Oklahoma Stuns Alabama

This was not supposed to happen. Alabama has now lost two in a row. Alabama lost with weeks to prepare. Oklahoma won with weeks to prepare. Alabama made inexcusable mistakes. A non SEC team beat Alabama. A QB most folks do not know outplayed Alabama's defense and counterpart A.J. McCarron. Bob Stoops beat Nick Saban despite giving him inspiration with his SEC hype is all propaganda. Alabama's NFL-caliber offensive line was embarrassed. etc. etc. There are many ways to analyze this game and the focus can easily remain on the "wow" factor of Oklahoma, of all programs, knocking off Alabama in a BCS game. The main benefit is to Bob Stoops's resume as he and his Sooners had become a second tier national power unable to compete with programs like Alabama (who could) or even LSU, Oregon, etc. Once the lost to Texas this year the Sooners disappeared from the national media. They clearly regrouped and only lost one game the rest of the way, on the road to Baylor. But until they beat Oklahoma State they had been largely forgotten. And suddenly as an underdog of all things they have thrived. The pressure of being a Sooner has been lifted somewhat and the team seems to be enjoying themselves. It helps that a young quarterback like Trevor Knight could emerge on such a big stage, but the reality is that Oklahoma has always had good coaches and good talent. They finally, with the help of a great offensive game plan, put it all together while showing the world that Alabama is human. As for Bama the main question now is how they adapt to handle spread offenses. They will have to pull away from trying to beat everyone up as in some circumstances yesterday their advantage in size did not help against a team playing hurry up with fast players. I also believe that they must improve their schedule as a way to prepare the squad for January. It has not hurt them in title games because they played an over-matched Notre Dame squad, an LSU team in a rematch and a Texas team that would have given them a much better game if its star QB did not get hurt. Oklahoma's schedule down the stretch, which included, from October 1 on, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Kansas State (plus clunkers Kansas and Iowa state) prepared them much better than Alabama's schedule of Georgia State, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Chattanooga plus a middling Mississippi State and two ranked teams LSU and Auburn. The joke schedules that have helped them get into title games hurt them this year. The Crimson Tide play an even weaker schedule next year, which will get them into the four-team playoff. Who knows what will happen from there.

Remember When

Opening week of school for my daughter wrecked my schedule last week, but I will make up for it for this week as there are plenty of topics to discuss. There were a number of big games to write up for our weekly Remember When series, so I will do one now and another for this week on Saturday. As always, there recaps can be found in our book The USA TODAY College Football Encyclopedia.

1981 Orange Bowl: Oklahoma 18 Florida State 17

There were quarterbacks with bigger reputations tossing pigskins in college ranks in 1980, but Oklahoma (10-2) coach Barry Switzer would not have wished to replace his QB J.C. Watts with any of them before team's final Orange Bowl possession. Watts ended his collegiate career with heroics, needing only 46 secs to march OU 78y to TD on 11y pass to WR Steve Rhodes. Watts, who finished with 128y passing and 48y rushing, then threw winning 2-pt conv pass to TE Forrest Valora with 1:27 left. On final drive, Watts (7-12/128y, TD) completed 4 passes for 73y, including 42y strike to Rhodes that took Sooners to Florida State 35YL. Seminoles (10-2) had taken 17-10 lead with 3:53 left when CB Bobby Butler pounced on flub of snap by K-P Michael Keeling in Sooners EZ. Game had been scoreless until final min of 1st H when TB Ricky Williams (19/99y) gave Noles lead with 10y TD run. Sooners had time for quick drive to 53y FG by K Keeling as time elapsed in 2nd Q. Oklahoma took its 1st lead at 10-7 by cashing in opening possession of 3rd Q with 78y march to 4y TD run by HB David Overstreet. Florida State K Bill Capece kicked tying 19y FG at end of 3rd Q. Florida State surprisingly won rushing battle 212y to 156y, which happened infrequently in victories by Oklahoma. Sooners had now notched 3 straight Orange Bowl wins, while Watts had pair of wins and 2 Orange Bowl MVPs.