Just loved watching our very own Barry Switzer's Sooners run that wishbone! It broke my and many Razorback fans hearts when Eric Mitchell spurned the home state Razorbacks for OU. One thing is for sure, he wouldn't have been sitting on the bench playing in Coach Ken Hatfield's flexbone. I will always appreciate QB Greg Thomas who Ken was forced into going with in 1985-87 but we will always wonder what could have been had Eric Mitchell come to Arkansas. Ken went 10-2, 9-3, and 9-4 with Greg at the helm which was very good but with Eric it would have been multiple SWC championships! Oh well I can dream I guess.
Eric Mitchell was a good player but had a problem with holding on to the ball and trying to make something happen every play.That's the reason Charles Thompson took over after Holieway tore up his knee. Of course Thompson had his off the field problems. His son is the QB at Nebraska. Troy Aikman is over on the UCLA side but had to set out after transfer from OU after breaking his leg the year before. Troy would go on to a great carrier at UCLA and take apart Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl witch I was at. Arkansas did have Quinn Grovey from Oklahoma, wanted to go to Oklahoma but Holieway was there and had won the NC.
Eric making that spectacular run, on a broken play, in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 1986/87 season would have been especially hard for Razorback fans. But the Razorbacks did basically win the first 1.5 quarters in that bowl game, shutting down Jamelle, however.
I really liked watching Oklahoma back then with Switzer. 1985 was actually a great coaching job.....Aikman goes down & they switch back to the wishbone & win it all.
Thanks FF....This was very enjoyable. Regardless of how bad Lynn Swann was as a commentator. He was bad as a sideline reporter and even worse in The Booth. Heluva receiver though.
Switzer had joked before this game that he wasn’t going to let Troy Aikman officially transfer til after this game.(Aikman was the starting QB at Oklahoma at the start of the 1985 season til he got hurt. He knew it would be hard to replace Holloway and told Switzer he wanted to transfer. Switzer assisted Aikman in finding a program that would throw the ball a lot)
Jimmy Johnson claims in his Book "Turning The Thing Around" that Switzer steered Aikman away from Miami. Johnson and his Staff had recruited Aikman out of Henrietta, OK and thought they had made a really good impression but lost out to the Sooners being an elite type of program at the time. God I can't wait for football!
Yes, you're on point. I think it was Jerome Brown who broke Troy's leg? God, almost 40 years now, lol! That injury opened the door for Jamelle Hollaway, I think. @@mongoslade277
1:51:38 I saw this play before when Voyager went to the far side of Jupiter, Jupiter grabbed its jersey and flung it around the other side to increase its velocity.
Do you all here how quiet it is between plays, Only the noise of the crowd.. No loud music after every play no screaming Public Adress announcers. Just normal football
OU was a great team back in the 80's. No less a person than Lawrence Taylor (when he was at UNC) suffered a humbling 42-3 beatdown at the hands of the Sooners. Lawrence had cleat marks up and down his back that day.
@@jeffstricken8549 I'm seeing a pattern here: those Hollywood/surfing dudes need to be CORN-FED farm-boys if they want to compete on an even level with OU/Nebraska.
@@jdwilmoth Turner Gill didn't run the wishbone. Nebraska's triple option was more of an I-Bone. Technically Irving Fryar was a wingback instead of a flanker. I don't know those Texas and Alabama quarterbacks in the wishbone. Holloway to me ran it better than Danny Bradley & JC Watts
At the start of the 2nd quarter, all tied up at 3 apiece, the boys from Hollywood were probably feeling pretty darn good about themselves right then. Hehe.
I never understood College Football's struggle against the Wishbone in the seventies and eighties, I remember Oklahoma would put up fifty and sixty points sometimes with no passing game to speak of, I know a lot of it had to do with some high powered defenses Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska had back then but if you stayed with the QB and Tailback you usually could stop it.
