,763 yards.

Gone are the days of dominating running attacks behind backs like Texas' Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams and Oklahoma's Billy Sims and quarterback J.C. Watts. All but Watts won the Heisman Trophy.

Nationally, Texas' 141.8 yards per game rushing ranks 66th and Oklahoma's 119.5 yards per game ranks 82nd.

All this throwing will test the confidence of both the defensive secondaries.

The Longhorns have made significant improvement in its pass defense, which was Texas' weakest link last year.

Texas gave up 220.9 yards per game and 20 touchdowns last season, which ranked the Longhorns 92nd in the nation. Going into Saturday's matchup, the Longhorns have the nation's sixth-best pass defense. They have held opponents to three passing touchdowns and 157.8 yards in the air.

Oklahoma ranks 48th in pass defense. The Sooners have given up seven passing touchdowns.

Notre Dame was successful in shutting down Heupel last week in beating Oklahoma 34-30. Heupel was 22-of-40 for 168 yards and three touchdowns and one interception.

Texas coach Mack Brown said he believes his defense is prepared for Oklahoma's attack.

"We've seen teams that have thrown the ball quite a bit, and some that have passed more than I expected them to coming in," Brown said. "That doesn't mean we will play well on Saturday, but so far, our secondary and our defense overall has played pretty well against the pass."