2008 Texas vs. Oklahoma football game
Encyclopedia
The 2008 Oklahoma vs. Texas football game, played October 11, 2008, was the 103rd meeting between the University of Oklahoma
and The University of Texas at Austin
in a college football
game. The annual game between the Texas Longhorns
and the Oklahoma Sooners
is called the Red River Shootout. It is considered by college football coaches to be one of the three greatest rivalry games in college football, and Fox Sports
says the rivalry includes some of the most unusual traditions in the sport. The game often has conference or national title significance and the series is unusual in that it is played at a neutral site instead of the home teams' stadium.
The 2008 Texas Longhorn football team
(variously "Texas" or "UT" or the "Horns") was coached by head football coach Mack Brown
and led on the field by quarterback
Colt McCoy
. The 2008 Oklahoma Sooners football team
(variously "Oklahoma" or "OU") was coached by Bob Stoops
with Sam Bradford
at quarterback. This was the sixth game of the 2008 season for both teams. Texas came into the game with a 5-0 record and a #5 ranking. Oklahoma was also 5-0 and ranked #1. Both teams were 1-0 in conference play. Since the two teams are both in the South Division of the Big 12 Conference
, winning this game would be an important step towards winning the Division and possibly the Conference. For either team, a loss would likely eliminate hope of them playing in the BCS National Championship Game.
Prior to the game, Oklahoma was favored by 6½ points. Texas won the game, 45–35. It was the highest scoring event in the history of the rivalry, and it was seen by the most fans - a record 92,182. ESPN
analyst Ivan Maisel called the game "one of the best college football games of this or any season."
and the Texas Longhorns
are two of the most storied programs in college football. Prior to 2008 each school had participated in college football for more than 100 years. They are home to nationally-known traditions from the Sooner Schooner
and the RUF/NEKS
at Oklahoma to Bevo
and the Hook 'em Horns
of Texas.
The annual OU/UT football game is called the Red River Shootout, and it is considered to be one of the greatest rivalry games in all of college sports. It is the second longest running rivalry for the Longhorns, behind the one with Texas A&M. Since 1929 the game has been held at the Cotton Bowl
in Dallas, Texas
typically in mid-October with the State Fair of Texas
occurring adjacent to the stadium. Prior to 2008, Texas led the series 57–40–5.
In the week prior to facing the Oklahoma Sooners
, UT fans conduct their traditional Torchlight Parade and Rally. The rally first took place in 1916 prior to a game versus Texas A&M, but since 1986 it has been an annual event held exclusively during the week prior to the Texas–OU game. Another annual tradition is the running of game balls by the schools' Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs. Each school's ROTC program uses a relay running system to run one game ball all the way from their respective campus to Dallas. Once there, they participate against each other in a football scrimmage, with the winner taking home a rivalry trophy and bragging rights.
The 2008 matchup was officially called the Red River Rivalry, but the game is better known by its traditional name, the Red River Shootout. The game was played at a neutral site, the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas, Texas, amid the atmosphere of the Texas State Fair which was being held adjacent to the Cotton Bowl. Dallas is approximately half the distance between the two school campuses, and the stadium is divided down the 50-yard line, with half of the stadium clad in the "crimson and cream" colors of Oklahoma, and the other half wearing the burnt orange and white of Texas. Three rivalry trophies
are presented to the winning of each year's contest. The anticipation for the 2005 meeting was especially keen since it marked the 100th Red River Shootout.
The game typically has conference or even national significance. From 1945 through 2004, one or both of the two teams has been ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation coming into 60 out of 65 games. Prior to the 2005 game, Texas held an advantage in the all-time series 55-39-5, which included a 43-35-4 edge in Dallas, but Oklahoma had won 5 consecutive games, including the worst loss ever for a Texas team in the series. That was the longest losing streak for the Longhorns going back to the 1950s and during those five years the Sooners 189 points to 59 points by UT. Those five straight losses had helped build a reputation for Mack Brown that he was not capable of winning in so-called "Big Games". Four times during those five years, Texas' loss to Oklahoma was what prevented them from playing in the Big 12 Conference Championship Game.
