If this were the mid-1980s, Saturday's Miami-Oklahoma match up would be arguably the most anticipated college football game of the year.
The teams played in the 1985-87 seasons, with Miami winning all three games. The Hurricanes clinched the national championship by beating Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1988, and the Sooners won the 1985 title despite the loss to Miami.
As it is 2007, however, this is a matchup between a Miami team trying to get back to national relevance under Coach Randy Shannon and an Oklahoma team ranked No. 5 and which is a 10.5-point early week favorite at home.
The Hurricanes are coming off a 31-3 victory against Marshall Thundering Herd in Shannon's first game. The offense was solid running the ball, with 251 rushing yards, but the passing game was a concern, as it was last season. Kirby Freeman, who beat out senior Kyle Wright for the starting job, was a pedestrian 9-for-21 for 86 yards with a touchdown and interception. However, UM was without arguably its best receiver in Sam Shields (suspended for one game).
"[Freeman] played decent enough to win the game," Shannon said. "You look at his stats and they aren't tremendous, but we had too many drops."
The UM defense was solid, allowing only 245 yards, but that unit will have quite a different challenge this week. Oklahoma racked up 79 points in a 69-point victory over North Texas Mean Green in the Sooners' opener.
Granted, it's North Texas, but the offense didn't look like it missed star RB Adrian Peterson (now in the NFL) much. Redshirt freshman QB Sam Bradford was a whopping 20-for-22 for 350 yards and 3 TDs in the first half, and freshman RB DeMarco Murray became the first Oklahoma player to score five touchdowns in his debut as the Sooners had their second-highest point total since 1919.
Shannon, who was a linebacker on the UM team that beat OU in the 1988 Orange Bowl, seems to believe his defense will be able to slow the Sooners: "the best thing about playing Oklahoma is the coordinator is still the same -- offensively and defensively, so we'll have an idea of what they do. And we'll have a good game plan."
The numbers don't support much of a chance for Miami, as the Canes were 1-4 away from home last season and have lost their past five games on the road or in neutral sites against ranked opponents. Add to that, Oklahoma is 43-2 since 2000 at home, and UM fans may have to wait a while longer for the national attention-grabbing victory.
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