The House Of Heat

When things are going bad, there's always someone else who is worse off than you. Below is a chronicle of one of my favorite college football teams, The Oklahoma Sooners.

While the Oklahoma Sooners had a magnificent run in 2000 en route to their seventh National Championship, it has apparently cost them dearly. They were one of a handful of national media darlings heading into the 2006 campaign, but the dark cloud of karma came sweeping across the plains and has been circling over Norman ever since, much like the Bosworth/Hollieway antics that left the Oklahoma program in a deep dark hole known as the 1990's.

With a healthy Adrian Peterson being added to a Sooner team that grew and gelled during the second half of the 2005 season, many placed Oklahoma atop their preseason polls. Before the Sooner Schooner ever reached Owen Field however, the powerhouse program was Bomar'd. Starting quarterback Rhett Bomar was found to be taking money from boosters in exchange for doing anything but work and was swiftly booted from the team by head coach Bob Stoops, a move that cut off the hand but seemingly saved the body of the program. Even without Bomar under center, there was still optimism, as long as the Sooner bandwagon was being pulled by Adrian Peterson.

With Paul Thompson at quarterback, the OU offense looked less than impressive in their opening contests but still managed victories over Alabama-Birmingham and the Washington Huskies (who have rebounded to be a fair opponent for many this season). Heads were returning to their proper posture in Norman, but then the team traveled to Autzen Stadium to face Oregon. In a theft not seen since The Thomas Crown Affair, victory is heisted from the Sooners by a Pac-10 officiating crew in a Pac-10 stadium on national television. The Pac-10 Conference later apologized for the blatant "mistakes" and suspended the criminal elements for one game apiece for their particiation in this snafu.



After taking out their frustrations on Middle Tennessee State, the Sooners returned to playing college football by traveling to Dallas to face archrival Texas in the annual Red River Shootout. OU got virtually no breaks and weren't able to keep the game interesting in the second half, as the game was never as close as the 28-10 final score might indicate. If this doesn't seem like bad karma to you, you've never lived in Oklahoma during football season.

The Crimson and Cream hosted Iowa State and beat them soundly with Adrian Peterson's father in attendance for the first time in his son's outstanding collegiate career. In a seemingly meaningless play, Peterson scampered 60-some yards and dove into the end zone for a pile-on score, but landed in the paint awkwardly. X-rays later showed that the Heisman hopeful broke his collarbone and will not return to the football field this season.

I'm sorry to bore many of you, but what can possibly happen next for OU? Just trying to put into perspective that things really could be worse in Sun Devil land and I can only make so many U of A jokes, especially after they actually win a football game.

Labels: anecdotal evidence, Pac-10 business, thug life