Oklahoma actually went up 21-10 after a lucky play where Earl Thomas dislodged Jermaine Gresham from the ball and it ricocheted right to Ryan Broyles. We outscored them 35-14 after that, including 25-7 over the final 20 minutes of the game. Frankly it could have been worse since they recovered their own fumbles 3 times in the second time (we did so once also).
They were very good that year, but if you could keep it close and play physical, they'd fade down the stretch, as UT and UF proved. We outrushed them something like 160-20 after halftime.
Heck as it, our blowout of A&M supposedly wasn't impressive enough because we won by 40 and they won by 38, but 66-28 looks cooler than 49-9.
That really should have sealed it right there. Team A had as good of a conference record or a better conference record than either B or C, and head to head over both B and C. Team A had to watch Team B and C play for the conference championship. I realize that 3-way ties are screwy regardless, but the above scenario should simply never happen unless it's 100% impossible to avoid (it could have been forced if OU, UT, and Tech had all beaten Missouri and then Missouri still somehow won the North, but that's the only way).
Ohio State was a pretty good matchup for us that year since they had the defense to keep it close and a lot of experience, but overall I agree it's silly to assume we'd have beaten Florida. It's just dumb we didn't get to play the game, a coin flip sounds about right to me.
Tech was a different team with Crabtree hobbled though (and I realize he didn't give up 38 points, but the offense also probably scores more than 27 if he's healthy). Remember how much better our passing offense got in 2002 once Roy Williams got fully healthy? Crabtree was even more crucial to the 2008 Raiders.
And yeah the 2008 Texas team was definitely better than the 2009 one. 2009 was a bit of a down year for CFB in general, I think all the top teams in 2008 would have taken 7/10 or so from the top teams of 2009. We were much better at picking off passes in 2009, and Shipley somehow went up from an A+ to become an A++, but we were equal or worse in just about every other way.
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Last edited: Jul 29, 2020