Oklahoma Victory Caps 13-0 Season, Leaving No Doubt Who’s No. 1

A wind came sweepin’ down the plain, indeed.

Dressed in red. Stinging like dust. Leveling the college football landscape, toppling its most resplendent monument in the process.

That wasn’t wavin’ wheat that sure smelled sweet here Wednesday night. It was a stunning national championship, as plain as an old pigskin, as sweet as an old song.

Oklahoma, indeed.

On a deep green tropical field that fittingly became muddy and chunked, the Sooners told Florida State, “Later.”

A controversial split national title? Later.

Another coronation for Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke? Later.

Another diamond for the most decorated sports dynasty south of the Bronx? Later.

The return of a program with more grass stains than glitz?

Now. Or at least as of Oklahoma’s 13-2 victory over Florida State in the bowl championship series national title game in the Orange Bowl before 76,835 at Pro Player Stadium.

Before the game, Oklahoma was the only one of the two teams that was unbeaten.

Yet after its victory, it was Oklahoma which was the most stunned.

“We know, we know, we know,” shouted defensive tackle Cory Heinecke as he danced on the bench during the final minute.

Then he paused to stare up at the scoreboard as if to be sure.

“We’re real, that’s us, we’re real!” screamed receiver DamienMackey.

Then he pounded repeatedly between the numbers on his wet No. 13 jersey as if to be sure.

Before the game, all the talk was the confusion that a certain Florida State victory would bring, forcing a split championship with Miami.

Afterward, Oklahoma was only too happy to clear it up.

“We read all week where Miami players were talking about splitting the title, and all the controversy, and we said, ‘Man!’ ” said cornerback Michael Thompson. “So now I’d like to tell everyone, there isn’t any controversy. There isn’t but one unbeaten team. That team is Oklahoma. We are back.”

As he spoke, a light rain bounced off pads of the dancing players around him. The field was dotted with brown slippery patches, bits of soiled tape, fading yard lines.

What began as January in Tallahassee ended as a November in Norman.

Which is precisely how Oklahoma won the game that nobody but Oklahoma believed it could win.

The Sooners made the Seminoles win in their neighborhood, a place filled with stacked defensive lines, shifting defensive backs, hard blitzes, quarterback hits.

The Sooners won by forcing the Seminoles to trade end zone dances for backfield dances, bombs for brawls, fun for work.

“Florida State has never seen a defense like ours,” defensive tackle Jeremy Wilson-Guest said. “We knew that. We knew we had to rely on that.”

Fittingly, the game MVP was not a quarterback, but a linebacker. Torrance Marshall tackled, sacked, intercepted, and lead an effort that held a 549-yards-a-game offense to 301 yards.

“It was us against the world,” Marshall said. “But then, all year it’s been us against the world. It’s easy to get motivated when it’s like that.”

Fittingly, the most effective player was not a running back, but a punter. Jeff Ferguson put half of his eight punts within the 20-yard line, helping to keep the nation’s best offensive to an average starting field position its own 22-yard line.

“This was the only way we could play,” said Mike Stoops, co-defensive coordinator and brother of Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops. “We had to make them work for everything.”

Surprisingly, the most troubled player was not some scared freshman, but a 28-year-old senior.

It’s too late for Weinke to give back that bronze trophy, isn’t it? His 25 completions in 52 attempts doesn’t begin to describe the stumbling horror that was supposed to be his night.

He threw high. He threw wide. He threw bouncing curveballs and floating knuckleballs. He ran around the backfield like an injured deer.

And when he finally did connect on a great pass? Chances are, somebody would drop it.

In the first quarter, the Seminoles grabbed early momentum with an interception. Weinke threw one on the next play.

In the second quarter, when they drove close enough to erase a three-point deficit, he failed to connect on three consecutive screen passes. Which were followed by Brett Cimorelli’s missed 30-yard field goal.

Every time, it seemed, he was either running from someone or lunging from their grasp.

“That was one of our strategies,” Wilson-Guest said. “Crack Weinke.”

Early in the fourth quarter, trailing 6-0, the Seminole offense finally found its feet, and moved to the Sooner 35-yard line.

But then Weinke’s night was typified in four plays that would have made John Heisman choke on his megaphone.

Weinke threw left when receiver Anquan Boldin ran right.

Robert Morgan couldn’t make a diving catch in the end zone.

Weinke overthrew Atrews Bell.

Then, on fourth down, Weinke underthrew Boldin at the six-yard line, allowing Derrick Strait to dive and knock the ball away.

A later Weinke fumble only clinched it.

Part of the quarterback’s problem was that he was missing his leading receiver, academically ineligible Marvin “Snoop” Minnis. But that was only a part of it.

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden was quicker with an excuse than he was with his on-field adjustments.

“You know, when somebody wins the Heisman Trophy, they have to go this place, and that place, and they miss things,” he said. “Chris missed watching some films, and he missed some practice, and maybe that was a reason he wasn’t at his best.”

Or maybe it was just that, for once, smarter beat stronger, quicker beat faster, old-fashioned whipped trendy.

“We don’t care what the media or oddsmakers think,” said Josh Heupel, the Oklahoma quarterback who made just enough running, one-footed completions to finish the job. “This team knows who and what we are.”

The undefeated national champions. The ones who drove out all postseason college football controversy. A splendid sweepin’ wind.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.