Arlington, Texas » It wasn't the Miracle on Ice, or the time they knocked off No. 1 Miami some 19 long years ago, but for the BYU Cougars, Saturday's night's stunning 14-13 win over the big, bad Oklahoma Sooners was sweet enough to last -- and be talked about -- for decades.
"We just beat the No. 3 team in the country," said quarterback Max Hall, after throwing the game-winning touchdown pass, a 7-yarder to McKay Jacobson in the back of the end zone with just over three minutes remaining. "It's just unbelievable. It's a special moment I will never forget. None of us will."
In front of 75,437 fans at magnificent Cowboys Stadium, most of them clad in the crimson and cream of
OU, the Cougars stunned not only the haughty Sooners but the college football world, and furthered the chest-beating Mountain West Conference's vocal offseason claims that it deserves more respect -- and BCS automatic-qualifying status.
"One more positive acknowledgment for our league that can't be overlooked," said BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall in a postgame news conference that included a beaming MWC commissioner Craig Thompson.
The win -- BYU's first victory over a ranked opponent in 13 tries, has to rank as one of the top five of all time for the school, perhaps even the most significant ever, given the current BCS landscape.
It came for the No. 20 Cougars when OU kicker Tress Way camp up short on a 54-yard field
goal try with 1:28 left.
Mendenhall called it "an amazing situation," but said he couldn't immediately put into words what the win means for his program that has won 10 or more games the past three years yet was dogged by criticism it couldn't win the big one.
"I think I would call this win a big one," said tight end Andrew George, who caught a 5-yard TD pass from Hall just before halftime to knot the score at 7-7.
George said early in the second half, he started thinking the final score would be 14-13, but didn't tell anyone.
Hall knew the Cougars would win sooner than that. He was captured by ESPN television cameras yelling, "We are going to win, we are going to win," as the Cougars ran into the locker room at halftime, trailing 10-7.
"I'm glad we won now, otherwise I would feel really stupid right now [for saying that]," Hall said.
Calling it the "longest offseason in history" after he played miserably in BYU's three losses last season, Hall was shaky at times with a couple interceptions, but expertly directed the game-winning drive -- coaches let him call his own plays on the 16-play, 78-yard march that consumed 8:38 off the clock -- and calmly found Jacobson on what Mendenhall called "almost a broken play."
Hall completed 26-for-38 passes for 329 yards and the two touchdowns, but the anticipated showdown with OU's Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Sam Bradford never developed. Bradford suffered a shoulder injury the second-to-last play of the second quarter after being dumped by Coleby Clawson and did not play in the second half.
He was 10-for-14 for 96 yards and a touchdown.
"We were kind of expecting them to score a few more points," said BYU defensive end Brett Denney. "Our defense played out of its head."
For Jacobson, catching the game-winner was redemptive, after he muffed a punt in the first quarter that set OU up at BYU's 35 and led to the Sooners' only touchdown.
"What a huge win," Jacobson said. "Our confidence kept growing and growing."
With star running back Harvey Unga unable to play due to a nagging hamstring strain, former walk-on Bryan Kariya filled in admirably. He ran 17 times for 42 yards, but also caught four passes for 76 yards after being told "about five minutes before the game," that he would play in the place of Unga.
"We couldn't have won this without every person on the team," he said.
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said a goal-line stand BYU made in the second half when the Sooners had to settle for a field goal was "a big part" of the game.
"I guess compliments to BYU and coach Mendenhall and their team and staff," he said.
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