20 Years Later

20 Years Later, how OU football won the title

BY: Chris Plank

Twenty years ago, the University of Oklahoma shocked the college football world when second-year head coach Bob Stoops and the 2000 Sooner squad ran the table and secured their seventh National Championship. An underrated and underappreciated group of underdogs provided Sooner Nation with memorable moments that will never be forgotten from Red October to the comeback at Kyle Field and Quentin Griffin running all over Texas.

Now, all these years later, many of the stars of the 2000 National Championship team are still making an impact off the field, but the immense legacy they left for Oklahoma Sooner football and its fan base is immeasurable. While the years have passed, the memories have not dimmed.

The Moment They Knew

The Sooners entered the 2000 season with minimal fanfare. Oklahoma started the preseason polls ranked in the top 20 which was the first time they had shown up in preseason polls in five years.

The second preseason camp with Jerry Schmidt, Sooner strength and conditioning coach, had helped set expectations and, for junior fullback Josh Norman, it was then and there they decided it was championship or bust.

“I’m a firm believer that belief doesn’t come when you’re down against Nebraska. If you try to find that belief at that time, it’s too late,” Norman said, looking back on the moment when he felt the 2000 team could be special. “After a long grueling day of summer workouts... it was hot... we were put through the wringer and we were dead tired. Andre Woolfolk, Damian Mackey, Curtis Fagan... we were sitting there dog tired. We all had the same thought at the same time, somebody said ‘if we don’t win the National Championship, I’m not coming back next summer. If we gotta do all this hard work, we gotta win the title or it’s all for not.’

“That mentality… that belief started then. If we were going to put in this much work, it was worth the National Championship.”

Torrance Marshall was the leader of the Sooner defense in 2000. As a senior captain and the starting mike linebacker, Marshall said he felt there was no single moment that led them to believe they could win a title.

“I’m not going to say one particular play here or there made that season,” Marshall said. “I’m always going to look at the whole journey of how everything ended after the Independence Bowl and what we did from that day moving forward until we played the National Championship game. A lot of guys worked their tails off and the coaches coached their tails off... We just believed in each other.”

Red October

The Sooners introduced themselves as a national contender during the month of October--or what has become known in Sooner Nation as “Red October”- when the team would face No. 11 Texas in Dallas, No. 2 Kansas State in Manhattan and capped the month off at home against No. 1 Nebraska.

“Our team had a great deal of character throughout the entire locker room,” Norman said reflecting on the October run.

“It takes a great deal of character to be down 14-0 against the number one team in the country and come back to win. It takes a great deal of character to go into Manhattan and win, to be down against Texas A&M at Kyle Field and win. We were disciplined. We had respect for one another and we worked our tails off.”

The Sooners rolled the Longhorns 63-14, shocked the Wildcats 41-31 and rallied from a 14-0 hole to beat then the topranked Cornhuskers 31-14.

“We were down 14-0 halfway through the first quarter and we were doing math and thinking we’re going to be down 70 before we know it,” Andre Woolfolk said. “But the defensive guys came over and said … we got our stuff handled, just do your job. They just decided they weren’t giving up anything else and we decided we could move the ball now and everything clicked from there. That is the day I found out where the National Championship game was because oranges were raining down and I’m like... oh my God... I guess we’ve got a shot at the National Championship.”

Teddy Lehman was a true freshman in 2000 and had the same moment of clarity when the fans were storming the field after the win over the Huskers.

“I think it all really hit whenever the Nebraska game ended when the oranges started flying onto the field,” Lehman said. “Up until that point, it was just head down... grind. It was that moment where all the sudden this team finally looked at themselves and said we’re pretty good, we can beat anyone we’re lined up against.”

THE COMEBACK AT KYLE FIELD

That belief was challenged when the Sooners traveled to College Station. After sweeping through Red October, the Sooners, ranked No. 1 in the country, were greeted by a raucous crowd of 87,188 at Kyle Field.

With 7:18 to go in the game, the Sooners trailed 31-28 when Marshall made a standout play. His first interception turned into a pick 6 giving Oklahoma the lead for good.

“That play they ran a lot, and they were really successful on it,” Marshall said looking back on the play that led to his first career interception. “We went into that week knowing that... we practiced that play a lot. Coach (Brent) Venables got on me a lot about it. He told me, ‘They are going to run this play, and you must be ready for it … because if you cover it right, the quarterback is going to throw it and you’re going to intercept it and run it for a touchdown.’ I just wanted to make sure I knew that play and, if the opportunity presented itself, I wanted to make a big play and dig.”

For senior safety JT Thatcher, the win over A&M was the moment where he realized how special this team truly could be.

“They didn’t go away,” Thatcher said. “Playing in College Station is not a normal atmosphere. They are into the game. On the sidelines standing behind someone, I couldn’t hear them talk. I had to yell at them. When the offense was on the field for A&M, you could hear a pin drop.”

THE ORANGE BOWL

The Sooners finished the regular season undefeated and secured its first-ever Big 12 Championship with a win over Kansas State in the Big 12 title game, the first conference title for Oklahoma Sooner Football since 1987. But, for Sooner senior captain Chris Hammons, the goal was even bigger than a conference title.

“I remember the Big 12 Championship in the locker room, the Orange Bowl Committee comes in and tells you you’re going to the Orange Bowl,” Hammons said looking back on the post-game celebration. “I remember thinking, well we won one and they can’t take this away from us. But I remember thinking, forget this. We must go win the whole thing. We genuinely believed there was no chance we were going to lose against Florida State. Our team was so tight at the time we didn’t let the outside influences affect us.”

