OU football: Fighting back
BY Berry Tramel
Comments 
38
Published: December 6, 2008
Oklahoma's Sam Bradford (14) has his left thumb taped up as he looks to throw the ball during the first half of the college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and Oklahoma State University Cowboys (OSU) at Boone Pickens Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008, in Stillwater, Okla. STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Juaquin Iglesias came to Oklahoma in 2005, the Sooners had been to three national championship games in five years, including the most recent two.
He figured such frequency was standard operating procedure in Soonerville. He figured wrong. OU hasn’t returned to college football’s grandest stage since. Only four Sooners — fifth-year seniors Cory Bennett, Quentin Chaney, Alan Davis and Lendy Holmes — were on the 2004 squad that was blistered by Southern Cal, and none played in that Orange Bowl. That drought can end tonight in Arrowhead Stadium, where the Sooners play Missouri in one of the day’s two national semifinals. Alabama and Florida play in the SEC title game for one BCS title berth. The Big 12 title game provides the other semifinal, with the Sooners surely headed to Miami with a victory and Texas headed there if its proxy, Mizzou, pulls the upset. "We’ve never been,” said Iglesias, a senior flanker with 188 career catches. "Now it’s right there. We want to get it.” Time was, Bob Stoops was to the BCS title game what Duke was to the Final Four. Not automatic, but close to it. Three in five years, a success rate matched only by Florida State (three straight title games, 1998-00 seasons). But then came a mediocre team (2005) and bad luck (Oregon fiasco 2006, Sam Bradford’s concussion at Texas Tech 2007). The Sooners have learned that these chances don’t come easy. "Everybody thought we could just show up and win,” Iglesias said of his early Sooner days. This Sooner season shows how precarious is a title run. OU’s 45-35 loss to Texas — maybe you’ve heard of it — put the Sooners in a hole for half a season. The now infamous three-way tie in the Big 12 South reprieved the Sooners; they won the BCS rankings runoff and land here, with only bedraggled Missouri in their way. "It would be very special,” said junior defensive end Jeremy Beal. "A once-in-a-lifetime deal.” That’s not necessarily true. Those early Stoops Sooners proved that. But these chances are to be treasured. No assurance they will pass this way again. "It’s obviously incredibly difficult,” Stoops said of making the title game. "Look around the country, how many teams have never been to one. "You feel fortunate anytime you’re able to put together one of those years and see it through. "You fight every week to improve as a team and keep making strides so that down the stretch you hope to be in that position and give yourself an opportunity.” That’s what these Sooners have done. At mid-year, the OU running game, the OU defense and the OU kicking teams all were suspect. Now the Sooners soon will have two 1,000-yard rushers in DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown. Their defense, while still occasionally burned, shut down Texas Tech. And the kicking game, well, sometimes it doesn’t stink. Should be more than enough to get the Sooners to Miami, where Juaquin Iglesias and Co. most certainly won’t take the title game for granted. Berry Tramel: 405-760-8080. Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1.
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OU is good. Good luck against Florida from an OSU alum!
Dumbasses all around.
It will only prove to the rest of the country what Texans have already known about the people from Oklahoma. Here is a direct link to that site page.
http://www.shirtpervert.com/index.cgi/sportstshirts/shirtpervert/6248309
team, and you would think with as much scoring that OU's done, the kickoff kicker could at
least get it to the 5 yard line and the kick-off team could at least stop the runner at
the 25 yd. line. If OU goes to the NC game against Florida, with the special teams Myers
coaches, they'll take OU to the wood shed. Tebow can't wait to get ahold of this OU defense.
If by chance OU is able to hang in with Florida or who ever special teams will get them
beat, like Texas!
2004 - A$$es whooped by USC in nat'l championship game
2005 - 8 and 4 record
2006 - losers to Boise State ( embarrassing )
2007 - Another A$$ whoopin, this time by West Virginia
2008 - ??????????
Maybe next year the voters will think twice before putting Oklahoma in another BCS championship game. I know the voters got sick of sendinig Ohio State, Oklahoma should be next.
45-35
And he hates Oklahoma.
