Oklahoma starts out every season with the goal of winning the Big 12 Championship and, with a lot of hard work, discipline and some well-placed good luck, hopefully putting themselves in position to contend for a national championship. Over the past 11 years, coach Bob Stoops’ Sooners have achieved a level of success like no other in the world of college football.
All the Sooners have done during that time is win seven Big 12 Championships (out of eight appearances), and play in seven BCS bowl games, including four times for the national championship, which they won for the seventh time in school history in 2000.
Only two other schools in the country from BCS conferences have come close to equaling what Oklahoma has accomplished on the gridiron in the new millennium: Ohio State (Big Ten) and USC (Pac-10).
The difference is that OU’s conference titles were won outright as a result of a conference championship game, while both Ohio State and USC heretofore have played in leagues that did not hold championship games. As a result, the Buckeyes and Trojans have been co-champions several times.
Despite this stellar resume, the Sooners are more widely recognized around the country for having lost five of the six BCS games they’ve played in since their 2000 national championship season.
After a one-year absence from a BCS postseason game (the Sooners defeated Stanford in the Sun Bowl a year ago after playing Florida in the BCS National Championship in Jan. 2009), the 2010 Big 12 champions are headed back to the Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium (home of the NFL Arizona Cardinals) in Glendale, Ariz., for the third time in the last five years. The Sooners’ opponent this time is Big East-champion Connecticut, which brings an 8-4 record to its BCS matchup with seventh-ranked Oklahoma.
The Sooners may be very familiar with this Valley of the Sun venue, but not in a fond way. The Fiesta Bowl is the site of two of OU’s most memorable meltdowns in recent history and two of the biggest upsets in BCS bowl history.
The 2006 Oklahoma team, which included All-American and now All-Pro Adrian Peterson, fell victim to Boise State in a 43-42 overtime thriller that may go down in history as one of the classic bowl games of all time. Then, a year later, the once-again heavily favored Sooners were literally run over by a more highly motivated West Virginia team, losing by three touchdowns. Stoops harshly summed up the West Virginia loss in one word: “embarrassing.”
Given this disturbing history, it’s probably fair to say that Stoops’ troops are not underestimating their Fiesta Bowl opponent this time around. For the third consecutive time, Oklahoma enters its Fiesta Bowl game with an 11-2 record and a high national ranking. As the champions of the Big East, Connecticut earned the conference’s automatic-qualifier BCS bowl bid, but college football experts and media around the country have been highly critical of the Huskies’ BCS selection, arguing that there were numerous other teams from BCS conferences considerably more worthy than any team out of the Big East this year.
Consequently, the Oklahoma-Connecticut Fiesta Bowl matchup is being viewed as the biggest mismatch in BCS history. This is not something that Oklahoma fans want to hear, or even think about.
The Sooners have their own axe to grind, and they really don’t care what the rest of the country has to say about OU’s past Fiesta failures, and even less so about what the oddsmakers are saying about their opponent’s chances in this game.
“We want to prove that even though we’ve lost two times before, we are still a team that can play in the BCS,” Sooners senior offensive tackle Eric Mensik said earlier this week during a practice session in Arizona.
As they have all season, Connecticut will rely on its offensive line and the strong running of junior Jordan Todman, who has gone over 100 yards in 11 of his last 14 regular-season games and gained 1,574 yards on the ground, with 14 touchdowns, this season.
“If they have success running the ball, it’s going to be a long night,” said OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables. “Their philosophy forces you to be disciplined in what you’re doing and to match their physicality.”
Connecticut will have its own challenges trying to slow down Sooners sophomore quarterback Landry Jones, All-America wide-receiver Ryan Broyles and OU’s potent passing offense, ranked fourth nationally. Jones set a school record this year for yards passing, throwing for nearly 4,300 yards, an average of 329 yards a game, 35 touchdowns and only 11 interceptions. Connecticut will counter with a pass defense ranked 40th in the country.
This will be standout senior running back DeMarco Murray’s final game in a Sooners uniform and could be the final game for Broyles and linebacker Travis Lewis, who are considering forgoing their senior seasons and declaring for the NFL draft.
This is what Stoops had to say about Connecticut: “These guys are on a five-game winning streak. They have an All-American running back and are a well disciplined football team. Just two games ago, they played Cincinnati (who OU beat by just three points early in the season) and beat them by 21 points.
“So, it will be a challenge like they always are,” he said. “Anytime you’re playing another conference champion, those are tough games.”
Stoops has seen this movie before. As New Year’s night ticks down, we’ll know if his team has bought in to what their sage coach is selling. Otherwise, the Sooners could become the punch line for the two biggest upsets in Bowl Championship Series history.
Big 12 Examiner’s prediction: OKLAHOMA 41, Connecticut 24
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