John Shinn
When No. 15 Oklahoma faces No. 18 Oregon Saturday, it will be the programs’ third meeting in two years. If that doesn’t sound like a big deal, that’s three more times than the Sooners have faced Big 12 foes Iowa State or Missouri during the same period.
The Ducks will have played only one Pac-10 team, Stanford, as often as they have the Sooners. OU and Oregon are each other’s most familiar foe.
“Having this be the third year in a row we’re playing Oklahoma, I feel like it’s a league game almost,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said. “I mean we’re seeing way too much of them.”
After a 29-year hiatus, OU and Oregon hooked up in 2004 at Owen Field. The Sooners rolled through the Ducks 31-7, continuing a long-standing trend of lopsided routs at Oregon’s expense. The game was the fifth between the schools, with the Sooners winning all five by a combined score of 184-17.
But their last meeting was anything but lopsided.
In the 2005 Holiday Bowl, OU linebacker Clint Ingram sealed a 17-14 victory by intercepting a Brady Leaf pass with less than two minutes to go.
It was a victory OU hoped would propel it to great things in 2006. The Ducks were ranked No. 6 heading into the postseason and were on the fringe of reaching a BCS bowl.
The Sooners saw the win as evidence they’d weathered all the problems that plagued the early part of the 2005 season.
Oregon saw things differently.
Bellotti stirred things up a bit this week. He saw last year’s meeting at the Holiday Bowl as a game the Ducks let get away.
Perhaps it’s been gnawing at him for eight months.
“Oklahoma recognizes they escaped last year,” Bellotti told USA Today.
Stoops has different memories from that mild night at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. He remembers the Sooners having a chance to take a 24-7 early in the fourth quarter, but Adrian Peterson’s fumble at the goal line changed the complexion of the game.
“That was a heckuva a game,” he said. “I think it’s fair to say we had our other opportunities … You can define it any way you want. This is a new year.”
That’s what happens when a rivalry begins to bloom. Opinions tend to differ when old topics are revisited.
But one thing hasn’t changed from last season. OU and Oregon will meet with a lot at stake.
The Sooners need a big win to propel them into conference play.
“One of our goals that we set was going on the road in our first road game and come away with a win,” OU quarterback Paul Thompson said. “That was something that we had predetermined in our minds that this would be a big stepping stone to get over. It’s definitely not just another game.”
Oregon sees a victory as a chance to prove it is one of the elite programs in college football.
“I think we have a greater comfort zone playing Oklahoma now,” Bellotti said. “If you’ve looked at the relative scores, they’re closer.
“There ought to be a certain amount of hunger on our part and a sense of confidence that we can plan with them. And then the hunger and desire to get over the hump and win the first game of the series.”
It’s a big game. And that’s one thing OU and Oregon can agree on.
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
