4 posts tagged “oklahoma”

Found a great article on Huskers.com on this historic matchup of two former Big 8 powerhouse programs.  I agree with part of the article, Colorado was NEVER Nebraska's rival. 

Nebraska's biggest football rival makes its once-every-four-year stop in Lincoln Saturday, and the Cornhuskers aren't about to waste a golden opportunity like this to show Oklahoma how much the Huskers respect their program, especially since the Sooners have played a big role in NU's own rise to national prominence.

The level of competition, of course, will determine if ABC made a good decision to put this game in prime time under the bright lights of its television cameras. But one thing is certain. It's a unique chance to showcase what a good rivalry stands for and how much one program respects the other program.

Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne decided last spring to invite Oklahoma's major individual award winners to Lincoln for a Friday night banquet at the Champions Club. Then, at halftime, OU's marquee players and coaches will be honored at the same time we introduce our own legends to another record sellout crowd.

It would be nice to say that only in Nebraska can something like this happen. But the truth is, Osborne's decision is merely a reciprocating gesture to a class move made last year by OU Athletic Director Joe Castiglione to honor the 1971 Game of the Century participants in Norman.

So get ready Husker fans. Start warming up now to show your appreciation for OU's four living Heisman Trophy winners - Steve Owens, Billy Sims, Jason White and Sam Bradford. They will be introduced Saturday along with Nebraska Heisman winners Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier and Eric Crouch.

Other Husker major award winners who will attend this weekend's festivities are Trev Alberts, Tommie Frazier, Larry Jacobson, Dave Rimington, Will Shields, Dean Steinkuhler, Aaron Taylor and Zach Wiegert. Other Sooner major award winners who will be in Lincoln are Brian Bosworth, Tom Brahaney, Tony Casillas, Rickey Dixon, Josh Heupel, Greg Pruitt, J.D. Roberts, Derrick Strait and Joe Washington.

Osborne, Switzer Equally Popular in Rival States

This is just a guess, but look for Barry Switzer to get the same kind of ovation that Turner Gill, Barry Alvarez and Frank Solich got when they popped up on the big screen in Nebraska's NCAA record 300^th consecutive sellout celebration.

Memorial Stadium will be rocking, and Switzer will be smiling, waving and ingratiating himself to Husker fans who had a hard time liking him when he kept breaking their hearts. But they respect him now because the emotional wounds have healed, and they realize that he set a benchmark that forced Nebraska to get better and better and better.

Saturday night, tradition will frame a pair of 5-3 teams that have always set higher standards for themselves and will never lose sight of those who have won so much before them. Bob Devaney and Chuck Fairbanks may have been the icons for their respective programs in the early 1960s, but Osborne and Barry Switzer certainly continued the unparalleled standards of excellence set by their predecessors.

And believe this - both states have a healthy respect for each other. "When Barry comes to Nebraska, he's still one of the most popular attractions for banquets and other events," Osborne said last week, adding that he gets a similar reception whenever he speaks in Oklahoma.

Osborne thinks he knows why Nebraska and Oklahoma play every game against each other with respect instead of rancor. "For almost 30 years in a row, the winner of the Nebraska-Oklahoma game determined the Big 12 champion and an Orange Bowl berth," he said. "Most of the time, we were both in the Top 10, and sometimes, we were both in the Top 5.

"OU went through a dip in the '90s, and we went through ours more recently," Osborne said. "Most of the time, the games were highly competitive. They were never nasty. There was never any trash talk. Games were always played very hard with proper respect shown on both sides. The fans of both schools picked up on that healthy respect for each other, so this has been a great rivalry, but never a bitter rivalry."

And that fact alone puts the NU-OU football rivalry in a league of its own.

A month ago, a Huskers.com poll asked fans to name Nebraska's biggest rival in football. A total of 12,310 of you cast a vote, and 7,159 - or 58 percent said Oklahoma is our biggest rival. Colorado and Missouri each received 19 percent of the total vote with CU edging Mizzou by 80 votes - 2,376 to 2,296. Kansas (228 votes) finished fourth with 2 percent of the vote, and K-State (131) and Iowa State (120) each garnered 1 percent.

Osborne: Rivalries Cannot Be Declared

Rivalries, Osborne said, cannot be declared like Colorado tried to do with Nebraska when he was still the head coach. They must be earned through tradition, a consistently high level of play and an acknowledgement from both schools that they are indeed rivals.

Unlike Michigan-Ohio State and USC-UCLA, the NU-OU rivalry thrives and prospers because the Huskers and Sooners have decidedly different recruiting bases. OU recruits Texas primarily, and NU recruits the entire country to complement the Huskers' base that includes important forays into Texas.

"While we have recruited many of the same players, we've never been embroiled in recruiting battles like Oklahoma-Texas or some of the other big rivalries," Osborne said. "We recruit a lot of the players they don't and vice versa."

Last year, when OU hosted Nebraska the night before the game in Norman, Switzer said: "We could never do something like this with Texas."

Recruiting was one big reason why, but former Husker All-America defensive tackle John Dutton was struck by something else Switzer said that evening - that OU coaches, players and fans have never quite grasped how Nebraska has been able to beat the Sooners so often with players they never would have considered recruiting themselves.

Dutton's answer to that is a simple one. "We were always in better physical condition than the teams we played against," he said, "and everyone pushed everyone in practice every single day. It was a relentless mindset. From the scout team to the first team, no one would even think about losing."

The NU-OU rivalry proves that respect can be an integral part of an intense rivalry, and Osborne said Nebraska lobbied to keep the annual game intact when the Big 12 was organizing into two divisions. "It's my understanding that because Oklahoma's prime recruiting ground was Texas, they preferred to be in the South," he said.

"So I guess they were leaning more toward their rivalry with Texas than ours," Osborne said. "We tried to find a way to keep our game going on an annual basis, but it would throw the conference structure out of kilter, so we are where we are now. We still have the same respect for each other, but the rivalry just isn't the same when you don't get to play each other every year."

HA!  They wish!!!! 














That's right, Oklahoma was beaten by two, yes TWO school yard football plays the "Hook and Lateral", and then the "Statue of Liberty" plays.  I love college football.  :)  Well that and seeing Oklahoma lose, especially to a team like Boise State.