Brooks: Sooners work their way out of trouble

Published December 1, 2006 at midnight

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All season, the watch was under way for an Oklahoma collapse.

It started, in fact, in late summer, with erstwhile quarterback Rhett Bomar, continued into September with the Oregon replay fiasco and culminated in October with Adrian Peterson's broken collarbone and shattered Heisman Trophy hopes.

But the collapse never came.

Instead, the Sooners sailed. Not easily, not prettily. In tight wins at Texas A&M (17-16) and Oklahoma State (27-21), they tossed a total of 23 passes and depended on a defense that finally began performing up to offseason expectations.

Injuries, Peterson's included, have shuttled four running backs into the lineup. Quarterback Paul Thompson went through the bulk of summer workouts believing he would play receiver.

If co-No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2), with a ton of glitzy tradition (and some embarrassing baggage) attached to its football program, ever produced a lunch-bucket bunch, this was it.

"We don't have the All-Americans, the Heisman Trophy winners," Thompson said recently. "But at the end of the day, when you look back, it's like, 'Man, we've had a pretty good year.' "

It could take a step higher with a victory against No. 19 Nebraska (9-3) in Saturday's Big 12 Conference championship game. Oklahoma might be America's most underappreciated team, and, fittingly, its fifth appearance (3-1 record) in the league title game might be its most rewarding.

Heavenly Hog

Arkansas running back Darren McFadden is making a late run toward the Big Apple - a trip to New York as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.

Odds are good McFadden will get there; he has made a rapid ascent in the view of Heisman voters, many of whom might shove him all the way to second on their ballots behind Ohio State's Troy Smith.

Of course, another stellar performance in Saturday's Southeastern Conference championship game against No. 4 Florida (11-1) wouldn't hurt. And McFadden has been at his best when the lights come on; in five nationally televised games, he averaged 167.8 yards - 6.5 yards a carry - and ran for eight touchdowns. He also passed for another.

Arkansas coach Houston Nutt sometimes utilizes McFadden as a quarterback/tailback in the Razorbacks' "Wildcat" set - a single-wing formation that features McFadden taking direct snaps.

McFadden told The (Memphis, Tenn.) Commercial-Appeal the Heisman talk "is real flattering. I can't say I don't think about it at all . . . but it's not something I'm focused on right now."

His focus is on Florida, which remains hopeful it can beat co-No. 8 Arkansas (10-2), have UCLA beat No. 2 Southern California (10-1), then - with a huge boost from the computers and humans - leapfrog the Trojans and No. 3 Michigan (11-1) into the Bowl Championship Series national title game Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz.

Later, Gators.

Scarlet fever

Despite losses to a pair of under- the-radar opponents (Cincinnati, South Florida), not much of the luster has been rubbed from Saturday's game matching No. 13 Rutgers (10-1) and No. 15 West Virginia (9-2).

If the Scarlet Knights win, they are the Big East champions and earn a BCS berth.

"If you just step back from it for a minute and say, 'Rutgers is playing for the Big East championship,' that's pretty good stuff," Rutgers coach Greg Schiano told The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger.

If Rutgers loses and No. 6 Louisville beats Connecticut, the Cardinals clinch the Big East title and the BCS trip, probably to the Orange Bowl or Sugar Bowl. Rutgers rallied to beat Louisville 28-25 on Nov. 9.

But talk about a drop off the postseason map. If the Scarlet Knights lose in Morgantown, W.Va., where they are 0-14 all time and have lost by an average of 41.8 points in their past six trips, they likely will end up in the Texas Bowl (Dec. 28, Houston).

"This is all you can ask for," Rutgers fullback Brian Leonard said. "It's the last game of the season and we get to determine what happens to us."

Wake up, y'all

Rutgers and Wake Forest have been this season's scripted-in-Hollywood stories. The Scarlet Knights count James Gandolfini, aka Tony Soprano, among their fans. The Demon Deacons are battling for newfound notoriety at a school on Tobacco Row, where hoops reign forever.

But No. 16 Wake Forest (10-2) is matched in Saturday's Atlantic Coast Conference championship game against No. 23 Georgia Tech (9-3) and Demon Deacons coach Jim Grobe said, "They probably didn't factor the Deacons in, to be honest with you. . . . We've paid a lot of dues to be where we're at right now."

Where Wake is, well, fairly phenomenal.

Before this season, the school never had won more than eight regular- season games or five ACC games. It had endured more winless conference seasons (eight) than celebrating seasons above .500 (six). Wake Forest is the third-smallest school in the nation (4,200 enrollment) playing Division I-A football.

Instant celebrity in Winston-Salem, N.C.: Freshman quarterback Riley Skinner, who has become almost as recognizable as basketball players.

Fellow students, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, are "excited about the football team. Before, it was, 'Who y'all playing this week?' Honestly, how can you not know that? But now they know."

'Neu' rumors

Rick Neuheisel's name is surfacing in his home state. The former Colorado and Washington coach, now a Baltimore Ravens assistant, is being linked with Arizona State's vacancy, as well as Arizona's offensive coordinator opening.

The Arizona State opening might be a long shot for Neuheisel. According to the Los Angeles Times, Southern California coach Pete Carroll is backing his top assistant, quarterbacks coach Steve Sarkisian, for the job. Athletic director Lisa Love might listen; she is a former USC administrator.

Touring the Big 12

• Iowa State's choice of Gene Chizik to replace Dan McCarney stunned some people - not because of Chizik's résumé, but because Cyclones athletic director Jamie Pollard was "told we wouldn't be able to get him by a lot of people," according to The Des Moines Register. Chizik, Texas' assistant head coach/linebackers coach since 2005, also has worked at Auburn, Central Florida, Stephen F. Austin and Middle Tennessee State. "He's the real deal," Pollard said.

• Nebraska coach Bill Callahan was pushing a pair of his players - quarterback Zac Taylor and defensive end Adam Carriker - for all-conference honors when he added this about I-back Brandon Jackson: "He's all-Big Ten material." Reporters chuckled at Callahan jumping leagues, but knew his intentions were good. Jackson, a junior, shared playing time with three other I-backs, but still rushed for 881 yards on 168 carries.

Touring the Mountain West

• Brigham Young beat Texas Christian 31-17 on Sept. 28, and as far as Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson is concerned, a second chance at the Cougars wouldn't be appropriate. While Patterson admits a TCU-BYU bowl rematch "would be a heck of a game," he adds, "You don't get second chances. It's like the national title game, and the question of if Michigan will get a second chance (at Ohio State). You don't give people many second chances." TCU will play in the Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 19.

• BYU's trip to the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 21 against Oregon offers one of the postseason's most intriguing subplots. The Ducks' offensive coordinator is former Cougars coach Gary Crowton, who brought current coach Bronco Mendenhall aboard as defensive coordinator four seasons ago. BYU's all-time bowl record is 7-16-1.

Four-timers

Three teams previously have participated in four Big 12 Conference championship games: Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado. Nebraska will play in its fourth Saturday.

brooksb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5466

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