Due to the breadth of sports offered and the quality of the programs, Texas was selected as "America's Best Sports College" in a 2002 analysis performed by Sports Illustrated
.
Texas ranks as the second most winning program in college football history, in terms of total wins, having passed Notre Dame
with win 831 on November 27, 2008. As of the end of the 2007 season, the Longhorns' all-time record is 820-315-33 (.716). Only the University of Michigan
have won more games and a greater percentage of games played than Texas, which recorded its 800th victory with the Longhorns' 41-38 win over the USC Trojans
in the 2006 BCS National Championship Game
at the Rose Bowl
.
One of the top-three teams in the all-time list of both total wins and winning percentage., the University of Texas has traditionally been considered among the elite of college football. From 1936 to 2008, the team finished the season in the top ten of at least one of the two major polls 27 times, or more than one-third of the time. The 2005 national championship team
that coach Mack Brown fielded in 2005 has been called one of the most memorable in college football history by College Football News.
OU has the most victories and best winning percentage of any team since the end of World War II. The Sooners have earned seven AP National Championships (1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, 2000) in that span and are recognized by the NCAA for 16 titles (in all sports; the NCAA does not recognize a football champion in FBS). They have been ranked #1 in the AP and BCS polls more than any other team, have been ranked in the top 5 of the AP and BCS polls more than any other team, and have scored more points than any other team in the modern era. Naturally, Oklahoma had high expectations for the year. Their pre-season ranking of number four in the nation and the fact they had made it to the national championship game in both 2003 and 2004 only served to support this assumption.
The 2007 game was a back-and-forth affair that was ultimately won by Oklahoma 28–21. OU's freshman quarterback, Sam Bradford
, was 21–of–32 for 244 yards and 3 touchdowns. UT's McCoy was 19–of–26 for 324 yards and two touchdowns. That was the most passing yardage against an Oklahoma team since the 2004 National Championship game vs. USC
. The Longhorns committed two costly turnovers. McCoy threw one interception and Jamaal Charles lost a fumble inside the Oklahoma 5 yard-line on what would otherwise have been a touchdown scoring run. For the second straight week, the Texas defense did not cause any turnovers.
Texas entered the 2008 season ranked number 11 in the AP Poll
and number 10 in the Coaches Poll
. They won their first four games to rise to number 5 in the national rankings. Texas began Big 12 Conference
play on October 4, 2008 with a trip to Boulder, Colorado
and a win over the Colorado Buffaloes
.
For either team to play in the national title game, that team had to end up ranked No. 1 or No. 2
at the end of the regular season. Since 1998 (the year the Bowl Championship Series
was formed) through 2004, 9 of the 14 teams were unbeaten going into the championship game. The only time the national champion has not been unbeaten during that stretch was in 2003 when LSU
and USC
claimed a share of the title as each finished with one loss. As Ohio State
tackle Kirk Barton
once said "There’ll probably be two undefeated teams at the end of the road and if you’re not one of them you’re probably not going to be playing for the championship. So you’ve got to treat every game like it’s the Super Bowl
. You only get one opportunity."
Prior to the game, Oklahoma was favored by 6½ points. The weather forecast called for a game-time temperature of 84 °F (28.9 °C).
and deferred to the second half. Oklahoma scored a touchdown
on their first possession. Texas was able to answer with a field goal
to make the score Texas-3, Oklahoma-7. OU and UT traded punt
s and there were no other scores in the first quarter. Prior to the game against Texas, Oklahoma had outscored their opponents by a total of 103 to 3 in the first quarter.
, UT's Jordan Shipley
fielded the ball at the four-yard line and took the ball 96-yards for a touchdown. The play was nominated as an AT&T Play of the Week.
Bradford threw a pass
for another OU touchdown, and UT answered with a rushing touchdown. On OU's next possession, Bradford threw his first of two interceptions for the day. As a result, UT was able to score a field goal as time expired in the first half. OU took a one-point lead into half-time
.
ESPN
analyst Ivan Maisel called the game "one of the best college football games of this or any season" and said "If you went to see your team play Saturday, if you didn't have the good fortune of wearing burnt orange or crimson in Fair Park on a sunlit fall Saturday, if you made the mistake of watching some other game, get thee to YouTube. Buy, cheat or steal your way to a copy and watch No. 5 Texas beat No. 1 Oklahoma 45-35."
