Oklahoma football: Remembering one of most humbling Sooner losses ever
By Chip Rouse
This is Kansas State week on the Oklahoma football schedule. Brent Venables was present for seven straight-regular=season wins over his alma mater as a member of the OU coaching staff. but it was a rare loss that he will always remember.
Oklahoma entered the 2003 Big 12 Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, as the consensus No. 1 team in the nation, having held the top spot for 16 consecutive weeks. The Sooners were a perfect 12-0 coming into the game were being called by some the greatest team in college football history.
OU’s prolific offense, led by Heisman Trophy winner Jason White at quarterback, led the nation averaging 48.3 points a game, and the defense was pretty stout as well, allowing opponents 13.1 a game.
The Sooners had steamrolled through the regular season. Only twice all season did they win a game by 14 or fewer points, and the win total included a 65-13 pasting of Red River rival Texas and a 77-0 blowout over Texas A&M.
Kansas State, led by legendary head coach Bill Snyder, was the champion of the Big 12 North Division with a 10-3 overall record and 6-2 in the Big 12. The 13th-ranked Wildcats lost their first two Big 12 games that season at Texas and at Oklahoma State, before winning their final six conference games to capture the divisional title.
The Sooners were a heavy favorite to win their third Big 12 crown and second in a row, and they started out as if that would be the case. Oklahoma took the opening kickoff, and three minutes later, Kejuan Jones broke off a 42-yard touchdown run to put the Sooners up 7-0 early. The relative ease with which that was accomplished gave the impression in might be a long evening for Kansas State.
That lead held up for the entire opening quarter, but things were about to drastically change. Led by quarterback Ell Roberson and All-American running back Darren Sproles, Kansas State rolled to touchdowns on three of its four possessions in the second quarter to take a 21-7 lead into halftime.
K-State added another touchdown in the third quarter to go up 28-7, and then early in the final quarter, the Wildcats added the final insult, intercepting a Jason White pass deep in Sooner territory and returning it 27 yards for a touchdown.
No one saw this coming. Kansas State finished the game with 519 yards of offense, including 235 rushing yards by Sproles and four touchdowns (3 rushing and 1 receiving) and four touchdown passes by Roberson.
After the opening drive, Oklahoma looked out of synch most of the night and was never able to establish a running game. The Sooners gained just 83 yards on the ground, with 42 coming on one play, the touchdown by Jones.
This was Mike Stoops’ last game as defensive coordinator before taking over the head coach’s job at Arizona. He and Venables shared the defensive responsibilities for the Sooners. Head coach Bob Stoops had claimed all that week that the coaching change would not affect the game. Maybe, maybe not, but this was not the same Sooner team we had watched all season. By the same token, it was not the same Kansas State we had seen during the regular season as well.
The Wildcats arguably played their best game of the year, and that definitely has something to do with the final, shocking outcome.
I was at that game on Dec. 6, 2003, in Kansas City. It was a cold December night, but it became even colder for Sooner fans by the time the fourth quarter got under way. You knew there was no comeback forthcoming. Prior to this game, Oklahoma had trailed just six minutes the entire season.
As the game clock ticked down to 0:00, the shocking reality had set in for the large contingent of Oklahoma fans who had attended the game despite just a 100-mile distance to travel for Kansas State faithful. The same Sooner crowd that was on their feet waving their arms and hands in celebration after Kejaun Jones’ touchdown run early left Arrowhead Stadium in stone silence.
It wasn’t just the first loss of the season and missed conference championship opportunity that was at risk in this game. Oklahoma was also on a track to play for the BCS national championship as one of the top two teams in the country in 2003. This was in jeopardy after the stunning loss in the Big 12 championship.
Despite the stunning loss to Kansas State, however, Oklahoma only dropped one spot, to No. 2 in the BCS standings, and was invited to the Sugar Bowl to play LSU for the 2003 national championship. The Sooners played better against LSU than in the K-State debacle, but still fell short 21-14 to end the season with two consecutive losses.