Oklahoma Beats Nebraska 23-20 in Big XII Championship Game
Nebraska 20, Oklahoma 23
By JEFF LATZKE, AP College Football Writer
Dec 5, 1:30 am EST
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)-No. 10 Oklahoma is keeping the conference title in the Big 12 family. Nebraska is headed to the Big Ten with one more sour championship-game memory.
Travis Lewis had an interception in the end zone and recovered two fumbles, and the Sooners rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat Nebraska 23-20 on Saturday night in the Big 12 championship, the Cornhuskers’ last stand in the conference.
Oklahoma won its seventh Big 12 title-more than twice as many as any other school-and the seventh straight by schools from the South Division. With Nebraska bolting to the Big Ten and Colorado off to the Pac-12, there won’t be another Big 12 title game in the immediate future. “It’s pretty special to have the last championship and to add to the number we already have is really pretty special for sure,” coach Bob Stoops said.
Landry Jones threw for 342 yards and a touchdown and also sneaked in for another score from 1 yard out as the Sooners (11-2) made the second biggest comeback in Big 12 championship history. Colorado came back from 19 down to Texas in 2001.
The No. 13 Cornhuskers (10-3) self-destructed, squandering a 17-0 lead with four turnovers and getting shut out in the second half for the first time all season.
“This is a great feeling. This is my third Big 12 championship and this one’s definitely the sweetest,” Lewis said. “The fashion that we won this game in, we always pride ourselves that defense wins championships. I felt like we got rattled a little early, we gave up some big plays but we never panicked.”
Jimmy Stevens delivered the game-winner, a 27-yard field goal, with 8:28 to play after Lewis’ third takeaway.
Nebraska, which lost 13-12 to Texas on a field goal after 1 second had been put back on the clock in last year’s title game, suffered another tough defeat -- without a close call at the end. The Huskers had to punt it away with less than 4 minutes left after Taylor Martinez was sacked on third-and-8 from the Oklahoma 39-yard line. Alex Henery had already hit a championship game-record 53-yard field goal.
“We thought we were in range. That is the shame of it,” said coach Bo Pelini, who even lamented deciding not to let Henery try a 62-yard field goal after the sack. “But (we) can’t take a sack in that situation.”
Nebraska got the ball back with 1:46 to play at their own 41-yard line but couldn’t convert a first down, with Martinez getting sacked a seventh time on the final drive.
“We wanted this bad,” Lewis said. “This has been a long season. We have been tested in so many ways. We have been with our backs against the wall. We came out here and the defense totally dominated.”
The longtime rivals had played each other in 71 straight seasons as members of the Big Six and as national powerhouses in the Big Eight before being split up into separate divisions in the Big 12. That divide, along with down stretches for both programs, took some of the sizzle out of one of college football’s most storied rivalries. This was only the second time Nebraska and Oklahoma met in the Big 12 championship game after deciding the Big Eight title 31 times in 36 seasons. Now, they don’t figure to meet again unless it’s in a bowl game, though the schools are working on scheduling a series starting in 2020.
“Beating Nebraska, like this, in this game? Are you kidding” Stoops said. “It’s just great to get another championship.”
Nebraska will likely fall into the Insight or Alamo Bowl.
Martinez, who didn’t play in the Huskers’ North-clinching win against Colorado eight days earlier, had 143 yards passing with an interception but wasn’t taking the snaps in some key moments down the stretch.
After Martinez finally lost a fumble-he had put the ball on the ground four times-the Huskers turned to Rex Burkhead in the wildcat formation. But after Burkhead picked up 24 yards on his first two carries, he couldn’t handle a shotgun snap, and Lewis pounced again.
Cameron Kenney made a 23-yard catch on third-and-24 and then made an 11-yard catch to move the chains on fourth down, setting up Stevens’ field goal that put Oklahoma ahead for the first time in the game.
Nebraska shot out to a 17-0 lead on Roy Helu Jr.’s 66-yard touchdown run, Henery’s record-setting field goal and a 5-yard touchdown pass from Burkhead to Kyler Reed out of the wildcat. The last score came after Pelini made a successful challenge and had Courtney Osborne’s fumble overturned.
Oklahoma answered right back with Jones’ 49-yard TD strike to Kenny Stills, and Lewis came up with an interception in the end zone against Martinez and then scooped up Helu’s fumble to set up a field goal and Jones’ touchdown run 58 seconds apart for the Sooners.