As Oklahoma prepared for a showdown with Florida State in the Orange Bowl, the media and Vegas did not give OU much of a chance. Oklahoma was a 13-point underdog and Stoops joked that if the Sooners listened to the oddsmakers they would be 7-4.

“I remember distinctly hearing a lot of Miami people talking about how they should be in the game,” Andre Woolfolk laughed while thinking about the build-up to the game. “Hearing about the way that we play football isn’t real football and you can’t judge Big 12 vs other conferences. We had worked to do all these things and of course, we’re hearing about Chris Wienke and how they would shred through our defense and I was like... man… there is no way we can come out here and lay an egg to the nation. At that point, we were playing in front of Game Day and the nation week in and week out and I knew we weren’t going to come out and get embarrassed.”

“We played Kansas State twice, Nebraska, Texas and Florida State and we were underdogs every game,” Thatcher said.

“We had a bit of superstition, so we went out with the same captains pretty much each time,” Hammons said of the moment at midfield. “We were certainly fired up before the game. We were about to tear the doors off before the game. Coach Stoops was always an even-keel guy, but he gave one heck of a pregame speech. We go out there and it’s surreal. All I could think about were the games I watched with my dad and brother when I was a kid... Those were famous football players I was watching as a kid and now I’m standing at midfield and Denzel Washington was there and I love Denzel and Torrance starts up on Wienke and at that moment I was thinking, oh boy this thing is really on right here. It’s on. And I agreed with him. Josh should have won the Heisman.”

While Hammons was digging the fact that Hollywood Superstar Denzel Washington was a part of the opening coin toss, it never even registered with Marshall.

“I didn’t even know Denzel was out there,” Marshall recalls. “We were zoned in as a team... laser-like focused on Florida State. I was in the moment. I had no idea Denzel was tossing the coin until after the game when my mom asked if I saw Denzel.”

When the game kicked off and Oklahoma dominated, it was evident that the message for the week had been received and the Sooners were champions.

“The whole message for the entire week was do your job, win your one-on-one,” Woolfolk said. “As long as you’re doing that play after play, you’re fine. As the game wore on you could see the confidence grow. It didn’t matter how close it was, we knew someone would make a play.

“It was surreal but I wish I could have taken more joy during, before and after,” he remembered. “I told somebody afterward I was empty and lost because there wasn’t another goal. We won a championship and all we had been told was let’s just worry about this and we’ll work on it next week when we get there. But there wasn’t a next week and I didn’t know what to do except wonder now what. Over time I have taken a ton of joy in it... the more people talk about it to me, the more joy I find in it.”

THE UNDERSTUDIES

The 2000 National Championship team laid a foundation for Oklahoma Sooner football in the modern era. The Sooners would play for the national title three more times over the next eight seasons including a 2003 showdown with LSU featuring many of the young players that were learning the ropes in 2000.

“The 2000 season was one of my favorite years besides 2003 and 2004,” Jason White said. “Not too many quarterbacks can say they were the best scout team quarterback in the nation. I dubbed myself that because that’s what I was that year.”

Jason White would eventually quarterback the Sooners to back-to-back national title appearances and won the Heisman Trophy during the 2003 season.

“It was amazing to be a part of that team,” he said. “That’s the team that turned the corner for OU to get back into the national spotlight. All that scout team were the same guys I threw to in 2003 and 2004… Mark Clayton, Brandon Jones… and we took pride in trying to pick apart the best defense in the nation that year. That was a big deal to us.”

Lehman would eventually win the Butkus and Bednarik award and was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2003. But in 2000, he was simply figuring out how to be a college football player and had a great role model.

“It was great honestly,” Lehman said. “I came from a small town and whenever I came to Norman I had no idea what I was getting myself into as far as big-time college football. To watch those guys do it at such a high level… I don’t know where I would have gone or what I would have become had I not watched those guys.”

TODAY

Several members of the 2000 team are still involved in football. Seth Littrell is currently the head coach at North Texas while Josh Heupel wrapped up his third season as the head coach at UCF. Three of Stoops’ assistants from that team landed head coaching jobs at other division one programs. Brent Venables, who was co-defensive coordinator, is now the defensive coordinator at Clemson and has won two national championships with the Tigers.

Josh Norman is currently the head football coach for the Southmoore SaberCats and just finished up his first season.

“A large chunk of my coaching mindset is from my time at OU,” Norman said. “It really hit me as I was interviewing for this position at Southmoore. Each one of my coaches at each level was a Hall of Fame football coach. My high school coach, Bob Stoops and I played for Marty Schottenheimer. I picked up something from each one of those guys. I was fortunate to play for great football minds, great offensive minds like Mike Leach, Mark Mangino, Chuck Long, Cam Cameron, Norv Turner.”

Lehman is an analyst on the Oklahoma Sooner Radio Network and has an afternoon show on SportsTalk 1400 and 99.3FM. Derek Strait lives in the Austin, Texas area, and is involved in a home remodeling business. Meanwhile, Marshall lives in Tampa Bay, where he works for Trinity Services Group and also teaches jiu jitsu.

Thatcher is the finance director at Big Red Sports while White currently is just about everywhere in Oklahoma telling you about Air Comfort Solutions.

Woolfolk is enjoying ‘the dad life’.

“I’ve got four little ones ranging from five to 13,” he said. “I’m adapting to being an adult basically where I must set my own schedule. I’ve had a lot of years of stuff that was planned for me, so I enjoyed setting goals for myself.”