Oklahoma football: Five classic games in the OU-Nebraska gridiron rivalry
By Chip Rouse
4. 1978 — No. 4 Nebraska 17, No. 1 Oklahoma 14
Reigning Big Eight champion Oklahoma came into Lincoln, Nebraska, with a perfect 9-0 record and the No. 1 ranking in November 1978.
The Sooners were riding a six-game winning streak against the Cornhuskers. In 41 games as the nation’s top-ranked team since the Associated Press college football poll was introduced in 1936, Oklahoma had posted a 39-2 record. So history was definitely on the side of the Crimson and Cream in this one.
Nebraska had won eight straight games since their season-opening loss to Alabama. The Huskers led the nation in scoring that season (46.5 points per game) and averaged 515 yards of total offense. Moreover, the vaunted Blackshirt Nebraska defense was allowing just 15 points per game.
The Sooners were second in the nation in both offensive categories entering the game.
The one weapon Oklahoma had that Nebraska didn’t was running back Billy Sims, who would go on to win the Heisman that year, the Sooners’ third Heisman winner.
This was the sixth game for Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne against Oklahoma, and his resume against the Sooners was 0-5. Oklahoma struck first in the 1978 game on a 44-yards touchdown run by Sims at the eight-minute mark of the opening quarter.
Nebraska tied the score with a touchdown drive early in the second quarter, set up by a Sooner fumble, and the Huskers had a chance to take the lead into halftime, but that all went awry when a 21-yard field goal attempt in the closing seconds of the half hit one of the uprights and bounded harmlessly away.
A fumble by OU’s David Overstreet set Nebraska up at midfield early in the third quarter, and the home team capitalized, taking it the rest of the way for a touchdown and a 14-7 lead. That left the Sooners in unfamiliar territory, It was the first time all season that Oklahoma had trailed in a game.
The Sooners responded in kind, driving 73 yards on seven plays, topped off by a 33-yard run to paydirt by Sims, and the score was again tied.
Nebraska reclaimed the lead, 17-14, early in the fourth quarter on a 24-yard field goal. That set up the dramatic finish. A 61-yard Oklahoma drive stalled at the Nebraska 22 on a fumble by Sims. The Sooner defense forced a three-and-out, and after a short Nebraska punt, the OU offense returned to the field with the ball at the Husker 47-yard line and six minutes remaining.
A fourth-down conversion set up the Sooners at the Nebraska 24, and left the Husker faithful fearful they were about to suffer their sixth straight loss to Oklahoma. A couple of plays later, and with the clock running down, Sooner quarterback Thomas Lott faked a handoff to Kenny King and took off on the option to the right side. At the last second, Lott pitched the ball to the trailing back, Sims, who evaded a couple of tacklers around right end and was headed for the end zone with the potential winning touchdown.
Sims was hit just short of the end zone and coughed up the ball for the second straight possession. Nebraska recovered the ball, one of six Sooner fumbles they covered out of nine in the game, and held on for the win. The monkey was finally off Tom Osborne’s back.
Postscript: These same two teams met in a postseason bowl rematch in the Orange Bowl in January 1979, with the Sooners earning a redeeming 31-24 victory over their Big Eight rivals.