Jason in Oklahoma City writes: Excluding the 2000 team that won the title, I would think that the 2004 team and the 2008 team were probably the best teams in the stoops era. So if you had Sam Bradford, Jermaine Gresham, DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown, Gerald McCoy, Duke Robinson, Phil Loadholt and Nic Harris go up against Jason White, Adrian Peterson, Mark Clayton, Jammal Brown, Brandon Jones, Dan Cody, Donte Nicholson and Antonio Perkins, who do you think would come out on top? I think it would be a good game, but I think the 2004 team had a little more talent. What’s your opinion?
Jake Trotter: We saw what happened with the ’04 Sooners when they were matched up against an offensive juggernaut in the Orange Bowl against USC. Sure, there were some turnovers that helped ignite the rout. But OU was overmatched.
Not once were the ’08 Sooners ever overmatched. They lost in a shootout to Texas, then couldn’t get going offensively in the BCS title game vs. Florida, and even then, still had a chance in the fourth quarter. Against Texas, OU lost its defensive captain in linebacker Ryan Reynolds and never recovered. Against Florida, OU, which had the No. 1 red zone offense in college football, was stuffed twice inside the Gator 10.
The ’08 Sooners would have trouble containing Peterson, and most certainly would give up some Jason White passes downfield. But I think the Bradford hurry-up, with all those weapons like Gresham, Murray and slot specialist Ryan Broyles would be too much firepower for the ’04 Sooners to handle.
