If they get win today, OU can become champs again Breaking down the Sooners
By Berry Tramel
Published: November 25, 2006
STILLWATER — After a payroll scandal cost them a quarterback and a replay fiasco cost them a ballgame and a broken collarbone cost them a franchise tailback, a little manna fell for the Oklahoma football Sooners.
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Texas A&M beat Texas on Friday by the leather-helmet score of 12-7, and suddenly Bedlam has gone BEDLAM.
An already-spicy series received a serious injection of gusto Friday. Stakes already were high for today's 101st gridiron meeting of Oklahoma State and OU. Courtesy of A&M, this game now becomes a trophy hunt.
The Sooners, the star-crossed, starless Sooners, are playing for a spot in the Big 12 championship game. And the Cowboys, with no small incentive anyway, now have added booty. Spoiling a Sooner title chase.
What a wild finish to a wilder season, a year when Rhett Bomar brought new meaning to the phrase Big Red; a year when the most googled name pertaining to OU football was a 64-year-old replay official in Portland, Ore.; a year when OU lost Adrian Peterson and naturally ran even more.
A year when the Paul Thompson-Chris Brown-Lendy Holmes Sooners can achieve what the Jason White-Tommie Harris-Derrick Strait Sooners didn't.
That 2003 Oklahoma team, loaded with 10 first-team all-conference players and award winners galore, lost the Big 12 title game.
This OU team, sporting few all-conference candidates, find themselves on the cusp of a championship season.
Beat OSU, no small order at Boone Pickens' palace, and vanquish ordinary Nebraska, and the Big 12 trophy returns to Norman.
Thompson, the fifth-year senior quarterback and one of only eight Sooners who have played on two conference title teams, admits this doesn't look like the juggernauts of Sooners past. But don't be deceived.
"We don't have the all-Americans, the Heisman Trophy winners that we had," Thompson said. "But at the end of the day, when you look back, you're like, ‘Man, we had a pretty good year.' Where we're at right now is similar to how we were those past few years with Big 12 championship teams."
Just who are the Sooner stars, now that Peterson is benched? Flanker Malcolm Kelly, no question. Rufus Alexander, I suppose, but he hasn't been dominant like OU linebackers of the past. Safety Reggie Smith, maybe. The defensive ends and offensive linemen, but which ones? The backup tailbacks? Be serious.
Truth is, this OU team has a chance to be a coach's dream. A blue-collar championship squad.
"It has been very satisfying," Bob Stoops admitted. "We've proven to be a pretty strong team as a whole, not just one or two individuals carrying everybody."
Stoops has a theory. Stars don't make winners; winners make stars.
"Usually, the more you win, the more stars become," Stoops said. "Most of the people getting awards are guys that win a lot, on TV a lot."
After OU lost to Texas on Oct. 7, Oklahoma had lost seven of its previous 18 games. It was slipping from the national focus.
"Early on, the light's taken off of 'em in how we started the season," Stoops said. "But in the end, there's a lot of guys that have played well through this whole year. They're stars in my eyes the way they've competed and played.
"You don't have Adrian Peterson. ... You don't have Jason White returning from winning the Heisman Trophy. But we've still got a lot of quality players.
"I think the sum of this whole team is showing through this whole year. Even guys people who people weren't expecting to step up. A Trent Williams. A Chris Brown. It goes on and on."
It's a young team, and that's why things could get dicey for the Sooners. Boone Pickens Stadium has become a tough place to play.
In 2002, an OU team that a week later won the Big 12 title was scalded in Stillwater, 38-28. But one difference. Those Sooners struggled on the Big 12 road. These Sooners have soared.
Dominant wins at Missouri and Baylor. Survival at A&M's Kyle Field. Throw in the Oregon game, which was a winning performance, and these Sooners are a fantastic road team.
"We're just kind of fighting, scrapping around, coming up with wins," Thompson said. "That says a lot about a team, as much as blowing 'em out by 30 points every game as we did in the past."
Now, courtesy of Texas A&M, the Sooners have a chance to have something even better said about them. Champions.
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