I still haven't gotten him to answer several simple questions. I'll try again...
1) Why do you live in Oklahoma, specifically Yukon, Paul? Job? Family? This isn't a loaded question.
2) Did you once live somewhere else? Or, were you born here? Did your hatred of all things Oklahoma begin then or after you came here?
3) Where do you go that helps propagate all your generalities about Oklahoma? Is it your job? A hangout spot? Your family?
Any answers, Paul? These aren't loaded questions.
2.) What's up w/Craig James? He's not going to vote for OU ahead of UT even if we win the Big 12 championship for the 3rd straight year because UT beat us in Early October after our defensive leader was knocked out of the game? Ok. However he needs to place either Florida or 'Bama as #1 & MUST follow that w/Texas Tech #2 (hey, using his own logic TTech MUST be placed ahead of UT due to losing to them & losing to them in mid-November (as opposed to OU's in first part of October), then put UT at #3 & OU at #4. NOT UT at #2--no way, no how. Although actually he needs to be removed from being able to vote for any poll, & Flutie as well since he did an about face this week & went w/James after saying we (OU) deserved to be ahead of UT.
And, ALL OU alumni, fans & supporters need to e-mail, call, fax, etc., ESPN/ABC & the AP w/complaints against Craig James & his moronic reasoning. He has no business opening his mouth when every time he does he downplays what OU has done since Early October---why doesn't he suggest we play UT again w/the winner going to the nat'l championship? Because, as all logically sound people know, we would beat UT by 17, at least, if we played now.
And, in closing (I know, finally, eh?), if coach Switzer doesn't quit expressing his bitterness & pettiness in print & on air (I really dread hearing his idiotic comments tomorrow night at the BCS announcement program)we all need to e-mail, etc., Fox sports & president Boren w/complaints.
40 Alabama -7.0
41 Georgia -7.8
42 Nevada -7.9
43 Arkansas -8.1
43 Oklahoma -8.1
45 Florida -8.9
46 Texas -9.0
47 Tennessee -9.7
48 South Carolina -10.7
49 Mississippi -15.0
50 Louisiana -15.2
I do believe the DOK would print "factual" stuff, correct??
The only reason I want to see OU get trounced (and the reason I point out stuff about them) is because I get a kick out of the Okie fanatics when OU gets beaten, or has a player steal a coat, or has a local who-shall-remain-unnamed-car-dealer caught doing illegal stuff start ranting about "why" it all happened....
It's like Jarboe. Most fanatics decided he'd be good for OU football, so the fact he was caught carrying a loaded, stolen handgun on school grounds was just "being a kid"...until he got here and screwed up with his rap about killing people, and then he was a no good player and destined for nothing but some second or 3rd class school. He was OK when he was gonna be a gooner, but when it was apparent he wasn't (like so many others in the past who have moved on from OU to another school) going to benefit OU, the OU loyalists pummeled him.....and those facts are indeed facts, and speak for themselves......
Paul, doesnt it just suck knowing that when OU beat your once-a-decade ranked Booners, that was exactly the thing to put OU into the lead in BCS? Beating a ranked team by 20 in a half empty stadium on national tv. Great job Booner
Booners are just as bad as the Whorns when it comes to whining. In fact, may even be a little better at it since they cant win and get more opportunities each year.
Bozworth was right, orange makes me puke. I say any shade of orange.
I'm "positive" Okie incarcerates more women than any other state.
I'm "positive" Okies overall health ranks dead last in the country.
Shall I offer you some more "positives"??
He hasn't come close.
Good old predictable gaggies.
Whatever team you normally choose to root for, the nasty ugly north orange aggies I presume, will never even have a sniff of this game.
It's pretty sad and pathetic that instead of finding ways of bolstering your own players and team you have to try, and fail, to slander your betters.
Go back to raping livestock and being a great empty seat at Nose-Pickens....
My hope is that these guys get stomped today......
Iglesias confirms my worst fears about early Sooner teams. I still think our D and kicking teams are sufficiently lame that we can't win the NC.
But, I am happy to be proven wrong.