Texas A&M
OKLAHOMA
(#7) Texas A&M 29, Oklahoma 0
Nov 07, 1998 | Football
November 07, 1998
During the closing minutes of Texas A&M's 29-0 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday night, glance along Kyle Field's sidelines revealed players smiling, cracking jokes and laughing.
But here's the ironic thing: That description was of the Oklahoma sidelines.
Perhaps the once-mighty Sooners found reason to celebrate the fact they won't have to see Texas A&M's stifling defense for another year. Or maybe the Oklahoma players were simply prepared for something like this to happen all along.
Either way, Saturday's game was yet another example of the monumental gap that now exists between Texas A&M and Oklahoma, two schools that are separated by about a six-hour drive, but whose football programs are now light years apart. In the last two meetings between the two schools, for example, A&M has outscored OU, 80-7.
And as for Saturday's final score, the Sooners were indeed fortunate that it was not more one-sided. Maybe that's why there were so many smiles on the OU sidelines at the end.
"Oklahoma has struggled this year, but they still have a lot of good athletes on their team," A&M junior cornerback Jason Webster said. "We wanted to jump out on them early and make sure that they never got the feeling that they could win this game. We wanted to take away their hopes."
That's exactly what the Aggies did. In fact, it took less than three minutes for the Aggies to render the hapless Sooners hopeless.
After stuffing Oklahoma on the game's first possession, the Aggies took a 7-0 lead with 12:38 left in the first quarter when Webster returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown. It was the first punt return of Webster's collegiate career, and it was the first time all season A&M put two punt returners back.
Because A&M's coaches had noticed on films that Oklahoma punter Jeff Ferguson had a tendency of kicking the ball away from return men, A&M head coach R.C. Slocum put both Webster and Chris Taylor, the usual punt returner, back in deep formation.
The plan worked to perfection, as Webster caught the ball on his own 45, picked up several blocks and used some excellent moves to get the Aggies on the scoreboard before the A&M offense had taken the field.
And as well as the Wrecking Crew played on Saturday night, that first touchdown was more than enough for the Aggies to record their fourth straight victory over the Sooners.
A&M's defense did not allow Oklahoma to mount a serious scoring threat, did not yield a first down for the first 33 minutes of the contest and did not ever give the Sooners a reason to believe they could win.
"What can you say about the Wrecking Crew?" Campbell mused. "All we had to do (offensively) was kick a field goal, really, to win that game. Or the (defense) could have scored a safety and we would have won, 2-0 ... With the way our defense was playing, those guys (Oklahoma) didn't have a chance."
"Our defense has been so good that you kind of take them for granted sometimes," said senior quarterback Branndon Stewart, who, because of Randy McCown's second-degree shoulder separation, made his first start since the North Texas game on Sept. 26.
The A&M offense had its struggles against an Oklahoma defense that entered the game ranked eighth nationally. But the Aggies also had some impressive moments while producing 355 yards of total offense.
With McCown taking an extra week to recover from the shoulder injury he suffered against Oklahoma State, Stewart started and played perhaps his best game of the season. He completed 15-of-23 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns without an interception.
Stewart completed passes to seven different receivers, but his favorite target was Chris Cole, who caught five passes for 118 yards, including a 24-yard touchdown reception and a 47-yard TD catch.
But despite Stewart's strong performance, he spent his time passing out credit to others.
"Randy could have done the same thing," Stewart said. "It wasn't a stellar performance by me. It was a total team effort."
And perhaps the best is still yet to come. With remaining games against Top 25 opponents Missouri and Texas and perhaps a Big 12 title game matchup against a Kansas State team that could be No. 1, the Aggies could make this a most memorable season.
"Everything is shaping up for us very nicely," Campbell said. "There's still a lot of football left to be played, but it's exciting to think about the possibilities. This team has come so far since we lost to Florida State in the Kickoff Classic on Aug. 31).
"We're playing with a lot of confidence, and we honestly believe we're going to win every game we play. Somehow, some way, we know guys on this team are going to step forward and help us win every week. That's a very good feeling."
And very quickly, A&M has become a very good football team.
