We're No. 2: Oklahoma, Ohio State have a lot in common
OU Football Sooner fans empathize with Buckeyes’ big-game struggles
JAKE TROTTER
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Published: August 16, 2009
Modified: August 23, 2009 at 11:48 pm
NORMAN — Sam Rampey is relieved to be living in Oklahoma, for at least one reason.
Illustration by Chris Schoelen, The Oklahoman Graphics
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Everywhere else he goes, he hears about it. People ridiculing Ohio State, his Ohio State, for its bowl-game blunders and big-game blowouts.
"Sometimes it’s not even football fans saying things,” said Rampey, a native of
Dayton,
Ohio, who bleeds scarlet, with a touch of gray. "But I don’t catch any grief in Oklahoma.”
In the Sooner State, folks not only understand Rampey, they empathize.
Oklahoma and Ohio State have much in common: storied college football programs, each boasting seven national titles. Ohio-bred coaches who have resurrected dominance at both schools this decade, bringing home national championships in just their second seasons on the job.
But lately, fans of OU and Ohio State are joined by another, more infamous commonality: being No. 2.
Of the last six
BCS National Championships, five have been lost by either OU or Ohio State. And only one of those defeats came by less than double digits.
It goes beyond that.
Ohio State has lost five straight to Top 5 teams. OU hasn’t won a BCS bowl game since 2002. It’s hard to believe with all the promise the two programs held at the beginning of the decade.
Bob Stoops’
Sooners, coming from nowhere to shock high-powered
Florida State in the
Orange Bowl.
Two years later,
Jim Tressel’s Buckeyes, overcoming long odds to topple defending champ
Miami in overtime.
"Both national championships were like movie screenplays,” said
Shaun McGinnis, a Buckeye grad now residing in Norman.
Since, games on the big screen have become horror flicks, beginning with
Kansas State’s 35-7 hammering of OU in the 2003
Big 12 Championship.
"I sat there watching on TV dumbfounded, horrified by what an utter wipeout it was of a team that was on its way to the national title game,” said
ESPN commentator
Skip Bayless, who grew up in
Oklahoma City and remains an avid Sooner fan. "It was one of the all-time embarrassments as a fan to have to sit and watch.
"From that point on, it’s been big-game loss after big-game loss. ”
Same goes for Ohio State.
The Buckeyes waltzed into the 2006 season national championship game against
Florida, and appeared destined for another title after
Ted Ginn Jr. took the opening kickoff to the house.
Buckeye fans have yet to see a big-game highlight worth remembering since.
"It’s such a big heartbreak,” McGinnis said. "In all honesty, the games were more fun when we were 9-3 and didn’t expect so much all the time.
"The programs are at that level where all you can be is disappointed because the expectation is always to win.”
Sooner fans feel his pain.
Of more than 100 OU fans polled last weekend during Meet The Sooners Day, one-third said they’d rather see OU win the
Cotton Bowl this season than lose the national title game again.
"Another loss in the BCS title game would be devastating,” said
Jon Parke of Yukon.
Not long ago, it seemed OU was invincible in the big game. Even against
Ohio State.
In 1977, Bayless traveled to
Columbus to cover the first meeting between OU and Ohio State for the
Los Angeles Times. The night before, Bayless had a drink at the team hotel with longtime friend and OU graduate assistant coach
Gary Gibbs.
"He looked me right in the eye,” Bayless recalled, "and said, ‘If it comes down to the last second, you can book it, we will win this game because of who we are and what we believe we are. We’re mentally tougher than they are.’ It gave me goosebumps.”
The next day, after missing a 2-point conversion to tie, the Sooners recovered an onside kick down 28-26 to give
Uwe von Schamann a shot to win the game with a 41-yard field goal.
"I heard that thump of foot on ball, and it rose and split the uprights,” Bayless said. "My first thought was, ‘Gary Gibbs knew exactly what he was talking about.’”
Over time, that quality Gibbs had described to Bayless became known as "Sooner Magic.”
"When we got in big games, we knew we were going to win,” von Schamann said. "We lost games here and there. But we came back many times. If there was time still left on the clock, we knew we could win. I’m used to seeing that Sooner Magic. Right now, it’s not happening. It’s not there.
"But I’m sure it will come back.”
Fans from both schools have been waiting for anything magical for some time now, to no avail.
And the longer the wait, the more frequent the punch lines.
"Right now, it’s undeniable with Ohio State. They are a national laughingstock,” said
Bruce Hooley, who hosts a sports-talk radio show in Columbus with
ESPN College GameDay analyst
Kirk Herbstreit. "Herby canvases the country; he says he’s never seen Ohio State’s reputation lower than it is now.”
Said Bayless: "OU has developed, to some extent, a negative mystique, ‘We will lay an egg in the big game,’ which is terrible.”
Despite that, few programs have been as successful overall or won as many games recently as OU or Ohio State. Combined, the two schools are 193-42 (.821 winning percentage) this decade. The Buckeyes have won four consecutive
Big Ten titles. OU has won six Big 12 championships this decade, including three straight.
"People tend to forget that,” said
Evan Ritz, a Sooner fan enrolled at the
University of Maryland. "Yeah, they choked, or people say they choke a lot. But they’re one of two teams to make it there. That’s an amazing feat in of itself, that they get there so many times.”
At least Sooner and Buckeye fans can find solace in one another.
Just last weekend,
Rick Knapp, president of OU’s Touchdown Club, went to a
Colorado Rockies baseball game. Knapp, wearing an OU shirt, parked next to a car with a Buckeye license plate.
Said Knapp, "The first thing the guy said to me was, ‘Do people ask you why you can’t win the big game all the time, too?’ I told him, ‘Yeah, and I get sick of it.’”
That sentiment makes 2009 a critical season for fans from both programs.
In Week 2, the Buckeyes have a home date with No. 4 USC, which beat the Buckeyes 35-3 last year.
"It’s one of the most important games Ohio State has had in a long, long time,” said Jack Park, a radio commentator and Ohio State football historian who has written four books about the Buckeyes. "A win will put Ohio State in the national championship race.
"But a loss will solidify what a lot of people have been saying about the program.”
OU, meanwhile, received a boost days after the national-championship loss to Florida.
Heisman winner Sam Bradford and fellow potential first-round NFL Draft picks
Jermaine Gresham,
Gerald McCoy and
Trent Williams announced their intentions to remain at OU.
Now, despite the recent past, fans are holding hope this will be the year.
"Here at OU, and it’s the same at Ohio State, fans expect to win national championships,” said
Steve Owens, OU’s Heisman winner of 1969. "When I talk to the fans out there, the fans really love this football team and coaching staff.
"We haven’t given up. We believe this is the year we can win the national championship.”
Text "Sooners” to 65360 today for your chance to win 2 tickets to OU vs. BYU in
Dallas, Sept. 5.
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lmao
name a national championship team that replaces 4 lineman nope..... no chance. theres one thing oklahoma is good at choking
0-5
bummer sooner!
The 2009 Sooners have the potential to be THE greatest of all of Stoops' teams. I have already placed bets in Vegas that they will win the conference and the national championship.
BOOMER!
We have enough strong play on both offense and defense to make it back for a rematch with Florida or who ever else emerges as the team to beat in the Rose Bowl this season. I think it will happen but OU must take care of business first.
Last thing take a walk through the Boomer Sooners Barry Switzer Center with ALL THOSE TRPPHIES!!!!!
OU VS BYU...let the 2009 season begin...BOOMER!!!!
The only game that the Sooners should be embarrassed about is the USC title game in Miami.