forums

1986 Canes - Oklahoma

Advertisement
What's the Boz worth not much in Miami. West Endzone was electric that game!
 
Oklahoma’s offense was running through people in this era, and we completely negated their strength. I think there is some stat that from 1985 to 1988, we were OU’s only loss in those seasons.

Also, this is what a team with an elite defense AND offense looks like.
 
Wasn't 1985-88 OU putting up insane numbers on the scoreboard by rolling up ridiculous amounts of yardage on the ground? I seem to remember them pretty much beating everyone 56-7 with 400 yards rushing.
 
I was in the OB for that game, and I recall Bosworth playing well too.......but that was Vinny's Heisman game.

I always kinda liked the Boz. He would have fit in well on any of the old Miami teams. Didn't need him at the time, of course, but he would have fit.
 
Advertisement
2FNFST4U said:
We cost OU multiple NC. They went 33-3 over a 3 year period. 0-3 against Miami 33-0 against the rest of the country.
Click to expand...

But Oklahoma won as many national championships as we did from 1985 to 1987 -- 1 compared to 1

The difference was that Oklahoma didn't throw away their championship game against Penn State in 1985, as we did in 1986. Paterno's scheme against the wishbone was every bit as effective as ours was. But Swtizer remained very patient and allowed his defense and kicking game to control field position. Oklahoma busted two big plays...one to Keith Jackson and one to the fullback Lydell Carr, and that was enough for the win and the national championship.

If Jimmy Johnson had similarly reigned in Testeverde against Penn State and used Highsmith instead, then we walk away with 2 titles in those three years.
 
LPK2006 said:
Wasn't 1985-88 OU putting up insane numbers on the scoreboard by rolling up ridiculous amounts of yardage on the ground? I seem to remember them pretty much beating everyone 56-7 with 400 yards rushing.
Click to expand...

It was ridiculous. And the oddsmakers were caught off guard every week. I've never seen numbers run like those Oklahoma pointspreads in that era, and especially in late 1985 after Holieway took over at quarterback. There were 6 or 7 weeks in a row in which the number moved at least 6 points in Oklahoma's direction. Normally it was at least 7 or 8 points. Every week we'd watch it happen and think the oddsmakers can't be stupid enough to hang another low number on Oklahoma, and then they would do it again. Michael Roxborough was newly in charge of Nevada Sports Consultants, the chief oddsmaking firm for the state, and although he ended up very successful, at that point he was very young and make frequent mistakes.

After Jerome Brown broke Troy Aikman's ankle and Holieway became the starter, Oklahoma covered the opening pointspread in every game for the remainder of the season. I use the term "opening pointspread" only because there was one game played in a big snowstorm at Oklahoma State. The spread opened -7 and went up to -14 at close. The Sooners won 13-0. If that game had been played on a dry field then Oklahoma wins by at least 35 points, and probably 45+.

The following week all of us were saying the oddsmakers can't be dense enough to do it again. How many examples do they need? We were wrong. Roxborough opened the Oklahoma number -7 against SMU. It shot all the way up to -15. Oklahoma won by 22. Only that Oklahoma State game was even close to the number, after we broke Aikman's ankle.

It's the reason I feel sorry for newcomers to the sports wagering scene. There were huge advantages in my day, because everything was so primitive and unsophisticated. Mistakes galore. Laughable mistakes. There are a handful of dunce posters here who don't want to believe that. They clutch the conventional wisdom of Las Vegas as all-knowing and infallible. But the reason many of us left town is that it became exponentially more difficult. Now you actually have to pick winners, as opposed to relying on mistakes and the simple reality that 40 independent numbers in town held more opportunity for not only mistakes, but shifting the math to your advantage via scalps and middles, etc. Now with all the corporate mergers there are maybe 12-15 separate sets of numbers instead of 40.

***

BTW, this 1986 Canes/Sooners game was another example of the line moving 7 points toward Oklahoma. It opened Pick Em on Sunday night at the Stardust. A famous bettor named Boston Blackie loved the Canes in the game and had his runner in line, with instructions to wager on the Canes for the limit. That runner happened to draw first in the lottery. So he played Miami at Pick Em. The line moved briefly to Canes -1. But then virtually every wager for the next 10 minutes was on Oklahoma. The number was pounded all the way up to Sooners -7. There were at least 200 of us there watching and reacting every time the number moved. Too bad they didn't have video cameras for a documentary or something. It was an incredible scene at that lottery every Sunday night. I started getting in the lottery in 1988 but in 1985 I wasn't wagering high enough amounts to justify it. There was a $300 minimum forced wager in the lottery and from 1984 through 1987 my typical bet size was $220 but sometimes smaller. That actually wasn't too bad, to open as a $220 bettor as a newcomer in town and considering my age at the time. Some joints had a $220 limit on NBA totals in that era so I felt like a big shot when my little wager was moving the line.

Anyway, then that -7 on Oklahoma sat there all week. Obviously Miami won big and covered every number. But it prompted a long discussion on the Stardust Line handicapping program the following week. Sure that opening bettor won his wager at Pick Em. But did he make a smart bet? Roxborough was on that show at the time. The argument was that absolutely not, he did not make a smart wager. The power ratings suggested Oklahoma would be favored. He would have waited and played Miami +7, or on the money line at above 2/1 return.
 
Awsi Dooger said:
But Oklahoma won as many national championships as we did from 1985 to 1987 -- 1 compared to 1

The difference was that Oklahoma didn't throw away their championship game against Penn State in 1985, as we did in 1986. Paterno's scheme against the wishbone was every bit as effective as ours was. But Swtizer remained very patient and allowed his defense and kicking game to control field position. Oklahoma busted two big plays...one to Keith Jackson and one to the fullback Lydell Carr, and that was enough for the win and the national championship.

If Jimmy Johnson had similarly reigned in Testeverde against Penn State and used Highsmith instead, then we walk away with 2 titles in those three years.
Click to expand...
Truth be told if team focused more on Tennessee in 85 instead of worrying about the polls things could've been different.Penn st loss helped make us a more discipline team going forward.we quit taking teams for granted.
 
Advertisement
Awsi Dooger said:
But Oklahoma won as many national championships as we did from 1985 to 1987 -- 1 compared to 1

The difference was that Oklahoma didn't throw away their championship game against Penn State in 1985, as we did in 1986. Paterno's scheme against the wishbone was every bit as effective as ours was. But Swtizer remained very patient and allowed his defense and kicking game to control field position. Oklahoma busted two big plays...one to Keith Jackson and one to the fullback Lydell Carr, and that was enough for the win and the national championship.

If Jimmy Johnson had similarly reigned in Testeverde against Penn State and used Highsmith instead, then we walk away with 2 titles in those three years.
Click to expand...

After the 4th interception you would have thought that Jimmy would have stuck with Highsmith who was running all over Penn State.
 
Back
Top