Stoops Appreciates OU-Nebraska Rivalry

NORMAN, Okla. -- Even growing up hundreds of miles away, a young Bob Stoops was taken up by the rivalry between two of the greatest programs in college football. In Chicago, Bill Callahan was watching, too, as Oklahoma and Nebraska played another game for the ages.

As they tuned in so many Saturdays ago, the youngsters couldn't have known the parts they'd play in continuing the legacy the Sooners and Cornhuskers were creating before their eyes.

"I always couldn't wait to watch it," said Stoops, years later the coach of the Sooners he rooted for decades and miles before. "As a young person, even all the way in Ohio, I probably looked more forward to watching the Oklahoma-Nebraska game than the Ohio State-Michigan game. I just did."

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He remembers growing up watching Sooners greats like quarterback Steve Owens and running back Joe Washington. As a freshman in high school, he even had silver shoes like the ones Washington sported on his way to one 100-yard game after another.

"I didn't run like Joe, but I had the shoes anyway," the Sooners coach jokes.

Years later, Stoops and his Sooners will head into another game against the Cornhuskers, but perhaps with less luster than the ones so fondly a part of his childhood.

But on Saturday, it won't be No. 1 against No. 2 like it was in the "Game of the Century" back in 1971 or "Game of the Century II" in 1987. It's not even No. 2 against No. 3 like it was only three years ago. This time, it's No. 2 in the country against, well, No. 2 in the less-than-stellar Big 12 North.

But players and coaches who participated in the rivalry over the years -- even those when Oklahoma briefly slipped from the nation's best -- warn the players of today that they shouldn't expect any less than the historical games of yesteryear.

"I don't care how they beat down the North Division is this year, Oklahoma needs to be ready to play Nebraska and vice versa," said Charlie McBride, an assistant coach at Nebraska from 1977 to 1999. "It's still one of those games where you'll feel the air around the stadium when you play Oklahoma in their stadium, same as it is in ours."

McBride says he remembers treading lightly those years when Oklahoma was regarded as an underdog when it came time to face the Cornhuskers.

"Every time you went into that game, you were scared to death because you may have been written up to be the better team, but you didn't want the players to feel that," he said.

This time, it's Oklahoma's coaches who'll be fighting the temptation for players to overlook a Nebraska squad that has four losses and comes in as a 30-point underdog.

It should help that there's still plenty on the line. Oklahoma (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) can wrap up the Big 12 South title with a win, while a loss would derail the Sooners' hopes to play in the Orange Bowl in January. Nebraska (5-4, 3-3), even with its lackluster start, can still reach a BCS game if it can emerge from the Big 12 North and win the conference title game.

"With the implications that are out there for us and really still out there for them, it's always a big game," Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables said.

A Nebraska win would, of course, be a giant upset. But teams in the rivalry have come to expect the unexpected.

Dean Blevins, a former Oklahoma quarterback who's now a TV sportscaster in Oklahoma City, says he can be thousands of miles away from home and a Nebraska fan will walk up and say, "flea flicker," remembering the trick play that won Oklahoma the 1976 game.

Former Nebraska defensive tackle Bob Newton still defines the rivalry by Nebraska's 44-14 win in 1969, only one year after Oklahoma came up with a 47-0 shutout.

So, Nebraska isn't looking at the game as impossible. As cornerback Fabian Washington said, the Cornhuskers have nothing to lose.

"We won't have to do a whole lot to get our guys ready to play this week as far as the emotional part of the game," Nebraska offensive coordinator said. "This is a special game that as you get to coach and get a chance to play that you dream of playing in."

And maybe somewhere -- in Ohio or Chicago or even farther away -- a new dream will be born.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Stoops Appreciates OU-Nebraska Rivalry

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