Oklahoma Football Legends Look Back on Memorable 1985 SMU-OU Tilt

Sooners, Mustangs will play for second time since ’85 this Saturday in Norman

Former Oklahoma defensive tackle Tony Casillas reacts to an offensive play in the 1985 SMU game. (Photo by Harry Lentz Jr.)

By Douglas Miles, For the Crimson Captain

NORMAN — The wait for the return of a college football season is interminable.

For Oklahoma, the time between the Cheez-It Bowl loss to Florida State and last week’s rousing rout of Arkansas State consisted of more than eight months of debates, predictions, preseason lists, recruit tracking and trash talk.

The season could not possibly arrive soon enough. And now that it did, we suddenly find ourselves staring at a Week 2 slate that includes a Saturday visit to Norman from Southern Methodist University, which serves as a fun reminder of the longest wait for an Oklahoma season-opening game that many of us ever endured.

1985.

That year, the Sooners were set to open the season Sep. 14 against SMU, but ABC Sports approached Oklahoma and asked that the game be moved to Dec. 7 to accommodate a national television broadcast.

As a result, Oklahoma’s 1985 season did not begin until Sep. 28 at Minnesota and the first game at Owen Field would not be until Oct. 19, the week after the annual OU-Texas game in Dallas! Imagine that wait!

“It was very hard because everyone else is playing,” former Oklahoma two-time consensus All-American defensive tackle Tony Casillas told The Crimson Captain. “For us, we’re sitting there and we’re chomping at the bit and we are just trying to stay focused and prepare. Meanwhile, everyone around us is balling and we’re like, ‘OK, this is abnormal.’ You’re practicing and you're tired of beating each other up. You want fresh blood and you are ready and raring to go and we’re kind of on idle.”

The Sep. 28 opener in 1985 was the latest on the calendar for Oklahoma since the Sooners hosted Notre Dame on Sep. 30, 1961. Pushing the SMU game to Dec. 7 also meant it was the last time Oklahoma ended the regular season with a non-conference opponent, something that has occurred just twice (Hawaii, 1983) since in-state foe Oklahoma State joined the Big 8 in 1960.

For former Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer, tussling with SMU in December instead of September turned out to be a blessing in disguise for a team that did not begin to really hum offensively until freshman Jamelle Holieway took over at quarterback four games into the season.

“It was the last game of the season and I’m glad we were playing them at the end because SMU, playing them early, they were a really good team and we weren’t very good early,” Switzer told The Crimson Captain. “And we got good once we got Jamelle inserted and became a good offensive team.”

By the time Dec. 7 arrived, Oklahoma was 9-1, ranked fourth by the Associated Press, second in the Coaches Poll and had already won the Big 8 championship. A meeting between Oklahoma and undefeated, top-ranked Penn State was already set for New Year’s Day at the Orange Bowl in Miami, where a victory could earn the Sooners at least a share of the national championship.

In order for Oklahoma to maintain its national title hopes, it would have to get by SMU. The Mustangs – which had won 10-plus games in each of the previous four seasons – entered the game with a disappointing 6-4 record and were ineligible for a bowl game due to the NCAA placing the football program on probation – for the fourth time – in Aug. 1985 for recruiting violations.

SMU still possessed a load of talent, had nothing to lose and would treat the Sooners as its bowl game. Any Oklahoma letdown would cost the Sooners a chance at a national title.

“That was the narrative right there,” former Oklahoma tailback Spencer Tillman told The Crimson Captain. “This is not … I hope I am not disparaging anybody, but this is not the ‘little sisters of the poor,’ this is not Alabama picking up Liberty at the end of the year. That’s not what this is. … They have a legacy of winning. Everybody knew that this was not a throwaway game. That was the narrative that the coaches talked about. And you know they also used it in terms of how could we leverage or make the case for ourselves among voters? … So the narrative was, ‘Do not take these guys lightly.’”

Four days before the game, Casillas traveled to Texas and was named winner of the Lombardi Award as college football’s best lineman by the Rotary Club of Houston. Casillas was the second Oklahoma player to win the award (Lee Roy Selmon, 1975). Tommie Harris became the third in 2003.

“I didn't think I really had a chance because the year before I thought that maybe that would be the year because my stats were better,” said Casillas, who will return to Houston for the 50th anniversary of the Lombardi Award this December. “I really didn't focus on that, but in ‘85 I actually got hurt and missed three games, so I was really not expecting to win. … I couldn't believe it. I was in shock. … I was not expecting that, so it was a very humbling moment.”

The SMU game would be the final game at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium for Casillas and fellow seniors Darin Berryhill (tight end), offensive linemen Paul Ferrer, Eric Pope and Ric Uhles, plus defensive end Kevin Murphy and defensive tackle Jeff Tupper. It was a class that proved instrumental in helping lift the program from three 4-loss seasons in a row (1981-83) to back-to-back Big 8 championships (1984-85) and the program’s sixth national title to cap their careers.

Former Oklahoma defensive end Kevin Murphy fights off a blocker in the 1985 SMU game. (Photo by Harry Lentz Jr.)

“A lot of former athletes and people that play on great teams, you want to create a legacy and certainly we did,” Casillas said. “We won a national championship and won two Big 8 championships. The year before (1984) is really what motivated us because the year before we went to the Orange Bowl and we got embarrassed by Washington. We just weren’t prepared and we didn’t focus and I just remember that the next year (1985) was more of a grind.”

Oklahoma’s 35-13 win over SMU was in doubt for a little more than a quarter. The Mustangs took the opening kickoff and drove down the field for the game’s first touchdown, but Oklahoma tied the game on the second play of the second quarter with a one-yard touchdown run by Tillman, who dove over the SMU defensive line from three yards away.