Austin American-Statesman
sportswriter Kirk Bohls said "The win is the third-biggest of Brown's 11-year stint at Texas, trailing only the landmark victories over Ohio State and the unbeatable USC Trojans in the magical 2005 season." Sportswriter Cedric Golden, writing for the same paper, said UT's offensive coordinator Greg Davis called the best game plan of his career. Golden said Davis' plan for this game was even better than the game plan in the 2006 Rose Bowl
, in which Texas won the national championship.
. They finished their season with wins over Kansas, Baylor, Texas A&M and Ohio State in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.
Oklahoma would go undefeated in Big 12 play after the game, scoring several major wins and setting an NCAA record (5) for most consecutive games scoring 60 or more points, including a 65-21 blowout of Texas Tech that created a 3-way Big XII South tie. In the end, due to Big 12 Conference rules stating that if there is a three-way tie for division champion, the team with the highest BCS ranking plays for the Big 12 Championship, Oklahoma played Missouri in the Big 12 Championship game and won. They then faced the Tim Tebow led Florida Gators in the 2008 National Championship game, where they lost, 24-14.
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
and The University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
in a college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
game. The annual game between the Texas Longhorns
Texas Longhorns football
The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate football team representing The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. The team currently competes in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big 12 Conference which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National...
and the Oklahoma Sooners
Oklahoma Sooners football
The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma . The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association...
is called the Red River Shootout. It is considered by college football coaches to be one of the three greatest rivalry games in college football, and Fox Sports
Fox College Sports
Fox College Sports is a group of three United States digital cable networks, FCS Atlantic, FCS Central and FCS Pacific owned by News Corporation, that specialize primarily in showing collegiate programming, live events, coaches shows & various DI, DII, & DIII content surrounding college athletics...
says the rivalry includes some of the most unusual traditions in the sport. The game often has conference or national title significance and the series is unusual in that it is played at a neutral site instead of the home teams' stadium.
The 2008 Texas Longhorn football team
2008 Texas Longhorn football team
The 2008 Texas Longhorn football team represented the University of Texas at Austin in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by Mack Brown, who has a contract lasting through the 2016 season...
(variously "Texas" or "UT" or the "Horns") was coached by head football coach Mack Brown
Mack Brown
William Mack Brown is head coach of The University of Texas at Austin Longhorn football team.Prior to his head coach position at Texas, Brown was head coach at Appalachian State, Tulane, and North Carolina. Brown is credited with revitalizing the Texas and North Carolina football programs...
and led on the field by quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
Colt McCoy
Colt McCoy
Daniel "Colt" McCoy is an American football quarterback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Browns in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft...
. The 2008 Oklahoma Sooners football team
2008 Oklahoma Sooners football team
The 2008 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in the college football season of 2008-2009. It was the 114th year of season play for the Sooners. The team was led by head coach Bob Stoops, a two-time Walter Camp Coach of the Year award winner, who has a contract...
(variously "Oklahoma" or "OU") was coached by Bob Stoops
Bob Stoops
Robert Anthony "Bob" Stoops is the head coach of the University of Oklahoma football team. During the 2000 season, Stoops led the Sooners to an Orange Bowl victory and a national championship....
with Sam Bradford
Sam Bradford
Samuel Jacob "Sam" Bradford is an American football quarterback for the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League. He was the first overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, and played college football at Oklahoma. In 2008, as a redshirt sophomore, Bradford became the second sophomore to win a...
at quarterback. This was the sixth game of the 2008 season for both teams. Texas came into the game with a 5-0 record and a #5 ranking. Oklahoma was also 5-0 and ranked #1. Both teams were 1-0 in conference play. Since the two teams are both in the South Division of the Big 12 Conference
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference of ten schools located in the Central United States, with its headquarters located in Las Colinas, a community in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Irving...
, winning this game would be an important step towards winning the Division and possibly the Conference. For either team, a loss would likely eliminate hope of them playing in the BCS National Championship Game.
