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 Saturday, October 6, 2001
A new option for OU
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
DALLAS - He wasn’t Jamelle Holieway or Charles Thompson, but the sudden insertion of quarterback Jason White brought back a Sooner standard of old: the option.
The instant upgrade of athleticism the Sooners received with him behind center instead of starter Nate Hybl went a long way in making the difference in Oklahoma’s 14-3 victory over Texas on Saturday.
|  | | Jason White was 16-of-23 for 108 yards and ran 12 times for a team-high 38 yards. |
Standing across the field from the Golden Boy Heisman candidate that is Chris Simms, it was White who managed to stay out of trouble in a stadium that was overrun by a swirling wind.
The right-handed sophomore from Tuttle, Okla., threw for 108 yards on 16-for-23 passing and replaced Hybl for the first time after an injury to his left shoulder during the first series of the second quarter.
But the story on this day wasn’t White’s accurate arm. It was the fact that he was even in the game.
“I looked around and said, ‘What’s Jason doing in there?’” said Bob Stoops, who was talking to the defense at the time.
When Hybl entered the game on the second series of the second quarter, he lasted only three plays before being rocked by right tackle Marcus Tubbs on an 11-yard completion to Mark Clayton.
That’s when White strutted back onto the field.
“I was thinking, ‘I didn’t get warmed up,’” said White. “But I was ready.”
That’s where the most important factor came in to his success: his preparedness and the fluidity in which he executed the running game, including 38 yards of his own on 12 carries.
“Jason showed great leadership and toughness,” said Stoops, drenched with water after being dunked on the sideline at the end of the game. “He executed exceptionally well today coming off the bench.”
White, who admitted that he never thought preparing himself each week would pay off as it did, gave the new Longorn 3-4 defense designed to stop Hybl’s short passes and Quentin Griffin runs around the ends fits for the majority of the game.
The Texas defense was particularly stymied two different times on OU’s only offensive touchdown drive when the Sooners looked to the option.
On a fourth-and-2 on the Texas 30 midway through the second quarter, White ran left and perfectly tossed the pigskin into the waiting arms of Griffin, who proceeded to ramble 17 yards down the sideline to move the chains.
After White showed off his running ability with an explosive 11-yard run around the left end, offensive coordinator Mark Mangino called the same play from the sidelines that resulted in a two-yard TD for Griffin to go up 7-0.
“It was in the game plan,” said Mangino, who said that there is much room for improvement in their offense overall despite the victory and that nothing was changed based on White being on the field. “We have a system. Both kids practiced it all week."
That may have been the case, but surely Hybl, the less mobile of the two, couldn’t have moved the ball single-handedly as well as White did when Oklahoma went 53 yards and ate up 6:27 of the clock on 12 plays at the end of the game when it was still only 7-3.
White was most impressive on a tense third-and-9 from his own 21 when he was faced with speedy linebacker D.J. Johnson in his mug without a blocker in sight. Not only did White spin away from his outstretched arms, he then rambled 10 yards for the first down to keep the drive alive.
“We practice that drill every day,” said White. “We rollout with pressure in our faces while looking to throw to our receivers.”
Two plays later, he perfectly read the UT defense and the collapsing pocket around him, by escaping up the heart of the field for 15 yards to move the ball into Texas territory.
It was a drive that eventually pinned back Texas to their own 3-yard line. It resulted in a Teddy Lehman interception return for a TD when Simms was blindsided by a diving Roy Williams. The touchdown put the game virtually out of reach at 14-3 with two minutes left to play and gave White his first victory for the Crimson and Cream.
It also presented the odd situation where a defending national champion that has won 18 straight games has a quarterback controversy. Even going into the game, White had several supporters around Norman. Now, he probably has a whole legion of backers.
So even when Stoops told the media that if Hybl was healthy next week at Kansas he would be the starter, White wasn’t fazed.
“That’s fine,” he said. “I’ve been the backup since two-a-days.
“Nate had a better camp than I did so he got to start,” said White.
It doesn’t matter at the moment for this program that has been restored to greatness after several down years throughout the ‘90s decade.
With nine games to go, if you include a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game and an obvious bowl berth, this team might very well need a No. 1 and a No. 1A to get through a maze that even Heisman Trophy runner-up Josh Heupel struggled through at the end of last season.
Even if White returns to the sidelines, he will forever treasure what he accomplished in front of 75,587 fans (evenly distributed) in a top-five matchup between two of the most revered programs of all time.
“This is a dream come true,” said White, who grew up living out such a scenario in the OU-Texas rivalry out in his backyard. “I never would have thought this would happen.”
With Josh Heupel gone, Nate Hybl out and Chris Simms on the field, certainly never did Texas.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online. He can be reached at marc.connolly@abc.com.
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 Bob Stoops says Jason White provided great leadership in Nate Hybl's absence.
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 Oklahoma's Quentin Griffin turns the corner and gets into the end zone (Courtesy:ABC).
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OU's Roy Williams causes the loose ball and Teddy Lehman goes in for the TD (Courtesy:ABC).
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