Sooners Say Later to the Perfect Season

Kansas State shocked top-ranked Oklahoma, won its first conference championship in 69 years, earned a berth in the Fiesta Bowl, jeopardized the Heisman Trophy hopes of Sooner quarterback Jason White and, for good measure, further muddied the brackish BCS waters.

Chaos never looked so good.

At least it appeared that way to Kansas State and its purple-clad fans, who gleefully celebrated a comprehensive 35-7 victory over the Sooners that gave the No. 13 Wildcats the Big 12 Conference title Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium.

“Overrated, overrated, overrated,” the Kansas State fans thundered at the Sooners in the closing minutes, with the Wildcats ahead by a staggering four touchdowns and the stadium nearly empty of Sooner fans.

Oklahoma’s dream of an unbeaten season ended with its first loss in 15 games, dating to last season, although the Sooners (12-1) had calculated that they still will draw an invitation to play in the bowl championship series title game Jan. 4 in the Sugar Bowl.

Perhaps that calculation contributed to the Sooners’ lackluster play Saturday. Shortly after an impressive opening drive that produced a 42-yard touchdown run by Oklahoma tailback Kejuan Jones, the Wildcats dented the Sooners’ unbeatable aura.

Ell Roberson, Kansas State’s senior quarterback, shredded Oklahoma for three touchdown pass plays en route to a 21-7 halftime lead. Roberson threw a fourth in the third quarter and the rout was near complete for the Wildcats (11-3).

The Sooners couldn’t contain Roberson, who completed 10 of 17 passes for 227 yards and a Big 12 title game record four touchdowns and rushed for 62 yards in 17 carries, or tailback Darren Sproles, who had 235 yards in 22 carries and caught three passes for 88 yards.

Bill Snyder, who transformed Kansas State from laughingstock to national championship contender in 15 seasons in Manhattan, Kan., became the first Wildcat coach to win a conference title since Pappy Waldorf in 1934.

Snyder credited his players for the biggest victory in his tenure at Kansas State, at first ducking a question about his emotions.

“I’m excited about that young guy, Ell Roberson, who’s the toughest quarterback in the nation,” he said. “I’m excited for a guy like Darren Sproles. You want to talk about a Heisman Trophy candidate.”

Snyder then relented and agreed that it was his biggest victory.

“It probably becomes our most important victory because we had never won a conference championship before,” he said. “Over the past 15 years, there were a lot of wins that you would cherish, but this was probably the most significant victory to a lot of other people.”

You knew it might be a difficult night for the Sooners when Kansas State’s band marched onto the field to play a few pregame tunes only to find some Oklahoma players still going through their warmups.

Not about to be intimidated, the band played on.

Several of the band’s handlers ushered the lingering Sooners off the field and toward their locker room. Although hardly amused at the notion of getting shooed away by a marching band, the Sooners nevertheless beat a hasty retreat.

Mercifully, no one in the band tried to skewer a Sooner with a trombone. Soon enough, the band extended itself from goal line to goal line, which was more than could be said of the Sooners.

By halftime, Oklahoma had given up its two longest pass plays of the season, shanked a 44-yard field goal and had a pass intercepted in the end zone.

The Sooners trailed for the final 11:34 of the second quarter, or roughly double the time it faced a deficit during the regular season.

“They really took it to us in every part of the game,” Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops said. “Congratulations to them. They made the plays that mattered. We had opportunities to make plays and didn’t.”

Roberson picked his spots better than Oklahoma’s White, completing touchdown pass plays of 19 yards to tight end Brian Casey, 63 yards to receiver James Terry and 60 yards to Sproles in the first half. The passes to Terry and Sproles were the longest pass plays Oklahoma had given up this season.

White completed 27 of 50 passes for 298 yards, but was intercepted twice. To be sure, Kansas State’s swarming defenders contributed to White’s ineffectiveness.

“Some guys are sitting at home, relaxing and not playing and some guys are,” Stoops said when asked if White’s Heisman hopes were damaged by the lopsided loss. “I believe most [voters] will take that into consideration. I cannot tell you how much I respect and admire Jason. He was knocked around tonight. The guy, to me, fought as well as he could.”

White was pulled before the end of an Oklahoma game for the 10th time in 13 games this season, but this time it was for all the wrong reasons.

“They hit us where we’re weak,” said White, who gave way to backup Paul Thompson after linebacker Ted Sims returned White’s hurried pass 27 yards for a touchdown for a 35-7 Kansas State lead with 10:16 remaining in the game. “We’ve got one game left. We’ve got a lot to learn from this game.”