Prior to the game, Oklahoma was favored by 6½ points. Texas won the game, 45–35. It was the highest scoring event in the history of the rivalry, and it was seen by the most fans - a record 92,182. ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
analyst Ivan Maisel called the game "one of the best college football games of this or any season."
The Red River Shootout
The Oklahoma SoonersOklahoma Sooners football
The Oklahoma Sooners football program is a college football team that represents the University of Oklahoma . The team is currently a member of the Big 12 Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association...
and the Texas Longhorns
Texas Longhorns football
The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate football team representing The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. The team currently competes in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big 12 Conference which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision of the National...
are two of the most storied programs in college football. Prior to 2008 each school had participated in college football for more than 100 years. They are home to nationally-known traditions from the Sooner Schooner
Sooner Schooner
The Sooner Schooner is the official mascot of the sports teams of the University of Oklahoma Sooners. Pulled by two white ponies named Boomer and Sooner, it is a scaled-down replica of the Conestoga wagon used by settlers of the Oklahoma Territory around the time of the Land Run of 1889...
and the RUF/NEKS
RUF/NEKS
The RUF/NEKS are an all-male student pep squad for the University of Oklahoma.-History:The earliest years of this student organization are not well known. The RUF/NEKS began in the late 1910s. In December 1915 at a basketball game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma A&M a group of football players were...
at Oklahoma to Bevo
Bevo (mascot)
Bevo is the name of the mascot of the sports teams at the University of Texas at Austin, a Texas longhorn steer with burnt orange coloring. The shape of the Longhorn's head and horns gives rise to the school's hand symbol and saying, Hook 'em Horns...
and the Hook 'em Horns
Hook 'em Horns
Hook 'em Horns is the slogan and hand signal of The University of Texas at Austin. Students and alumni of the university employ a greeting consisting of the phrase "Hook 'em" or "Hook 'em Horns" and also use the phrase as a parting good-bye or as the closing line in a letter or story.The gesture is...
of Texas.
The annual OU/UT football game is called the Red River Shootout, and it is considered to be one of the greatest rivalry games in all of college sports. It is the second longest running rivalry for the Longhorns, behind the one with Texas A&M. Since 1929 the game has been held at the Cotton Bowl
Cotton Bowl (stadium)
The Cotton Bowl is a stadium which opened in 1929 and became known as "The House That Doak Built" due to the immense crowds that former SMU running back Doak Walker drew to the stadium during his college career in the late 1940s. Originally known as Fair Park Stadium, it is located in Fair Park,...
in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
typically in mid-October with the State Fair of Texas
State Fair of Texas
The State Fair of Texas is an annual state fair held in Dallas, Texas . The fair season usually begins the last Friday in September and ends 24 days later. The fair is held at the historic Fair Park where it has been held since 1886. The 2012 State Fair of Texas will run from September 28th...
occurring adjacent to the stadium. Prior to 2008, Texas led the series 57–40–5.
In the week prior to facing the Oklahoma Sooners
Oklahoma Sooners
The University of Oklahoma features 19 varsity sports teams. Both men's and women's teams are called the Sooners, a nickname given to the early participants in the land rushes which initially opened the Oklahoma Indian Territory to non-native settlement. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A,...
, UT fans conduct their traditional Torchlight Parade and Rally. The rally first took place in 1916 prior to a game versus Texas A&M, but since 1986 it has been an annual event held exclusively during the week prior to the Texas–OU game. Another annual tradition is the running of game balls by the schools' Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs. Each school's ROTC program uses a relay running system to run one game ball all the way from their respective campus to Dallas. Once there, they participate against each other in a football scrimmage, with the winner taking home a rivalry trophy and bragging rights.
The 2008 matchup was officially called the Red River Rivalry, but the game is better known by its traditional name, the Red River Shootout. The game was played at a neutral site, the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas, Texas, amid the atmosphere of the Texas State Fair which was being held adjacent to the Cotton Bowl. Dallas is approximately half the distance between the two school campuses, and the stadium is divided down the 50-yard line, with half of the stadium clad in the "crimson and cream" colors of Oklahoma, and the other half wearing the burnt orange and white of Texas. Three rivalry trophies
Red River Shootout trophies
There are three Red River Shootout trophies given to the winner of the annual Red River Shootout which is a college football rivalry game between The University of Texas Longhorns and the University of Oklahoma Sooners. The trophies are the Golden Hat, the Red River Rivalry trophy and the...
are presented to the winning of each year's contest. The anticipation for the 2005 meeting was especially keen since it marked the 100th Red River Shootout.