“It just shows the character of our team,” Jones said. “Being down 17-0, (we) fight back into the game and finish it off. That was a great win for us.”
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Tom Dienhart
Rivals.com College Football Senior Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas - The awkward moment was avoided Saturday night: Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe didn't have to give the league's last title trophy to Nebraska.
Nebraska's summertime decision to bolt for the Big Ten almost led to the destruction of the Big 12. How could Beebe have given the Huskers his league's biggest prize? It just wouldn't have been right.
So, the Huskers will leave the Big 12 empty-handed, 23-20 losers to Oklahoma. Nebraska will take its quest for its first league title since 1999 to the Big Ten in 2011. Travis Lewis and the Sooners kept the Big 12 trophy in the conference. And the Big 12 cheered.
"It's pretty special to have the last championship, and to add to the number we already have is really pretty special for sure," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said.
Oklahoma's defense was the star. The Sooners allowed 20 points and 213 yards in the first half. In the second half, OU allowed 80 yards and no points.
"It was a great defensive effort," Stoops said. "They tackled well. These guys played well. The players made plays, got a lot of pressure."
Oklahoma linebacker Travis Lewis admitted that the Sooners "got rattled a little early ... but we never panicked."
The final Big 12 title game couldn't have ended any other way than with a Sooners triumph. Stoops has branded this event his own. Yes, Stoops has struggled in BCS title games. In fact, no one has lost more, with his Sooners falling in 2003 (LSU), 2004 (USC) and 2008 (Florida). But no one does conference title games better. This makes it seven league titles in eight appearances.
There have been victories over Kansas State in 2000, Colorado in 2002 and '04, Nebraska in 2006, Missouri in 2007 and '08. And now this latest victory. Stoops' only loss in this event came in 2003 against Kansas State, and the Sooners still went on to play for the BCS title despite that loss.
Leading up to this game, many observers talked about how fitting it was that these iconic rivals were meeting in the 15th and final Big 12 title game. From 1970-95 in the old Big Eight, the schools won or shared all but two conference championships. Remember the "Game of the Century" in 1971? Remember all of those great coaches and players who have been part of the rivalry? Devaney vs. Switzer? Jerry Tagge? Lee Roy Selmon? Dean Steinkuhler? Billy Sims? I.M. Hipp? Brian Bosworth?
"I grew up, a kid all the way up in northeast Ohio," Stoops said the day before the game, "and I can remember as a young kid in grade school following Steve Owens, Greg Pruitt, Joe Washington, and couldn't wait for this game around Thanksgiving. Just watching the two teams in red and white go at it was always special because it was always a great game with great players and great coaches."
But the advent of the Big 12 in 1996, with two divisions, killed that. Nebraska was in the North and Oklahoma in the South, and they no longer met on an annual basis. The rivalry lost luster and steam to the point that Saturday's game had nothing to do with nostalgia and teary-eyed men reminiscing. No, Saturday was all about denying Nebraska one final moment in the Big 12 spotlight.
While this Big 12 title game won't vault Oklahoma to the BCS title game - a spot in the Fiesta Bowl looms - it still may have been the sweetest of all for the conference because it denied Nebraska the chance to figuratively thumb its nose at the Big 12 as it left the room.
The Huskers are headed for a better situation in the Big Ten, a conference with perhaps the brightest future of any league in America. The conference will embark on a new era in 2011 with a 12-team, two-division format. It has a war chest of cash that only will grow as the league title game is added. The conference's best asset is the Big Ten Network, an entity that only will get bigger and more profitable as it penetrates more homes.
The Huskers leave behind what best can be described as an uncomfortable collection of 10 disparate schools that is controlled by Texas. That never was more apparent than this summer, when Texas basically held the Big 12 hostage with its flirtations with the Pac-10. But the Big 12 honchos kept the league together, brokering a new TV deal for the remaining teams. But unlike the Big Ten, which divides TV revenues equally, the Big 12 doesn't.
Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma reportedly each will receive about $20 million annually from the TV deal. The other seven Big 12 schools will receive between $14 million to $17 million each. On top of that, Texas will generate millions more for itself with its own TV network, something the Pac-10 wouldn't allow Texas to do.
Saturday, Nebraska looked to a future paved with money in a league that has a level playing field, the Sooners won one last Big 12 title game trophy and the Big 12 got to give Nebraska a figurative kick in the pants on the way out the door.
