Sooners Pull One Out of the Air, 20-17

LINCOLN, Neb. —  This wasn’t Nebraska’s week.

In a Lincoln suburb Friday night, the police were called to a gas station to open a car locked from the inside by the owner’s dog.

Then in Memorial Stadium here Saturday, the Nebraska Cornhuskers lost to a pass-crazy bunch of Sooners from Oklahoma, 20-17.

Pass crazy?

Well, what would you call them when the Sooners throw a pass?

They did more than that, astonishingly, in the fourth quarter, when Sooner quarterback Jamelle Holieway unloaded eight times altogether and completed five to achieve the greatest comeback win of the long wishbone era.

The Cornhuskers had led most of the way and were ahead in the fourth quarter, 17-7, when Holieway struck with the appendage he usually uses to stiff-arm opponents.

In the game’s last 11 minutes, Holieway moved the Sooners three times, first to a field goal, then to the tying touchdown, 17-17, and finally to the deciding field goal as Oklahoma won another Big Eight championship.

“Keith Jackson is the greatest tight end in America, college or pro,” Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer said after Jackson had caught the two big passes of the Sooners’ two game-winning advances.

First, ending a drive that Holieway sustained for 94 yards, Jackson went to a corner of the field to get the 17-yard touchdown pass that was enough to put the Sooners in the Orange Bowl with a 17-17 tie after Tim Lashar added the point.

Next, when Oklahoma got the ball back following a Nebraska punt, Jackson needed only one hand to catch the Holieway pass that advanced the Sooners 41 yards to the Nebraska 14-yard line, where, with six seconds left, Lashar kicked the winner 31 yards.

“We didn’t want a tie,” the 6-foot 3-inch, 242-pound Sooner tight end said, speaking for himself--not Switzer, who had spent the afternoon playing for a tie.

“People say we can’t throw the ball,” Jackson gloated happily. “As you saw, we can. We were in our two-minute drill both times (at the end). And this isn’t the first time we’ve used it this year.

“People say the wishbone is no good because you can’t come from behind with only one wide receiver. They forget that a wishbone team also has another receiver on the line of scrimmage--the tight end.”

And in Oklahoma’s case, what a tight end.

And how did the Cornhuskers feel about Oklahoma’s incredible 13-point fourth-quarter rally?

“We choked,” said their best defensive player, middle guard Danny Noonan. “We had the best team--we just choked. You can do that against Iowa State and get away with it--but not Oklahoma.”

His analysis might be a little harsh. But in one instance, the Cornhuskers did try to sit on a 17-10 lead in the fourth quarter with three runs and a punt.

And in the next instance, with a tie insured in the last minute, they threw it away with quarterback Steve Taylor’s out-of-bounds scramble that stopped the clock and with an incomplete pass that also stopped the clock.

This left Holieway with 50 seconds to get the win if Switzer, at that late hour, would let him pass. And Switzer did.

And so Oklahoma (10-1) has played through its second straight undefeated Big Eight season to win another title for Switzer, whose club earned a place in the Orange Bowl again, detouring Nebraska (9-2) to the Sugar Bowl.

This extended Oklahoma’s 92-year won-lost record to 600-219-50.

On the day of the 149th straight sellout at Lincoln, a crowd of 76,198 saw it all on a cold, windy afternoon that constantly threatened to break out in a rainstorm that never came.

College football’s No. 1 winner, Switzer, who obviously has the sign on Nebraska, extended his personal record to 11-4 over Cornhusker Coach Tom Osborne.

Since 1973, when Switzer and Osborne both began as head coaches, Switzer has won 136 games, losing 25 and tying 4.

He has won 6 of his last 7 in Lincoln.

But nobody ever expected him to do it with an air force.

Nobody, perhaps, except Holieway, Jackson and Oklahoma’s swift split end, Derick Shepard. For the truth is that these three--not to mention the big pass blockers in their offensive line--are good enough to give any pass-minded coach a pass offense.

For one example, the game-tying Holieway-Jackson pass play, the one that won the championship for Oklahoma, was as well executed as you could expect of two guys playing for a sophisticated passing team.

“Jamelle had to read it all the way,” Switzer said. “Our call on that play is ‘Choice.’ Jamelle has his choice of three receivers running a post, a flat and an out. When he saw man coverage on the tight end, he went to Keith in the flat.”

Holieway said he likes the wishbone because he likes to run. “I don’t care whether I pass or run if we’re moving the ball,” he said..

At the least, shouldn’t Oklahoma be enlivening a few more games with a few more passes?

“We might ought to,” Switzer replied, perhaps thinking ahead to the Orange Bowl.

The Sooners threw only twice in the first half at Nebraska and only four times in the first three quarters.

Their one completion enabled the Sooners to catch up in the first quarter, 7-7, when the teams exchanged long scoring drives.

But in the second quarter, the sophomore Nebraska quarterback, Taylor, directed a successful field goal drive to get a lead before halftime, 10-7.

And in the third quarter, after Dana Brinson returned an Oklahoma punt 48 yards, the Cornhuskers stretched the lead 17-7 when Taylor threw a 25-yard scoring pass to split end Rod Smith.

At that stage, you wouldn’t have given a nickel for Oklahoma’s wishbone, which, in fact, wasn’t really seen thereafter.

As Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth, wearing rainbow-colored sideburns, explained: “Holieway did it with third-down magic, not with the wishbone.”

How about that, Jamelle?

“I’m only sure of one thing,” the plucky little quarterback said. “The best we’ll be (ranked) is No.2.”

At Oklahoma, he has two more years to get to No. 1.