By JIMMIE TRAMEL Sports Writer on Sep 18, 2012, at 10:09 AM Updated on 9/18 at 10:09 AM
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The day Oklahoma State football changed was -- at least in my opinion -- Sept. 11, 2010.
OSU played a home game against Troy and all the Cowboys had to do to secure a win was line up in “victory” formation and take enough knees to kill the clock.
Oops.
Center Grant Garner snapped the ball and quarterback Brandon Weeden, who had an injured thumb, lost a fumble that Troy’s Daniel Sheffield recovered with 54 seconds remaining.
“Oh no,” OSU play-by-play announcer Dave Hunziker reacted.
Troy trailed by just three points. Would the Trojans take advantage of the turnover and force overtime? Or would they drive all the way down the field and score a touchdown?
They did neither because, on the next play, OSU linebacker Justin Gent forced Troy quarterback Corey Robinson to fumble and Cowboy linebacker Orie Lemon recovered.
I thought it was a turning point in OSU’s football fortunes. The environment was ripe for a Charlie Brown moment. And the Cowboys, who have had more than their share of Charlie Brown moments over the years, instead seized the day as if to say “hey bad luck, you don’t get to live here anymore.” The Iowa State game last season? I don’t put it in the Charlie Brown category. The Cyclones played great and caught the Cowboys on a somber day.
Props to Deadspin writer Barry Petchesky for reminding me of the turning point day. He wrote a story about the end of the Buccaneers-Giants game on Sunday. At the end of the game, the Giants were in victory formation and, instead of taking a knee, Eli Manning got knocked on his buttocks when the Bucs bull-rushed the line of scrimmage instead of playing patty cake.
Was the tactic dirty or smart? Petchesky pointed out that Giants receiver Jerrel Jernigan played on the Troy team that gained a victory formation fumble in Stillwater two years ago.
Search for the words “victory formation fail” and you’ll get Youtube video of OSU’s fumble. But the Cowboys maybe exorcised a ghost that day.
I talked to longtime Stillwater radio talk show host Rex Holt in 2001 for a story about how OSU fans, because of what they had witnessed over the years, had come to expect weirdness to sabotage the Cowboys. There was a dropped touchdown pass at the end of a 1988 Bedlam game. And a fumble of an interception return in a 1976 game against Colorado that led to the Cowboys being kept out of the Orange Bowl. And an onside kick that bounced off an OSU player’s helmet in a 1983 Bedlam game.
In fairness, it should be pointed out that OSU has had many snatch-victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat moments, too. But that’s another story for another day.
After the Cowboys rallied from a two-touchdown deficit and lost a triple-overtime game to Missouri in 2001, Holt said he turned to his radio co-host and said “It sure is tough being us.”
Not anymore. Cowboy fans have watched their team go 24-4 -- and win a Big 12 championship and a BCS bowl -- since the Troy game, also known as the one that didn’t get away.
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