No Question, Oklahoma Is No. 1--Thanks to Tennessee : Sooners Claim Top Spot With Win Over Penn State

There will be no question today about who is No. 1.

While the pretenders, Miami and Iowa, were falling, Oklahoma, No. 2 in the United Press International poll and No. 3 in the Associated Press poll, was beating No. 1 Penn State, 25-10, Wednesday night before a crowd of 74,178 in the Orange Bowl.

When it was over, the Sooners (11-1) proclaimed themselves national champions, a presumption that no doubt will be supported in today’s final voting for both polls.

It will be Oklahoma’s sixth national championship, the third in the 13-year reign of Coach Barry Switzer, although the Sooners were less than overwhelming against Penn State.

“Nobody said it was going to be easy,” Swtizer said.

That’s not exactly true.

The oddsmakers favored the Sooners by 7 1/2 points, an unusually large margin considering that the Nittany Lions entered this game as the nation’s only team without a loss or a tie, and based on the team’s statistics in the regular season, the game probably shouldn’t have been that close.

The fact that it wasn’t decided until late in the final quarter is a credit to Penn State.

Specifically, the credit should go to Penn State’s defense.

In their last seven games, the Sooners had averaged 38 points. But through the first three quarters of this one, they had only one touchdown, and that came on a 71-yard pass, of all things.

The Sooners had 228 yards rushing, but 61 came on a touchdown run by fullback Lydell Carr with 1:42 remaining, after the game had been decided.

That enabled Carr to finish with 148 yards in 19 carries, but six other Oklahoma ball carriers combined for 80 yards in 34 carries.

Oklahoma’s leading rusher this season, freshman quarterback Jamelle Holieway, gained 42 yards, but he lost 41 for a net gain of 1.

On his first 10 carries, he was thrown for losses 6 times.

“Jamelle learned a little humility tonight,” Switzer said of the freshman from L.A. Banning High School, who nevertheless has led the Sooners to eight victories in the eight games he has started.

“I told him that things didn’t come easy for him, but that’s to be expected against a great defense.”

Penn State was able to contain Oklahoma’s wishbone with a defense designed especially for this game by defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

Called the Diamond by the Nittany Lions, it placed their All-American outside linebacker, Shane Conlan, directly behind the nose-tackle and allowed him to follow the ball.

“If the quarterback kept the ball, I keyed on him,” Conlan said. “If he pitched it, I keyed on the man he pitched it to.”

The Sooners never learned how to block the defense, although they were able to neutralize it somewhat in the second half by de-emphasizing their outside option plays and giving the ball inside to Carr. Usually flamboyant, the Sooners became methodical.

“It was a defense we’d never seen before,” tight end Keith Jackson said. “We couldn’t figure out what they were doing. They had us confused. We finally got back to basic plays.”

Conlan said the defense was effective only because the Nittany Lions knew the Sooners would run except in obvious passing situations.

So it was ironic that the Sooners scored their first touchdown on third-and-24 from their own 29. The Nittany Lions knew the Sooners were going to pass, blitzed and were burned when Jackson got behind safety Barry Buckham and caught a perfect pass from Holieway for a 71-yard touchdown.

Holieway made the play by calling an audible when he realized the Nittany Lions were going to blitz.

“Everybody talks about Holieway being a freshman, but he’s a very mature football player,” Conlan said. “We made a bad call in a bad situation, and he picked it up. He made a perfect play.

“Two plays hurt us, that pass and the long touchdown run at the end of the game. Other than that, we played as well as we can play.”

But whereas Penn State’s defense was making life miserable for the Sooners’ offense, Oklahoma’s defense was equally dominating.

That was to be expected. Entering this game, the Sooners were ranked either first or second in all four major defensive categories--rushing, passing, scoring and total defense.

The Nittany Lions took Oklahoma by surprise with a 62-yard, 10-play drive to open the game that gave Penn State a 7-0 lead.

But the only other score for the Nittany Lions came late in the first half when Holieway, who was scrambling while trying to run out the clock, had the ball knocked out of his hand at the Oklahoma 11. That was one play when he looked like a freshman.

On the final play of the first half, Penn State converted the turnover into a 27-yard field goal by Massimo Manca.

Even though the Sooners fumbled five times, that was the only one they lost.

Oklahoma was on the receiving end of most of the turnovers.

Penn State quarterbacks threw four interceptions, three by the starter, John Shaffer.

Entering this game, he had won 54 games without a loss since the seventh grade as a starting quarterback.

But he was ineffective against the Sooners, completing 10 passes in 22 attempts for 74 yards.

After his first interception, the Sooners started on the Penn Stae 14, lost one yard in three plays but still got a 31-yard field goal from Tim Lashar, who earlier had kicked a 26 yarder. This one gave the Sooners a 13-7 lead with 5:21 remaining in the first half.

On Penn State’s next possession, Shaffer threw his second interception, which was returned to the Penn State 9. The Sooners gained only four yards in three plays before Lashar kicked a 21-yard field goal to give the Sooners a 16-7 lead, which became 16-10 on Manca’s kick ending the first half.

The Nittany Lions put together their second best drive of the game on their first possession of the second half. They drove 50 yards to the Oklahoma 20 before Shaffer threw his third interception, brought down by Oklahoma safety Sonny Brown at the Sooner one-yard line. It was Brown’s second interception.

“We knew from the beginning, even before the game, that we could play with them,” Penn State safety Michael Zordich said. “But our offense didn’t contribute much offense out there. That was the key right there. Turnovers, interceptions. Our luck ran out.”

Shaffer accepted the blame.

Choking back tears, he said, “It was difficult to come off the field and look at guys like (linebacker) Rogers Alexander after throwing an interception.

“You guys (reporters) are the ones who made the big deal about the 54 wins, but I’d give them all back if we could have won this one.”

It probably isn’t much consolation to Shaffer, but few offenses have had much success against the Sooners’ defense this season. In five games during November, the defense didn’t allow a touchdown.

“We’ve had some great defenses at Oklahoma, but this is the best one ever,” Switzer said. All-American linebacker Brian Bosworth, a sophomore, was credited with 13 unassisted tackles.

Penn State’s fourth turnover, a fumbled punt in the third quarter, led to another Lashar field goal, a 22 yarder that gave Oklahoma a 19-10 lead.

The Nittany Lions’ last chance to get back into the game faded when Manca, who had made 12 straight field-goal attempts, missed from 26 yards with 2:46 remaining.

Carr’s 61-yard run for the Sooners’ second touchdown came moments later.

“We knew at the half that Miami was getting beat,” Switzer said. “Of course, we already knew Iowa had gotten beat, and we were beating Penn State. All of those are great football teams, but we’re the only survivor.”