The OU coaches’ dressing room was relaxed–as usual.  Gary Gibbs was seated in his red lounge chair, leaning back as far as he could, watching Alabama crushing Vanderbilt.  (It was only the second quarter.)  Gary said, “Hi, Donnie” and went back to watching Vanderbilt Coach Watson Brown’s first Vanderbilt debacle.  A few minutes later, the television announcer made a comment to the effect that, “It will take a while before Watson Brown will be able to build a program to match that of Alabama;”…to which OU Head Coach Barry Switzer remarked, “It’ll take about a century.  Only a century or so.”

 

          Tinker Owens, Randy Hughes, and several other former Sooner players came in to give their regards.  No tension at all.  Everyone was absolutely, totally relaxed.  It struck me that from the look of things, I might be the only person in the room who realized that in a very few minutes they and their players were going to kick off against the University of California at Los Angeles in an important home field contest.  And I personally felt that neither they nor their Head Coach Terry Donahue were all that “shabby.”  They did win the Pacific Ten last year–and they had scored 45 points on Iowa in destroying them in last season’s Rose Bowl!  But, “Hey, what did I know?”

 

          Barry did become a little animated when Scotty Hill came in from the field and said it had been raining.  “Oh Hell,” Switzer said; and he looked in his locker for a rain suit.  He put it on, but at some point between the locker room and the turf of Owen Field in Norman, it disappeared.   It was no longer raining.  It never did anything more than slightly drizzle during the pre-game warm-up.

 

          The U. C. L. A. Cheerleaders were as advertised.  They and the “POM” (?) Squad put on quite a show for the Okies.

 

          After the coin flip, there was much consternation on the sidelines.  Barry could not figure out how in the world we had to kick and had also lost the wind advantage!  He ranted with the officials before talking with Spencer Tillman.  There was nothing but a little mumbling after that.  It was obviously too late to do anything about it anyway.  My first thought was “Why are they so concerned?  We used to kick off all of the time anyway, on purpose and without second thought.”  But then it occurred to me that, “Perhaps the extreme confidence in the defense in those earlier years had been related to the re-assuring presence of the great Selmon brothers, i.e., Lucious, Dewey and LeRoy.” 

 

          A little later I heard Spencer tell some other player that the Referee had mistakenly not given him a choice. 

 

          On this Saturday none of that really mattered.  From the first Oklahoma drive, everyone (including the Scout Team) knew that it was no contest.  Five, six, and ten yards every play, until a foul-up or two and then a short field goal.  It was going to be a “down-hill drag” all afternoon.

 

          By the time that the score was OU 17, U. C. L. A. 3, several players with dry Jerseys began laughing at the U. C. L. A. futility in dealing with our “hogs” (offensive line).  They began to believe that they would play in the second half.  They did.

 

          At the intermission, it was, again, very relaxed.  Gibbs (defensive coordinator) said that it had gone as expected, but, nonetheless, he had a few things to instruct his boys on.  Bobby Proctor (defensive backs coach) raised a little hell with a few of his charges, but, relatively speaking, he was quite subdued.

 

          Merv Johnson (Offensive Line Coach & Asst. Head Coach) reminded Barry to be certain before going back onto the field to have the squad recall what U. C. L.A. had done to tie Tennessee last year and to also beat Brigham Young.  The point being made, of course, is that U. C. L. A. is traditionally a great second half football team.

 

          As it turned out, neither Merv nor Barry need have bothered (although worrying about contingencies and accounting for them is their business), for the second half was more of a party than the first. 

 

          Early in the third quarter Merv began to visit with Eric Mitchell (the second team quarterback) and explain how the line was blocking and, of course, how his option execution would have to proceed against the particular defensive alignment used by U. C. L. A.  Merv was preparing for the anticipated rout.

 

          Proctor began screaming at Sonny Brown just before the ball was snapped.  After the play was stopped (for no gain), Bobby got Sonny’s attention and had him come over close to the sideline.  Proctor said, “Why in the Hell were you in that set with U. C. L.A. lined up like that?”   Sonny responded, “But, Coach, they were in a double tight end set with a flanker.”  Significantly, and as a compliment to his savvy senior safety, Bobby immediately said, “Okay, Sonny, good call.  Get back at it.”

 

          A little while later, Mike Winchester lofted a good punt to U. C. L.A., and the Sooners were again on defense.  On the first play, either Steve Bryan or Richard Reed brushed off the U. C. L. A. blocker and demolished the ball carrier.  Barry turned to his close friend Bobby Bell with a grin and said, “We’re kicking the Hell out of them now.”  And we really were.

 

          It was ending as it had begun.  It never was much of a contest.

 

          Eric Mitchell did a pirouette or two, Barry yelled out to him, “Way to go, Zebra,” and it was all over.  The final score:  Oklahoma 38; U. C. L. A. 3.

 

Don Switzer

Rogers, Arkansas

WWW.PoliticsandWhimsey.Com

(c)December 19, 2009

 

 

Tags: 1986, Alabama, Barry Switzer, Bobby Bell, Bobby Proctor, collegiate football, Dewey, Don Switzer, Eric Mitchell, football, Gary Gibbs, Iowa, LeRoy, Lucious, Mervin Johnson, Mike Winchester, Oklahoma, Oklahoma University, OU, Pacific Ten Conference, Pine Bluff High School Zebras, Randy Hughes, Rose Bowl, Scotty Hill, selmon, Selmon Brothers, September 6, Sonny Brown, Spencer Tillman, Terry Donahue, Tinker Owens, U.C.L.A., University of California at Los Angeles, Vanderbilt, Watson Brown

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