From: wilkins@scubed.com (Darin Wilkins)
Subject: Re: Who do you think will win it all??
Organization: S-CUBED, A Division of Maxwell Labs; San Diego CA
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 02:37:48 GMT

In article <Bsxo3G.FCG@acsu.buffalo.edu> v262xxve@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Timothy C Pitts) writes:
>In article <1992Aug12.203850.17885@spdc.ti.com>, dostalik@epcot.spdc.ti.com (Bill Dostalik) writes...

>#Coming close isn't doing it.  And they *haven't* come close, as you say.
>#They haven't even come within two *seasons* of doing it.  Sure, if the close
>#games had gone the other way... But, by that reasoning, the OU streak could
>#have been over 60 victories.  I just think there are too many good teams out
>#there these days.

>Okay, let's turn this thing around:  if Oklahoma had *played* any of the 
>tough teams in their era, they might not have won those 47 games in a row.

Well, it's not true that they didn't play *any* tough teams.  I think
one of the wins came in the Orange Bowl over Maryland, who was ranked
#1 at the time.  However, it is quite true that most of their schedule
was pretty soft.  Nebraska was down at the time and the Big 8 was
derisively, but accurately, called 'Oklahoma and the 7 Dwarfs'.

>Maybe if Oklahoma had played in a bowl game after the '54 and '56 seasons,
>the streak wouldn't have been that long.  If Miami, Notre Dame, or any
>other team would have done that in their streaks, they'd have been taken
>to task, Oklahoma wasn't.

Oklahoma wasn't taken to task because they had no voice in the matter.
At that time, the Big 8 conference had a stupid rule that prevented
the same team playing in the Orange Bowl 2 years in a row.  Although
OU won the Big 8 every year, they could only go to the Orange Bowl
every other year.  And the contract between the Big 8 and the Orange
Bowl prevented the conference champ from going to any other bowl.  So
the '54 and '56 teams *had* to stay at home.

> You'll notice that the two close games I chose
>required only one play to be changed in each (I didn't, for example, say
>"If Miami had beat FSU in '89" since they lost that game handily):  the
>Giftopolous interception in the Fiesta and the questionable call in the 
>ND game.  Two plays and five points were the difference between the 
>Oklahoma streak and a comparable Miami one.  The Oklahoma streak might
>have been extended by ten or so games if there were some reason to believe
>that Oklahoma could just as easily have won the ND game as lost it, but
>I don't think that was the case.  The streak was preceded by a loss and
>a tie, so don't look for help on that end.

You are correct that ND dominated the game that ended the winning
streak, even though the score was only 7-0.  Actually, it was the ND
defense that shut down the OU offense.  The OU defense played well
enough to win, but the offense was stuffed.  I recall that OU coach Bud
Wilkinson was asked after the game, whether he would have tried for a
2-point conversion and a win if they had scored a TD late in the game,
or would he have settled for a tie by kicking the XP.  He replied that
he didn't know what he would have done.  He would have liked to have
gone for the win, but he had no confidence that the offense could have
gained the necessary 3 yards at the goalline, since they were unable to
gain 3 yards at any other point on the field.  That signifies a
thorough domination.

I've hated ND ever since!
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college