Traditional powers ready for fourth meeting TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -- Justin Smiley loves the tradition of Alabama and Oklahoma, the championships, the All-Americans -- everything down to the understated crimson jerseys. "It's kind of like a throwback game," the Crimson Tide offensive lineman said. "Their uniforms and our uniforms kind of remind me of old-school, back-in-the-day football. It's going to be a good battle. "It's going to make for an awesome environment." The game Saturday night between two of college football's traditional heavyweights isn't a total throwback. There's a No. 1 team playing at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and it's not Alabama. That's a first. Of course, the Tide hasn't been ranked No. 1 in the regular season since Nov. 1, 1980, losing to Mississippi State 6-3. Alabama did win the 1992 national title with a 34-13 win over then-No. 1 Miami in the Sugar Bowl, and has won three of its four meetings with top-ranked teams since 1977. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has already restored the Sooners to national title contenders, claiming the 2000 championship. Alabama fans are hoping an unproven, 38-year-old Mike Shula can have similar success -- once NCAA sanctions are history. "It's probably one of the hardest places to play in the country," Oklahoma linebacker Teddy Lehman said. "It's a huge game, big as it gets. It's a huge confidence builder if we win. "They've won the SEC hundreds of times, it seems like." Alabama doesn't rule the Southeastern Conference like it used to and is ineligible for the league title. The Tide would love to provide a helpful reminder that there still is a dangerous football program in Tuscaloosa, despite probation and a recent coaching turnstile with Dennis Franchione and Mike Price exiting and Shula entering during a six-month span. "We know it's a chance to show everybody that we're still going to play football here," Alabama tailback Shaud Williams said. It used to be hard to separate the two programs. Oklahoma has seven national championships; Alabama has six. Oklahoma ranks fourth in winning percentage among Division I-A programs; Alabama ranks third. Oklahoma had Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer; Alabama had Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings. "You talk about Oklahoma and Alabama and start adding up national championships, conference championships ... you're talking about two special programs," Stoops said. "Put them together and it's exciting." Last year's meeting -- only the third ever and first since 1970 -- certainly lived up to its billing. In the second half, Alabama played like it was gunning for a title again, not just pride. The Tide scored 24 straight points to overcome a 23-3 halftime deficit only to watch the Sooners score two touchdowns in the final 2:11 for a 37-27 victory. "That's a game you don't like to see either of the two teams lose," Tide defensive back Charles Jones said. "It was a great game to play in. Alabama and Oklahoma is just a great feeling." Shula, a former Tide quarterback, had a successful debut with a 40-17 win over South Florida at Birmingham's Legion Field. This will be his first time running the show on campus. "I don't like to use the word pressure," he said. "I just like to think of it excitement. It's the old cliche if you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best. You can't get any higher than the No. 1 ranking." Shula grew up in Miami watching the Sooners make frequent trips to the Orange Bowl. He'd like to work from Stoops' blueprint in taking over a major college program with no college head coaching experience and raising it to its old heights after some lackluster years. "The bottom line is they've got a great deal going," Shula said. "They've got a lot of talent and the players play well and are well coached and they get after people for 60 minutes. "As a head coach, I'd like that to be something people say about my program."