By JEFF LATZKE, AP College Football Writer
Dec 5, 1:30 am EST
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)-No. 10 Oklahoma is keeping the conference title in the Big 12 family. Nebraska is headed to the Big Ten with one more sour championship-game memory.
Travis Lewis had an interception in the end zone and recovered two fumbles, and the Sooners rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat Nebraska 23-20 on Saturday night in the Big 12 championship, the Cornhuskers’ last stand in the conference.
Oklahoma won its seventh Big 12 title-more than twice as many as any other school-and the seventh straight by schools from the South Division. With Nebraska bolting to the Big Ten and Colorado off to the Pac-12, there won’t be another Big 12 title game in the immediate future. “It’s pretty special to have the last championship and to add to the number we already have is really pretty special for sure,” coach Bob Stoops said.
Landry Jones threw for 342 yards and a touchdown and also sneaked in for another score from 1 yard out as the Sooners (11-2) made the second biggest comeback in Big 12 championship history. Colorado came back from 19 down to Texas in 2001.
The No. 13 Cornhuskers (10-3) self-destructed, squandering a 17-0 lead with four turnovers and getting shut out in the second half for the first time all season.
“This is a great feeling. This is my third Big 12 championship and this one’s definitely the sweetest,” Lewis said. “The fashion that we won this game in, we always pride ourselves that defense wins championships. I felt like we got rattled a little early, we gave up some big plays but we never panicked.”
Jimmy Stevens delivered the game-winner, a 27-yard field goal, with 8:28 to play after Lewis’ third takeaway.
Nebraska, which lost 13-12 to Texas on a field goal after 1 second had been put back on the clock in last year’s title game, suffered another tough defeat -- without a close call at the end. The Huskers had to punt it away with less than 4 minutes left after Taylor Martinez was sacked on third-and-8 from the Oklahoma 39-yard line. Alex Henery had already hit a championship game-record 53-yard field goal.
“We thought we were in range. That is the shame of it,” said coach Bo Pelini, who even lamented deciding not to let Henery try a 62-yard field goal after the sack. “But (we) can’t take a sack in that situation.”
Nebraska got the ball back with 1:46 to play at their own 41-yard line but couldn’t convert a first down, with Martinez getting sacked a seventh time on the final drive.
“We wanted this bad,” Lewis said. “This has been a long season. We have been tested in so many ways. We have been with our backs against the wall. We came out here and the defense totally dominated.”
The longtime rivals had played each other in 71 straight seasons as members of the Big Six and as national powerhouses in the Big Eight before being split up into separate divisions in the Big 12. That divide, along with down stretches for both programs, took some of the sizzle out of one of college football’s most storied rivalries. This was only the second time Nebraska and Oklahoma met in the Big 12 championship game after deciding the Big Eight title 31 times in 36 seasons. Now, they don’t figure to meet again unless it’s in a bowl game, though the schools are working on scheduling a series starting in 2020.
“Beating Nebraska, like this, in this game? Are you kidding” Stoops said. “It’s just great to get another championship.”
Nebraska will likely fall into the Insight or Alamo Bowl.
Martinez, who didn’t play in the Huskers’ North-clinching win against Colorado eight days earlier, had 143 yards passing with an interception but wasn’t taking the snaps in some key moments down the stretch.
After Martinez finally lost a fumble-he had put the ball on the ground four times-the Huskers turned to Rex Burkhead in the wildcat formation. But after Burkhead picked up 24 yards on his first two carries, he couldn’t handle a shotgun snap, and Lewis pounced again.
Cameron Kenney made a 23-yard catch on third-and-24 and then made an 11-yard catch to move the chains on fourth down, setting up Stevens’ field goal that put Oklahoma ahead for the first time in the game.
Nebraska shot out to a 17-0 lead on Roy Helu Jr.’s 66-yard touchdown run, Henery’s record-setting field goal and a 5-yard touchdown pass from Burkhead to Kyler Reed out of the wildcat. The last score came after Pelini made a successful challenge and had Courtney Osborne’s fumble overturned.
Oklahoma answered right back with Jones’ 49-yard TD strike to Kenny Stills, and Lewis came up with an interception in the end zone against Martinez and then scooped up Helu’s fumble to set up a field goal and Jones’ touchdown run 58 seconds apart for the Sooners.
