OU Sooners top games #4-5

SoonerSports.com has released #'s 4 and 5 in their Top 10 Sooner football wins of the 2000's, and to me they're both shocking in that they're rated this low.

#5 is the 2000 A&M Game

OU trailed 24-10 before scoring 22 in the fourth quarter en route to a 35-31 victory in front of 87,000 plus at Kyle Field. The Aggies had only lost 6 times at home over the previous 12 years, but Torrence Marshall's INT return was the epitome of Sooner Magic.

#4 is the 2000 Nebraska game

This to me should've been 1 or 2. It was legitimately billed as the 'Game of the Century' part 2. Coming into the game, which followed a bye week for OU, the Sooners were ranked #2 in the BCS poll right behind the Huskers. Nebraska scored long TD's on each of its first two drives and things looked bleak for OU. But Josh Heupel and the Sooners dominated the Blackshirts in the second quarter with 24 points and taking a 10 point lead into the break. Derrick Strait opened the third quarter with an INT return for a TD to seal the win. I'll never forget seeing the oranges fly onto the field and fans tear down the goal post.

The reason I felt that was so awesome was because two years earlier, I was sitting in the sound endzone watching OU lose to Cal and had a conversation about how crappy the stadium was looking and how it would be amazing to see an upper deck on the east side of Memorial Stadium. Someone said, "I'm sure they'd get the money for that if they could come up and win a national title or two," to which I sarcastically replied, "yeah, I'll just sit right here and wait for that to happen."

The fall of 2000 was my senior year of high school, and that made it even more special. I'd been a lifelong Sooner fan, but let's be honest, it's really hard for a teenager to intently follow a crappy team game in and game out. The fact that OU was rarely televised made it even worse. But 2000 changed that. It was magical. The Nebraska game solidified the fact that OU football was really back. The wins over Texas and K-State were great, but had the Huskers gone on to beat OU, chances are the rest of that season wouldn't have really mattered.

Anyhoo, with three spots left, I'm not really sure what to expect. I'm guessing the 2001 Orange Bowl will be number one. 2002 OU-Alabama could be up there. So could 2004 OU-Texas A&M, 2002 OU-Texas, or the 2006 Big XII Title game against Nebraska. Stay tuned...