Former Oklahoma tailback Spencer Tillman dives for a touchdown during the 1985 SMU game. (Photo by Harry Lentz Jr.)

“Everything about Oklahoma was mythical,” said Tillman, who will provide color commentary of the Stanford at USC game for Fox’s national college football broadcast this Saturday. “One of the reasons why I changed my number from 34 to 20 was because I fancied myself as a ‘baby Billy Sims,’ although I was nowhere in his category. I loved watching Billy Sims run and I remember in that game against SMU, I said, ‘I am going to get me a touchdown via the dive.’ So I remember telling Jamelle (Holieway), I said, ‘Jamelle, when we run this power (formation), just make sure you stay out of my way because I need to dive.’ … I remember diving for that touchdown and that game was really about setting the stage for more. Everything about Oklahoma, you have to understand, we understood that we were performers.”

Despite battling the flu in the week leading up to the game, Holieway put on a performance, as well. One game before becoming the first true freshman quarterback to lead a team to a national championship, Holieway ran for 126 yards and a pair of touchdowns, highlighted by a creative iteration of the iconic tight end reverse that Keith Jackson made famous two games earlier with an 88-yard touchdown run against Nebraska.

On the first play after Murphy recovered an SMU fumble, Holieway faked a handoff to Jackson on the reverse and as the Mustangs’ defense retreated right to chase Jackson, Holieway raced around the left end and through the secondary for a 38-yard touchdown and a 14-7 lead Oklahoma would not relinquish.

“When practicing, Coach (Jim Donnan, Oklahoma offensive coordinator) came up with, ‘You know, they are going to be geared up for the reverse, so let’s just fake it and see what it holds,’” Holieway recalled to The Crimson Captain. “We had three versions. We can fake, we can give it or we can give it and Keith is going to throw it. So we had three different types of plays off that one play. They picked the fake reverse for whatever reason. They saw the coverage was pretty good for us. We got them in the right coverage to do the fake.”

Oklahoma tailback Patrick Collins ran for a score midway through the second quarter that extended the Sooners’ lead to 21-7 at halftime. Holieway passed for 40 yards, including a 16-yard scoring toss to Lee Morris – father of the 2017-19 Oklahoma receiver of the same name – late in the third quarter. Holieway capped the game’s scoring with a short touchdown run with 7:07 to go.

“We knew what we had to do on our side of the ball and I knew the defense already knew what they had to do,” Holieway said. “We have got the best defense in the nation and they see this every day, so it was like a bump in the road. But again, every time Coach Switzer always made us realize one thing. ‘They're coming for y'all. You are OU. You’re highly ranked. They want to spoil your coming-out party.’ That just wasn’t going to happen and luckily we won and we went on.”

Fourteen months after the game, SMU was found in violation of the NCAA’s “repeat violator” rule due to even more recruiting violations and received the so-called “death penalty,” which canceled the program’s 1987 season.

At the time, Switzer was quoted as saying “This could make them a doormat for 10 years.” That turned out to be a conservative estimate. SMU did not qualify for another bowl until the 2009 Hawaii Bowl.

“I said it was going to knock the hell out of them, but I didn't realize that it would take them down that long,” Switzer said.

The aforementioned ABC broadcast was full of unique tidbits and breaking news. Legendary broadcaster Keith Jackson left at halftime with a bout of the flu, while studio host Jim Lampley was on site in Norman along with in-studio commentator Beano Cook and former Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie – ther reigning Heisman Trophy winner from 1984 – who accurately predicted that Penn State would have trouble stopping Holieway and the Oklahoma offense in the upcoming Orange Bowl that the Sooners won, 25-10.

During the broadcast, Lampley broke the news of Indiana University men’s basketball star Steve Alford’s NCAA suspension for posing for a sorority calendar to generate proceeds for a girl’s youth camp. Lampley also revealed that Auburn tailback Bo Jackson had won the Heisman Trophy as college football’s best player by 45 points over Iowa quarterback Chuck Long, which was the closest Heisman race until Alabama’s Mark Ingram edged Toby Gerhart of Stanford in 2009.

The in-game Heisman reveal was a stark contrast to the media spectacle and production of today’s award shows.

“There wasn’t so much sensationalism when it came to winning a major award,” Casillas said with a laugh.

SMU would return to Norman in 1995, which was Howard Schnellenberger’s only season as Oklahoma head coach. The Sooners prevailed that day, 24-10.

The current Mustangs have qualified for a bowl game in five of the past six years, including the last four in a row. They arrive in Norman with a palpable buzz after accepting an invitation to join the Atlantic Coast Conference the day before beating Louisiana Tech in Saturday’s opener, 38-14.

Whether or not the move to the ACC will allow SMU to return to the heights the program enjoyed in the 1980s and prior depends on one critical element, according to Switzer.

“It's all recruiting,” Switzer said. “If they get players, they can do it. It is going to take players and recruiting to get it done. It’s talent. Developing talent will be the difference. That (transfer) portal gives everybody a chance.”

Casillas will return to Norman on Saturday to attend the game. He will be joined by a contingent of former SMU players, including some – like former star tailback Reggie Dupard – from the 1985 clash as the Sooners seek to build off the Arkansas State victory and show it is vastly improved from last year’s 6-7 team.

“They're off to a tremendous start,” Casillas said. “Any time you cover, you beat a team by 73 (points), that creates a lot of confidence. That’s what I saw. If I'm going to be real quick to judge and say based off one game, that's what I saw. The explosiveness. (Gavin) Freeman, that kid. There’s different players that are in the system that are making plays and are exciting and I think that's what we saw. They weren't flat. They came out and they were lit up, so I think it's going to be a great season for Oklahoma. I think they're going to win the Big 12 championship because I just think that they have the players.”