The game typically has conference or even national significance. From 1945 through 2004, one or both of the two teams has been ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation coming into 60 out of 65 games. Prior to the 2005 game, Texas held an advantage in the all-time series 55-39-5, which included a 43-35-4 edge in Dallas, but Oklahoma had won 5 consecutive games, including the worst loss ever for a Texas team in the series. That was the longest losing streak for the Longhorns going back to the 1950s and during those five years the Sooners 189 points to 59 points by UT. Those five straight losses had helped build a reputation for Mack Brown that he was not capable of winning in so-called "Big Games". Four times during those five years, Texas' loss to Oklahoma was what prevented them from playing in the Big 12 Conference Championship Game.
Prior to the game
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
.
Texas ranks as the second most winning program in college football history, in terms of total wins, having passed Notre Dame
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame. The team is currently coached by Brian Kelly.Notre Dame competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level, and is a founding member of the Bowl Championship Series coalition. It is an...
with win 831 on November 27, 2008. As of the end of the 2007 season, the Longhorns' all-time record is 820-315-33 (.716). Only the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
have won more games and a greater percentage of games played than Texas, which recorded its 800th victory with the Longhorns' 41-38 win over the USC Trojans
2005 USC Trojans football team
The 2005 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California in the college football season of 2005–2006, winning the Pacific-10 Conference , and playing for the NCAA Division I-A national championship...
in the 2006 BCS National Championship Game
2006 Rose Bowl
The 2006 Rose Bowl Game, played on January 4, 2006, was a football game that served as the national championship of the 2005-2006 Bowl Championship Series...
at the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
.
One of the top-three teams in the all-time list of both total wins and winning percentage., the University of Texas has traditionally been considered among the elite of college football. From 1936 to 2008, the team finished the season in the top ten of at least one of the two major polls 27 times, or more than one-third of the time. The 2005 national championship team
2005 Texas Longhorn football team
The 2005 Texas Longhorn football team represented the University of Texas at Austin during the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football season, winning the Big 12 Conference championship and the national championship. The team was coached by Mack Brown, led on offense by quarterback Vince Young, and played...
that coach Mack Brown fielded in 2005 has been called one of the most memorable in college football history by College Football News.
OU has the most victories and best winning percentage of any team since the end of World War II. The Sooners have earned seven AP National Championships (1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985, 2000) in that span and are recognized by the NCAA for 16 titles (in all sports; the NCAA does not recognize a football champion in FBS). They have been ranked #1 in the AP and BCS polls more than any other team, have been ranked in the top 5 of the AP and BCS polls more than any other team, and have scored more points than any other team in the modern era. Naturally, Oklahoma had high expectations for the year. Their pre-season ranking of number four in the nation and the fact they had made it to the national championship game in both 2003 and 2004 only served to support this assumption.
Sam Bradford
Samuel Jacob "Sam" Bradford is an American football quarterback for the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League. He was the first overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, and played college football at Oklahoma. In 2008, as a redshirt sophomore, Bradford became the second sophomore to win a...
, was 21–of–32 for 244 yards and 3 touchdowns. UT's McCoy was 19–of–26 for 324 yards and two touchdowns. That was the most passing yardage against an Oklahoma team since the 2004 National Championship game vs. USC
2004 USC Trojans football team
The 2004 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California in the 2004-2005 NCAA Division I-A college football season. Although now vacated for breaking NCAA rules, the team won the 2004 BCS National Championship by winning the 2005 Orange Bowl, that year's BCS National...
. The Longhorns committed two costly turnovers. McCoy threw one interception and Jamaal Charles lost a fumble inside the Oklahoma 5 yard-line on what would otherwise have been a touchdown scoring run. For the second straight week, the Texas defense did not cause any turnovers.
