Fiesta Bowl trophy seen in OU’s future

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The moment was captured, like so many others, in a postgame team picture.

Tramel: Stoops sends message to Sooners

With the scoreboard in the background confirming Oklahoma’s victory, the Sooners piled happily around the gaudy trophy.

No, not that trophy.

Right stadium, wrong date.

The victim was TCU in the Fiesta Bowl, not Auburn or Notre Dame a week later in the BCS National Championship at the Arizona Cardinals’ new Stadium.

If only ... well, you know the clichés about bouncing balls and how football is a game of inches. But that one play back in October set the course of the 2006 season.

Wait just a minute: Two days before the calendar flips to August, and we’re fast-forwarding to January 2007?

Maybe it was the heat. But after staring for hours into that decorative sphere in the neighbor’s front yard - couldn’t find a real crystal ball - the picture cleared to a slight smudge.

And so, we issue this warning: Stop reading now if you like a suspense-filled autumn. Otherwise, buckle in and enjoy the ride as we present the 2006 season rewind.

A few quick answers to the pressing questions:

The Sooners bounced back from ’05. Just not all the way to the top.

The Cowboys rebounded, too, returning to the Big 12’s bowl lineup after a season in the cellar.

Adrian Peterson didn’t win the Heisman. From college football’s bulliest pulpit, Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn was too tough to beat. But A.D. became OU’s all-time rushing leader. Then, he moved on to the NFL.

OSU’s Bobby Reid developed into the star predicted by the recruiting gurus.

Yes, Texas missed Vince Young, and greatly. Without him, the Longhorns were again bridesmaids (but hey, there’s still the “recruiting national championship”).

Here’s how it all came to pass.

OU and Texas rolled unbeaten into their annual grudge match in the Cotton Bowl (the Sooners rallied to nip Oregon in Eugene, and Texas barely escaped Ohio State in Austin).

Texas quarterbacks Jevan Snead and Colt McCoy took turns making good things happen, then bad. Peterson ran wild, totaling 191 yards and two touchdowns. Rhett Bomar threw for a TD, and in the final minutes of a tied game, he had OU marching down field for the win.

Until that one play.

Texas safety Michael Griffin’s leap-and-smash gave the Longhorns their second straight win over the Sooners.

Bomar had just faked a handoff to Peterson. Before he could drop back, Griffin arrived. Defying orders not to blitz, he had raced through a void in the Sooner line, then leaped, knocking the ball loose.

Defensive tackle Frank Okam plucked it from mid-air and rumbled 72 yards for the winning score.

As he picked himself up, Bomar asked Griffin, “Where’d you come from?”

“I just flew in,” came the reply.

And the Longhorns soared out of the Cotton Bowl. The Sooners trudged up the tunnel, their dreams of a national title dashed.

But strangely enough, the Big 12 title was not decided that day.

Ranked No. 2 behind Notre Dame, the Longhorns were on track to defend their national title until that windy, wild October afternoon in Lubbock, when the Longhorns and Red Raiders joined for an epic shootout.

Trailing 45-41 with no timeouts left, Texas moved frantically down field. As time expired, Jamaal Charles surged over the goal line.

Officials signaled touchdown. The Longhorns began to celebrate.

And then came the long wait. Was Charles down before he reached the end zone?

Hidden away in the press box, the replay official hit rewind several times. Although various views appeared to show Charles had indeed scored, the official reversed the call: Charles was called down 6 inches short.

Just like that, Texas’ national championship dream was over. Tech’s marketing department immediately began planning a billboard - “This Horn’s down! Are your guns up?” - to jump-start the 2007 season-ticket drive.

Then came something more stunning.

Maybe it was a hangover from the loss to Tech. And at 5-3, OSU was clearly improved from 2005.

But no one would have predicted the Cowboys’ upset in Austin.

Behind Bobby Reid’s crisp passing and occasional scrambles, the Cowboys blitzkrieged to a 38-7 halftime lead. Doing his best Vince Young impression, Texas’ Jevan Snead began the inevitable third-quarter comeback.

He threw two TD passes, but also tossed two interceptions and fumbled once.

The karma of 2004 and 2005 finally changed possession. OSU’s 38-34 win was the Cowboys’ biggest since, well, since 16-13. It was a landmark victory in the young Mike Gundy era.

With the loss, Texas was headed to the Cotton Bowl. With the win, OSU was bowl-eligible.

And a win over Baylor the next week, coupled with a Bedlam scare - more on that in a minute - of OU, propelled the Cowboys into the Insight Bowl. During the week after Christmas, the Valley of the Sun was filled with Bedlam taunts and state pride.

Three days before OU played in the Fiesta Bowl, 25,000 orange-clad fans watched as OSU couldn’t quite overcome Michigan State. But Gundy’s guys (Boone’s boys?) appeared on the right track for the future.

And how did OU get to the Fiesta Bowl?

After Texas, the Sooners had mostly clear sailing, at least until that Saturday afternoon in College Station, Texas. The Sooners avoided the Aggies’ upset bid when Joey Halzle - yep, Joey Halzle - and Malcolm Kelly connected for a fourth-quarter TD.

Halzle took over midway through the third quarter, when Bomar scrambled, then lowered his shoulder. The collision with A&M linebacker Justin Warren was spectacular - not that Bomar remembers it.

Anyway, that set the stage for Halzle’s big moment. A 7-yard toss to Kelly became a 63-yard bolt down the sideline, disappointing the sword-wielding Aggies - and setting up coach Dennis Franchione’s resignation a few weeks later.

The Sooners were 11-point favorites in the season finale. But as always in Stillwater, Bedlam reigned.

OU escaped the seething orange cauldron only because Reid’s desperate heave was just beyond the fingertips of Adarius Bowman. D’Juan Woods was open, too.

A ho-hum win over Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game wasn’t enough to move OU in front of once-beaten Auburn in the BCS standings. By a few hundredths of a point, the Tigers landed opposite top-ranked Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship game.

Third-ranked OU headed to the Fiesta Bowl, where Mountain West champion TCU awaited. TV viewers weren’t excited, but the Sooners didn’t mind (they still remembered September 2005).

OU won 38-17. Early in the fourth quarter, Peterson put the game out of reach with what will surely be his last OU highlight.

A collision. A spin. Acceleration.

Gone.

The next morning, the Sooners boarded a flight home. On the runway, they passed the jets carrying Auburn and Notre Dame, who would play for the national title in six days.

The Sooners just missed ’em.