Man. Being a Sooner fan is the easiest and the hardest thing to be.
I thought this as soon as I saw Georgia’s Sony Michel score the game winning touchdown of the Rose Bowl. After another great year of football for the University of Oklahoma, the Sooners fell short again for what seemed like the 77th time in my years as a Sooner Fan.
Yes, I know the Sooners won the whole thing behind Josh Heupel in 2000, four years after I was born. But my earliest memories of OU football start somewhere in 2003. Since then, I have seen us make it to the title game/playoff five times.
2003: 21-14 loss to LSU in the national title game. Sooners made it inside the red zone twice in the fourth quarter with zero points to show for it.
2004: 52-19 loss to USC in the title game. The Sooners scored the first seven points of the game and then completely lost control. I like to think this game never actually happened and instead happened in my worst nightmare.
2008: 24-14 loss to Florida in the title game without DeMarco Murray. Halftime score was 14-14 with zero points scored by the Sooners in the second half. This game included two trips inside the five yard line for the Sooners with zero points.
2015: After taking a 17-16 lead into halftime of the inaugural four-team, the Clemson Tigers scored 19 unanswered points in the second half to win, 35-17.
2017: 54-48 loss. Double OT. The worst loss yet and it’s not even close.
In the final minute of the first half, the Sooners ran an incredible trick play that resulted in a Baker Mayfield touchdown catch to give the Sooners a 31-14 lead with six seconds remaining in the first half. But the Sooners ran one of my least favorite plays in all of sports, the squib kick, to attempt to run out the clock and take a 17-point lead into halftime. It backfired, hitting a Georgia player who recovered the ball past midfield. One 10-yard play later, and Georgia managed to kick a 55-yard field goal. A 17-point lead cut to 14 in just six seconds.
In a way, that play sums up my 15 years of being a die-hard Sooner fan.
That play gave Georgia momentum, as they managed to score 24 unanswered points to take the lead in the second half. Despite a great drive from Mayfield and an OU defense scoop-and-score to give the Sooners a touchdown lead in the fourth, it just wasn’t enough. The Sooners had all the chances in the world to put the game away and just never could. I could write another full article on my frustrations with the play calling at the end of the game, but I’ll save that for my girlfriend and a few unfortunate friends who will have to listen to me rant.
This game was particularly tough for me. My whole life, one of my goals has been to watch every game of an OU football season that leads to a title. Yes I am a fan of the Thunder and the Dallas Cowboys, but nothing means as much to me as watching the Sooners. The easy part comes with the constant success we have every year, and it’s incredibly easy to take that for granted. Hell, the two years we went 8-5 felt like the end of the world, when a lot of programs would kill to go 8-5 just once.
The hard part comes with the constant seasons of “almost.” We made it to the title game and “almost” pulled it off. If we had just ran Kejuan Jones in the red zone in 03. If we had just had Murray against Florida in ’08. This Rose Bowl game had about 30 “almosts.” The Sooners built themselves on “Sooner Magic” through the 70s and 80s, and after every time it looks like the modern Sooners are about to have some classic Sooner Magic, something comes along to take it away.
But you know what? One year, the ball is going to bounce our way. That “Sooner Magic” is going to come back. That “almost” is going to turn into “finally”.
And until that happens, you’ll find me in front of a TV every Saturday during football season, believing that year is going to be the next one.
Boomer.