Texas entered the 2008 season ranked number 11 in the AP Poll
AP Poll
The Associated Press College Poll refers to weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation...
and number 10 in the Coaches Poll
Coaches Poll
The USA Today Coaches' Poll is the current name for a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football and Division I college basketball teams....
. They won their first four games to rise to number 5 in the national rankings. Texas began Big 12 Conference
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference of ten schools located in the Central United States, with its headquarters located in Las Colinas, a community in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Irving...
play on October 4, 2008 with a trip to Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
and a win over the Colorado Buffaloes
2008 Colorado Buffaloes football team
The 2008 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the University of Colorado at Boulder in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by Dan Hawkins and played their home games in Folsom Field.-Pre-season:...
.
For either team to play in the national title game, that team had to end up ranked No. 1 or No. 2
2005 NCAA Division I-A football rankings
Three human polls and one formulaic ranking make up the 2005 NCAA Division I-A football rankings, in addition to various publications' preseason polls. Unlike most sports, college football's governing body, the National Collegiate Athletic Association , does not bestow a National Championship title...
at the end of the regular season. Since 1998 (the year the Bowl Championship Series
Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...
was formed) through 2004, 9 of the 14 teams were unbeaten going into the championship game. The only time the national champion has not been unbeaten during that stretch was in 2003 when LSU
LSU Tigers football
The LSU Tigers football team, also known as the Fighting Tigers or Bayou Bengals, represents Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States in NCAA Division I FBS college football. Current head coach Les Miles has led the team since 2005. Since 1999 when Nick Saban took over as...
and USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
claimed a share of the title as each finished with one loss. As Ohio State
Ohio State Buckeyes football
The Ohio State Buckeyes football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of The Ohio State University. The team is a member of the Big Ten Conference of the NCAA, playing at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly Division I-A, level. The team nickname is derived from the state...
tackle Kirk Barton
Kirk Barton
Kirk Barton is a free agent American football offensive tackle. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft of the National Football League. He played college football at Ohio State....
once said "There’ll probably be two undefeated teams at the end of the road and if you’re not one of them you’re probably not going to be playing for the championship. So you’ve got to treat every game like it’s the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
. You only get one opportunity."
Prior to the game, Oklahoma was favored by 6½ points. The weather forecast called for a game-time temperature of 84 °F (28.9 °C).
First quarter
Texas won the coin tossCoin flipping
Coin flipping or coin tossing or heads or tails is the practice of throwing a coin in the air to choose between two alternatives, sometimes to resolve a dispute between two parties...
and deferred to the second half. Oklahoma scored a touchdown
Touchdown
A touchdown is a means of scoring in American and Canadian football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone.-Description:...
on their first possession. Texas was able to answer with a field goal
Field goal (football)
A field goal in American football and Canadian football is a goal that may be scored during general play . Field goals may be scored by a placekick or the now practically extinct drop kick.The drop kick fell out of favor in 1934 when the shape of the ball was changed...
to make the score Texas-3, Oklahoma-7. OU and UT traded punt
Punt (football)
In some codes of football, a punt is a play in which a player drops the ball and kicks it before it touches the ground. A punt is in contrast to a drop kick, in which the ball touches the ground before being kicked....
s and there were no other scores in the first quarter. Prior to the game against Texas, Oklahoma had outscored their opponents by a total of 103 to 3 in the first quarter.
Second quarter
The first quarter ended with Oklahoma in possession of the football. They completed that drive in the second quarter with a touchdown, extending their lead to eleven points. On the ensuing kick offKickoff (American football)
A kickoff is a method of starting a drive in American football and Canadian football. Typically, a kickoff consists of one team – the "kicking team" – kicking the ball to the opposing team – the "receiving team"...
, UT's Jordan Shipley
Jordan Shipley
Jordan Shipley is an American football player who currently plays wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League . He was drafted by Cincinnati in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft...
fielded the ball at the four-yard line and took the ball 96-yards for a touchdown. The play was nominated as an AT&T Play of the Week.
