End of an 18-Year Drought

BYU football: BYU silences critics with stunning win over Oklahoma By Jay Drew The Salt Lake Tribune 09/06/2009

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.

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 fieldgoal 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. For Your Information:

The last time BYU beat a nonconference team ranked in the Top 10 was its 28-21 win over No. 1 Miami on Sept. 8, 1990. The win on Saturday gave the Cougars their first win over a ranked nonconference opponent since it defeated No. 14 Arizona State, 26-6, on Sept. 12, 1998. Since that day, BYU had lost 12 consecutive games to ranked nonconference opponents. The last time BYU beat a ranked nonconference opponent on a neutral field was the Cotton Bowl game of Jan. 1, 1997, when BYU beat No. 14 Kansas State, 19-15.