Oklahoma Football Now up to No. 8 in Associated Press and Coaches’ Polls
By Chip Rouse
Saturday saw the biggest top-10 shakeup in the national rankings since 1985, and Oklahoma football was impacted both times.
The Sooners benefited by the Georgia win on Saturday over previously eighth-ranked Auburn, moving into the No. 8 spot this week in both the AP Top 25 and the Amway Coaches’ Poll.
Oklahoma remains the top-ranked team in the Big 12, but West Virginia, at No. 10 in the AP Poll and No. 9 in the Coaches Poll, are right there at the Sooners’ heels. That sets up a big top-15 showdown next Saturday night in Morgantown, W.Va., between the Sooners and the Mountaineers, with the winner having the inside track to the Big 12 championship.
This is the highest the Sooners have been ranked since falling out of the No. 3 spot after losing their season opener to Houston. Oklahoma State is the only other Big 12 team ranked in the nation’s top 25 this week. The Cowboys, who Oklahoma will face in a Bedlam regular-season finale on Dec. 3, is at No. 13 in both major polls.
The country’s No. 2, 3 and 4 teams – Michigan, Clemson and Washington – all lost on Saturday. The last time something like that happened at the top of the rankings was in 1985. Oklahoma was ranked No. 3 in the country on Oct. 19 that season when the Sooners lost to unranked Miami (Fla.), 27-14, in a game in which Troy Aikman started at quarterback for OU. Aikman broke his leg in that game and was replaced by backup Jamelle Holieway.
As it turned out, the Miami game was the only loss suffered by Oklahoma in 1985, as Holieway went on to quarterback Barry Switzer’s Sooners to the school’s sixth national championship that year.
Aikman, of course, transferred to UCLA after that season, where he was named the winner of the Davey O’Brien Award in 1988 as the nation’s top collegiate quarterback. He went on to play for 12 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, with whom he won three Super Bowls and was later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Alabama held pat as the nation’s top-ranked team in both weekly polls with a dominating 55-3 win over Mississippi State on Saturday.
The full AP Top 10 this week is: Alabama, Ohio State, Louisville, Michigan, Clemson, Wisconsin, Washington, Oklahoma, Penn State and West Virginia.