Bradford threw a pass
Forward pass
In several forms of football a forward pass is when the ball is thrown in the direction that the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line...
for another OU touchdown, and UT answered with a rushing touchdown. On OU's next possession, Bradford threw his first of two interceptions for the day. As a result, UT was able to score a field goal as time expired in the first half. OU took a one-point lead into half-time
Half-time
In some team sports such as association football and rugby, matches are played in two halves. Half-time is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match...
.
Third quarter
Texas got the ball to start the second half, but were forced to punt. Bradford threw his fourth touchdown pass of the game, to extend the OU lead to eight points. Texas answered with McCoy's only touchdown pass of the game. OU ended their next drive with an unsuccessful attempt at a fourth down conversion. Texas kicked a field goal to take a two-point lead. It was their first lead of the day, and the first time for Oklahoma to trail an opponent all season. Oklahoma scored a touchdown to take a five-point lead.Fourth quarter
In the fourth quarter, Texas answered to regain the lead, then forced Oklahoma to punt. Texas scored again with 4:02 left in the game, creating a 10-point lead that resulted in the final score. Texas won the game, 45–35. It was the highest scoring event in the history of the rivalry, and it was seen by the most fans - a record 92,182.Analysis
As a result of this game, Texas increased their lead over Oklahoma to 58-40-5 all-time in the Red River Rivalry, while Bob Stoops’ is 6-4 against the Longhorns.ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
analyst Ivan Maisel called the game "one of the best college football games of this or any season" and said "If you went to see your team play Saturday, if you didn't have the good fortune of wearing burnt orange or crimson in Fair Park on a sunlit fall Saturday, if you made the mistake of watching some other game, get thee to YouTube. Buy, cheat or steal your way to a copy and watch No. 5 Texas beat No. 1 Oklahoma 45-35."
Austin American-Statesman
Austin American-Statesman
The Austin American-Statesman is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is an award-winning publication owned by Cox Enterprises. The Newspaper places focus on issues affecting Austin and the Central Texas region....
sportswriter Kirk Bohls said "The win is the third-biggest of Brown's 11-year stint at Texas, trailing only the landmark victories over Ohio State and the unbeatable USC Trojans in the magical 2005 season." Sportswriter Cedric Golden, writing for the same paper, said UT's offensive coordinator Greg Davis called the best game plan of his career. Golden said Davis' plan for this game was even better than the game plan in the 2006 Rose Bowl
2006 Rose Bowl
The 2006 Rose Bowl Game, played on January 4, 2006, was a football game that served as the national championship of the 2005-2006 Bowl Championship Series...
, in which Texas won the national championship.
After the game
Texas later beat #11 Missouri 56-31 and #6 Oklahoma State 28-24. The following week #1 Texas lost to #6 Texas Tech 39-332008 Texas vs. Texas Tech football game
The 2008 Texas vs. Texas Tech football game was a Big 12 Conference game played between the Texas Longhorns and Texas Tech Red Raiders at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas, United States.-Pregame:...
. They finished their season with wins over Kansas, Baylor, Texas A&M and Ohio State in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.
Oklahoma would go undefeated in Big 12 play after the game, scoring several major wins and setting an NCAA record (5) for most consecutive games scoring 60 or more points, including a 65-21 blowout of Texas Tech that created a 3-way Big XII South tie. In the end, due to Big 12 Conference rules stating that if there is a three-way tie for division champion, the team with the highest BCS ranking plays for the Big 12 Championship, Oklahoma played Missouri in the Big 12 Championship game and won. They then faced the Tim Tebow led Florida Gators in the 2008 National Championship game, where they lost, 24-14.
Further reading
- Longhorns' Perfect Drive: Texas' 2005 National Championship Season Sports Publishing (January 15, 2006) ISBN 1-59670-116-1
- Sports Illustrated CFB Texas # Time Inc. Magazine Company (January 9, 2005) ISBN 1-58060-762-4
- Sports Illustrated College Football Championship Commemorative Issue 2006 The Time Inc. Magazine Company (January 6, 2006) ISBN 1-58060-758-6
- Texas Pride: Longhorn Glory Shines Through an Unforgettable Championship Season Triumph Books (January 31, 2006) ISBN 1-57243-876-2