Published November 19, 2005 11:59 pm -
Did we just see an instant classic?
Sports Editor Clay Horning on OU-Texas Tech
Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript
How about that?I’ve got to be honest. I’m not so sure about the spot. It was an incredible play and I have no idea how Danny Amendola kept hold of the ball while Darien Williams was trying to pull it away. No doubt about that. But good spot or not, I’m pretty sure the ball never crossed the yellow line spread out across the television I was watching.
But the touchdown?
It would have taken a reverse angle replay to be sure Taurean Henderson reached the goal line on the game’s final play. And for all the cameras Fox Sports Net employed, none provided the telling shot. But you know who just happened to be in the right place to make that call? Sorry Sooner Nation, but none other than the guy in the striped shirt who made the call.
And so ended, upon further review, the best game of the season.
Not just Texas Tech or Oklahoma’s, but just maybe all of college football.
Because there’s no way around it.
This was a classic.
Remember Torrance Marshall’s interception return at Texas A&M in 2000? Now pretend A&M had taken the kick and marched right back down the field and replaced the Sooners’ miracle finish with one of its own.
If you recall, the Aggies had time before those ridiculous cadets pulled their swords to defend the field.
Or just go back to last season at A&M, after Jason White and Mark Bradley provided the best finish to a Sooner victory since Marshall’s return. Only now, imagine Reggie McNeal saving one more drive for a stirring Aggie finish.
Because that’s what happened in Lubbock Saturday.
Rhett Bomar took the Sooners right down the field and made it 17-14 when he found Malcolm Kelly from 14 yards.
OU’s defense stiffened, Tech went three-and-out, punted the ball away and the Sooners took over just 51 yards from an apparent victory.
OU picked up the first 41 of those yards before Rhett Bomar handed the ball to Adrian Peterson on that same stretch play that kept going backwards so many weeks ago at UCLA. Only this time around, all Peterson did was prove there’s him and a nation full of pretenders when it comes to naming the best running back in the college game, going on about the best 13-yard touchdown run any of us will ever see.
The Sooners had done it again.