It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Maybe that’s the proper way to remember exactly what happened when Oklahoma topped Texas Tech 66-59 at Jones AT&T Stadium five years ago.
That could’ve also described the respective reactions from Lubbock that night from Sooner football’s radio play-by-play voice and color analyst.
“I thought it was awesome. I thought it was one of the most exciting, unbelievable games I’ve ever seen or called. It was big play after big play after big play,” OU football play-by-play voice Toby Rowland said. “I just remember thinking the whole game and kind of trying to capture it on the broadcast that we were witnessing history and one of the most amazing offensive nights in the history of the game. What these two quarterbacks were doing, what Joe Mixon was doing was unbelievable.”
What those two quarterbacks —Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes —and those two offenses were doing was rewriting the NCAA record books.
The two teams finished with identical yardage in total offense: 854 yards each. The 1,708 combined yards of total offense shattered the previous mark set by San Jose State and Nevada in 2001 when those teams combined for 1,640 yards.
Mahomes tied the FBS record for passing yards in a game with 734 and was one passing attempt shy of tying Washington State’s Connor Halliday for the most attempts in a single game. Mahomes’ 819 yards of total offense and 100 plays either rushing or passing set records as well.
In his return to Lubbock, Mayfield was spectacular. Mayfield completed 27-of-36 passes for 545 passing yards with an OU-record seven passing touchdowns.
Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon had a monster all-purpose night, carrying the football for the Sooners 31 times and racking up 263 rushing yards with a pair of scores. He also hauled in four passes–three of which went for touchdowns–for 114 receiving yards.
OU wide receiver Dede Westbrook finished with nine receptions, a pair of touchdown grabs and 202 receiving yards.
After the Sooner radio broadcast was finished, Rowland and his sons went outside the booth to take a picture of the three of them with the scoreboard in the backdrop to commemorate what was a historic offensive night.
“And then, I opened up social media and saw that it was like a complete meltdown, that Sooner Nation did not receive the game as optimistically as I did. It’s the worst read I’ve ever had on a football game that I’ve called, because, when I was in the middle of it, I thought it was–I still think it was awesome. It was an awesome offensive night,” Rowland said.
For a Butkus and Bednarik Award winner during his playing days as a star linebacker at Oklahoma, it’s understandable why then-OU radio sideline analyst and current color voice Teddy Lehman felt differently.
“I expected a high scoring game, but I didn’t expect anything like what we witnessed. It was unbelievable and it was one of those weird games that so much happened, so many big plays happened that there’s a lot of it that kind of gets lost in the mix of big plays,” Lehman said.
And it wasn’t just Oklahoma’s struggles defensively that left a bad taste in Lehman’s mouth.
“It was horrible on both sides. It was hard watching Oklahoma out there, but it was equally as frustrating, as odd as this sounds, watching Texas Tech. There were guys running wide open. There were running plays where the hole–and I’m not exaggerating–is eight yards wide and a running back doesn’t even get touched on a fifty yard run for a touchdown. No one even anywhere near him. There wasn’t anything good about any of it,” Lehman said.
The fear that night for Lehman was that this was the direction college football might be headed.
“My big frustration at that time was… is this what college football is going to turn into? At that time, it kind of was. That’s when we had all the high-flying offenses in the Big 12. I just remember thinking, ‘I don’t like this.’ This is not good football. Good football is complementary. A struggle to get a first down and to get points, moving the ball is an art and field position matters. All this is who has the ball last,” Lehman said.
Looking back, there were some incredible offensive players both ways on the field that night. Tech wide receivers Keke Coutee and Cameron Batson both still play in the NFL.
Mixon has turned into a star for the Cincinnati Bengals and Westbrook is with the Minnesota Vikings. Mayfield led the Cleveland Browns to its first playoff win in 26 years last season and Mahomes quarterbacked Kansas City to its first Super Bowl win in over 50 years.
“It was an amazing gluttony of offensive talent on display that night, but my experience has been that that doesn’t really matter. Sooner fans were sickened by what they saw and have a terrible memory of that game. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to think about it. I’ve talked to people who turned off the TV they were so disgusted. It’s a win that a lot of people regard as a loss I believe,” Rowland said.
Lehman points out that the painful part for Oklahoma fans is the fact that Mahomes authored that performance against the Sooners when his college career really never consistently mirrored what his professional career has become.
“There’s no doubt he’s a good player, but that game for him in college is a one-off performance. That wasn’t an every-week type of performance and it happened to come against Oklahoma. There’s nothing that he can do in the NFL that justifies that day. Nothing,” Lehman said.
As Oklahoma gets set to play host to Texas Tech this weekend, Rowland reflected on the 8-0 start thus far.
“I think it’s been a wild, unexpected ride and it’s amazing that they are undefeated considering the number of close games that they’ve played. Nobody could have forecasted the series of events that have unfolded for this team including Spencer Rattler getting benched in the middle of an undefeated season,” Rowland said.
Rowland laughs as he explains that he was just listening to a radio segment about who deserves the blame for Oklahoma’s 2021 season to date.
“And they’re undefeated, so it’s just crazy. I’m not even saying it was a segment that didn’t deserve to happen. It’s been a year in which I wish we had a Hard Knocks covering the Sooners. I wish we had behind the scenes access of what this year was like, because I think it would be highly entertaining,” Rowland said.
“Whether it’s Texas Tech this week or Kansas last week or Baylor in two weeks or even the bye week, the only thing that you can count on is that something dramatic and unexpected is going to happen every week with this team. Sometimes it’s on the field, sometimes it’s off the field, but it’s just been a crazy soap opera of a year.”
Catch both across the REF Sports Radio Network
Rowland hosts a weekday morning radio show across Oklahoma on 94.7 FM/1400 AM called the “T-Row in the Morning Show” from 6-9 a.m. alongside longtime co-host and program director T.J. Perry.
Sooner fans can tune into Lehman alongside co-host Tyler McComas on those same airwaves on weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on “The Rush.”
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