“It just shows the character of our team,” Jones said. “Being down 17-0, (we) fight back into the game and finish it off. That was a great win for us.”
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Tom Dienhart
Rivals.com College Football Senior Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas - The awkward moment was avoided Saturday night: Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe didn't have to give the league's last title trophy to Nebraska.
Nebraska's summertime decision to bolt for the Big Ten almost led to the destruction of the Big 12. How could Beebe have given the Huskers his league's biggest prize? It just wouldn't have been right.
So, the Huskers will leave the Big 12 empty-handed, 23-20 losers to Oklahoma. Nebraska will take its quest for its first league title since 1999 to the Big Ten in 2011. Travis Lewis and the Sooners kept the Big 12 trophy in the conference. And the Big 12 cheered.
"It's pretty special to have the last championship, and to add to the number we already have is really pretty special for sure," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said.
Oklahoma's defense was the star. The Sooners allowed 20 points and 213 yards in the first half. In the second half, OU allowed 80 yards and no points.
"It was a great defensive effort," Stoops said. "They tackled well. These guys played well. The players made plays, got a lot of pressure."
Oklahoma linebacker Travis Lewis admitted that the Sooners "got rattled a little early ... but we never panicked."
The final Big 12 title game couldn't have ended any other way than with a Sooners triumph. Stoops has branded this event his own. Yes, Stoops has struggled in BCS title games. In fact, no one has lost more, with his Sooners falling in 2003 (LSU), 2004 (USC) and 2008 (Florida). But no one does conference title games better. This makes it seven league titles in eight appearances.
There have been victories over Kansas State in 2000, Colorado in 2002 and '04, Nebraska in 2006, Missouri in 2007 and '08. And now this latest victory. Stoops' only loss in this event came in 2003 against Kansas State, and the Sooners still went on to play for the BCS title despite that loss.
Leading up to this game, many observers talked about how fitting it was that these iconic rivals were meeting in the 15th and final Big 12 title game. From 1970-95 in the old Big Eight, the schools won or shared all but two conference championships. Remember the "Game of the Century" in 1971? Remember all of those great coaches and players who have been part of the rivalry? Devaney vs. Switzer? Jerry Tagge? Lee Roy Selmon? Dean Steinkuhler? Billy Sims? I.M. Hipp? Brian Bosworth?
"I grew up, a kid all the way up in northeast Ohio," Stoops said the day before the game, "and I can remember as a young kid in grade school following Steve Owens, Greg Pruitt, Joe Washington, and couldn't wait for this game around Thanksgiving. Just watching the two teams in red and white go at it was always special because it was always a great game with great players and great coaches."
But the advent of the Big 12 in 1996, with two divisions, killed that. Nebraska was in the North and Oklahoma in the South, and they no longer met on an annual basis. The rivalry lost luster and steam to the point that Saturday's game had nothing to do with nostalgia and teary-eyed men reminiscing. No, Saturday was all about denying Nebraska one final moment in the Big 12 spotlight.
While this Big 12 title game won't vault Oklahoma to the BCS title game - a spot in the Fiesta Bowl looms - it still may have been the sweetest of all for the conference because it denied Nebraska the chance to figuratively thumb its nose at the Big 12 as it left the room.
The Huskers are headed for a better situation in the Big Ten, a conference with perhaps the brightest future of any league in America. The conference will embark on a new era in 2011 with a 12-team, two-division format. It has a war chest of cash that only will grow as the league title game is added. The conference's best asset is the Big Ten Network, an entity that only will get bigger and more profitable as it penetrates more homes.
The Huskers leave behind what best can be described as an uncomfortable collection of 10 disparate schools that is controlled by Texas. That never was more apparent than this summer, when Texas basically held the Big 12 hostage with its flirtations with the Pac-10. But the Big 12 honchos kept the league together, brokering a new TV deal for the remaining teams. But unlike the Big Ten, which divides TV revenues equally, the Big 12 doesn't.
Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma reportedly each will receive about $20 million annually from the TV deal. The other seven Big 12 schools will receive between $14 million to $17 million each. On top of that, Texas will generate millions more for itself with its own TV network, something the Pac-10 wouldn't allow Texas to do.
Saturday, Nebraska looked to a future paved with money in a league that has a level playing field, the Sooners won one last Big 12 title game trophy and the Big 12 got to give Nebraska a figurative kick in the pants on the way out the door.