Oklahoma football: Sooners at Iowa State — For the last time? OU’s Ames success, debut of ‘Q’ in ’99

The 2022 Oklahoma football team emerges from its bye week with a 4-3 overall record and the hope that the Oct. 15 win over then-No. 18 Kansas is the start of a turnaround to the season.

That quest continues Saturday in Ames, Iowa, where Iowa State (3-4, 0-4 Big 12) is waiting with its own set of troubles that have the Cyclones mired in last place in the conference, yet just a game behind the Sooners, who are 1-3 in conference play.

Apart from the race to stay out of the Big 12 basement, the matchup is potentially notable as it may be the final Oklahoma-Iowa State matchup in Ames. With Oklahoma (and Texas) slated to move to the Southeastern Conference no later than 2025 and the scheduling uncertainties of a 14-team Big 12 — which begins next season with the additions of Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston — the Sooners’ conference road destinations over the next two seasons are clearly in flux.

Ames has been incredibly hospitable to Oklahoma through the years. Within the Sooners’ remarkable 78-7-2 all-time record against Iowa State, they have lost just three times in 41 meetings in Ames.

Two years ago, Iowa State defeated No. 18 Oklahoma, 37-30, which ended a 24-game win streak for the Sooners in Ames. It was a streak that began with legendary Oklahoma Coach Bud Wilkinson in 1962 and endured through seven more Oklahoma coaches (Gomer Jones and John Blake never faced Iowa State on the road).

It took an Iowa State team that would finish with nine wins and reach the Big Championship Game to finally vanquish an Oklahoma squad coached by Lincoln Riley and quarterbacked by freshman Spencer Rattler.

For the Iowa State faithful, it was a long time coming and likely bittersweet that it finally occurred during a year in which pandemic restrictions limited attendance.

Just 13,724 fans saw it live.

On the flip side, the 1999 Oklahoma-Iowa State meeting in Ames had ample in-person attendance (37,073), but what it lacked was a television audience. At the time, Big 12 games were limited to ABC, Fox Sports Net or a local broadcast that typically involved pay-per-view.

A game featuring first-year Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops and 5-3 Oklahoma against 4-5 Iowa State did not rank high on the pecking order, especially on a Nov. 13 slate that included No. 5 Kansas State at No. 7 Nebraska.

It remains the last time an Oklahoma football game was not televised.

Unless you were in attendance that day or listening to the live radio broadcast, you missed a moment that initially seemed minor but would reverberate in the coming years and become the subject of an intriguing “What if?” given the titanic good fortunes that were unknowingly on the horizon for the Sooners.

Pulling the redshirt off freshman tailback Quentin Griffin.

In 1999, the redshirt rule was not as forgiving as it is today. Today, a freshman can appear in no more than four games and the year will not count against his four-year eligibility. In 1999, once a freshman entered a game, the redshirt was no longer an option.

Griffin’s sparkling practice play combined with a late-season injury to tailback Michael Thornton necessitated the move to pull Griffin’s redshirt and play him in the season’s ninth game.

While splitting time with teammate Reggie Skinner, Griffin was fantastic in his collegiate debut. The 5-foot-6 product of Aldine, Texas announced his presence immediately with a 10-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Josh Heupel in the first quarter, then ran for a 27-yard score in the second as the Sooners built a 17-3 halftime lead.

Griffin finished with 123 rushing yards via 11 attempts and added three receptions for 28 yards with the two combined touchdowns. Skinner also carried the ball 11 times while totaling 116 yards. Heupel threw for 180 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown to Josh Norman as the Sooners won, 31-10.

Over the final four games of 1999, Griffin collected 285 rushing yards, caught 11 passes for 107 yards and recorded four touchdowns as Oklahoma finished with a 7-5 record and a New Year’s Eve loss in the Independence Bowl to Mississippi in the last college football game of the 1900s.

Griffin played three more incredibly-productive seasons with the Sooners and stamped his name in Red River Rivalry lore forever with a six-touchdown performance in 2000 and also scored the only touchdown in the BCS National Championship victory over Florida State later that year.

In his final college game, Griffin ran for 144 yards and a touchdown in the Sooners’ 34-14 victory over Washington State in the 2003 Rose Bowl. He finished the 2002 season with a whopping 1,884 rushing yards, just 12 behind Oklahoma legend Billy Sims for the single-season school record.

True to his humble nature, when asked by then-Oklahoma co-offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson if he wanted to re-enter the blowout with 1:15 to go to go after the record, Griffin declined, which gave reserve Renaldo Works a chance to play in the prestigious bowl game.

Amidst a chorus of “Q!” from the hometown fans any time he touched the ball, Griffin closed his Oklahoma career ranked fourth in school history with 3,938 rushing yards. He has since been surpassed by Adrian Peterson (4,045). Samaje Perine (4,122). Peterson also holds the single-season rushing yardage record (1,925 in 2004).

Now comes the “What If?”

What if Griffin had not come out of redshirt in 1999? Assuming he would still be as productive as he was from 2000-02, Griffin would have been a senior on that remarkable 2003 team led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jason White that won its first 12 games by an average of five touchdowns.

With the debut of Adrian Peterson a year away, the Sooners’ top-two tailbacks in 2003 were freshman Kejuan Jones and senior Renaldo Works. A year after Griffin ran for 1,884 yards and a year before Peterson ran for 1,925, Jones and Works combined for just 1,641 and as a team, Oklahoma managed just 83 rushing yards in a shocking Big 12 title game blowout loss to Kansas State and 52 in the BCS National Championship setback to LSU.

Many Sooners’ fans have speculated how these two games might have been different had Griffin, who was at the top of his game at the end of the 2002 season, still been eligible in 2003.

We’ll never know.