Published: November 18, 2008 03:54 pm         

OSU, Robinson further prove themselves

To prove how short our memories are, it seems almost forgotten the embarrassing flap Oklahoma State endured when the Cowboy coaches decided to demote quarterback Bobby Reid out of the first-team job and replace him with a bright-eyed sophomore named Zac Robinson.

It wasn’t nearly as acceptable as Donovan Woods’ transfer to defense but in this writer’s mind, Woods not only came from a tradition-rich football family, but also was what is often referred to as “a real football player.”

Reid’s demotion was a dangerous one, considering he was regarded as the prime recruiting catch in the talent-rich Houston area during his senior year in high school.

O-State has always had to battle at least one-third of the Division-I football giants while sifting through the Houston schoolboy talent and to have one of Houston’s best get shuffled around is dancing dangerously close to the precipice of the recruiting envelope.

It promptly requires one to take a step back when listening to all the recruiting conversations about young men who have yet to play their first down of major college football.

Frankly, the Pokes and Robinson proved they are made of stern stuff because winning at Boulder has never been an easy chore for anybody, even for the talent-rich Sooner teams of the Barry Switzer era.

Many a postseason dreams have been dashed by the burly Buffs in fearsome Folsom Field but it didn’t happen Saturday evening on national television.

Granted, OSU didn’t give a concert performance, particularly on offense, at Boulder but good teams manage to survive when a segment of their game isn’t hitting on all cylinders. That’s exactly what OSU had to do to maintain its ranking among the top dozen collegiate grid powers.

The Cowboys and Robinson are riding a crazy crest of enthusiasm because you have to go back almost one-quarter of a century to recall a Cowboy team that had nine victories with one more regular-season game left to play.

In 1984, Pat Jones’ first year at the Cowboy helm, the Pokes hauled a glittering record (9-1) into Norman for a classic meeting between the nation’s No. 2 (Oklahoma) and No. 3 (OSU) ranked collegiate teams.

The Sooners escaped, 24-14, depriving OSU a shot at what today would be called a BCS game, the Orange Bowl.

O-State did receive a bid to play in the Gator Bowl at Jacksonville that season, the most prestigious postseason offer for OSU since the halcyon days of the Cotton and Sugar Bowl victories in the mid-1940s.

O-State capped that ’84 campaign with an exciting 21-14 against favored South Carolina, a victory several historians of OSU football called the launching pad for many successful seasons that followed.

In conversations with some of the wags on Main Street last August, it was commonly agreed the OSU faithful would be overwhelmed with joy to have a 9-3 regular-season record. I must confess I agreed with these sentiments.

Yet, even with an open date ahead, I get the feeling that doughty bunch of kids and coaches who won the battle in Boulder are pleased with what has happened but hardly satisfied with anything short of a successful finish to a most memorable season.

     

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