Two long TD passes and a fake punt the keys TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -- Alabama was rolling, the crowd was in a frenzy and Oklahoma was about to punt. Just when it looked as if the Crimson Tide was going to take control, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops went into his bag of tricks. Blake Ferguson threw a 22-yard pass on a fake punt and Jason White followed with his second long touchdown pass of the game, leading the top-ranked Sooners to a 20-13 victory on Saturday night. "We felt if they would be that reckless off the corners we would use it," Stoops said. "In games like this on the road, you need to make things happen. You have to have the guts to go with it and it worked." White and Oklahoma's stellar defense did the rest, leading the Sooners (2-0) to their 15th straight nonconference win. White, who had a season-ending knee injury last year against Alabama, wasn't around when the Crimson Tide almost rallied from 21 points down to win in Norman, Okla. After a slow start in this year's game, White answered every challenge for Oklahoma, the first No. 1 team ever to visit Tuscaloosa. He threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Mark Clayton directly after the Tide's first field goal in the second quarter and connected with Brandon Jones on a 47-yard score right after Alabama (1-1) cut it to 13-10 in the third. "We have receivers who have the ability to do that and Jason likes it," Stoops said. "The more aggressive they play, it opens it up sometimes. We hit some big plays." White finished 21-for-35 for 259 yards and the two touchdowns. Oklahoma's defense did the rest with five sacks and two interceptions, spoiling Alabama coach Mike Shula's campus debut. "They're No. 1 for a reason and we found that out tonight," Shula said. "They're a well-coached, talented team." After a trying offseason that began with popular coach Dennis Franchione bolting for Texas A&M and ended with the embarrassment surrounding Mike Price's firing for his encounter with strippers, the Tide fans were pumped for their first game of the season at Tuscaloosa. Alabama beat South Florida 40-17 at its second home in Birmingham last weekend. But this was Shula's first real test, against the top team in the nation. Even though he lost, Shula is off to a better start to his Alabama career than Bear Bryant, who began 0-1-1, and the fans were supportive until the end. "We have to grow up in a hurry," Shula said. "Each guy has to have that attitude and they will because they're good football players." The game turned midway through the third quarter. After Brodie Croyle's 20-yard touchdown pass to Triandos Luke brought Alabama within 13-10 and sent the crowd into a frenzy, the Sooners had fourth-and-11 from their 31 when Stoops called for the trick play. "I was a little nervous," Ferguson said. "But it ended up being great. I couldn't believe we'd use a fake punt. We just designed that play for this game." Ferguson threw a short pass in the flat to defensive back Michael Thompson, who had open field in front of him and went 22 yards for a first down. "It was a big play that kind of broke our back," Alabama linebacker Demeco Ryans said. "We were stopping the run and the pass but it was just the big plays that got to us." On the next play, White hit Jones on a deep post making it 20-10 and silencing the crowd. After Alabama drove to Oklahoma's 30, Donte Nicholson intercepted Croyle's pass to Zach Fletcher at the 5. White then drove the Sooners 61 yards, killing 6:35 off the clock before Oklahoma turned it over on downs. Alabama got a 36-yard field goal from Brian Bostick with 1:32 left to cut it to 20-13 but Oklahoma recovered an onsides kick and ran out the clock. Oklahoma's defense tried to quiet the crowd early by getting an interception by Antonio Perkins at the Alabama 33 on the first play from scrimmage, setting up Trey DiCarlo's 34-yard field goal. Alabama then went three and out, giving the Sooners the ball on their own 47. KeJuan Jones ran three times for 19 yards, setting up DiCarlo's 40-yard field goal that made it 6-0. Bostick's 44-yard field goal got Alabama on the board with 4:55 left in the half when White stepped up. Mark Bradley took a screen pass 35 yards to get into Alabama territory. White then connected on his first deep pass, as Clayton ran past Charles Jones and pulled in a 46-yard score to make it 13-3. White had been 5-for-14 for only 22 yards and the Sooners had only 63 yards before the two long completions. Croyle went 24-for-42 for 195 yards with two interceptions. Shaud Williams ran 17 times for 91 yards for the Tide.

Score by Quarters     1  2  3  4  Score
-----------------    -- -- -- --  -----
Oklahoma ...........  6  7  7  0 - 20 	Record: (2-0)
Alabama.............  0  3  7  3 - 13 	Record: (1-1)

Scoring Summary:
1st 12:22 OU - Trey DiCarlo 34 yd field goal, 7-16 2:32, OU 3 - Alabama 0
07:10 OU - Trey DiCarlo 40 yd field goal, 9-31 3:13, OU 6 - Alabama 0
2nd 04:55 Alabama - Brian Bostick 44 yd field goal, 11-51 5:32, OU 6 - Alabama 3
03:54 OU - Mark Clayton 46 yd pass from Jason White (Trey DiCarlo kick), 3-81 1:01, OU 13 - Alabama 3
3rd 06:53 Alabama - Triandos Luke 20 yd pass from Brodie Croyle (Brian Bostick kick), 6-80 1:28, OU 13 - Alabama 10
04:31 OU - Brandon Jones 47 yd pass from Jason White (Trey DiCarlo kick), 5-69 2:22, OU 20 - Alabama 10
4th 01:32 Alabama - Brian Bostick 36 yd field goal, 13-44 2:45, OU 20 - Alabama 13

			       OU 	Alabama
FIRST DOWNS................... 13 	19
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 27-74 	32-108
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 281 	195
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 36-22-0 	42-24-2
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 63-355 	74-303
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 	0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............ 4-3 	2-5
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 3-59 	2-40
Interception Returns-Yards.... 2-0 	0-0
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 6-44.3 	7-34.9
Fumbles-Lost.................. 0-0 	3-0
Penalties-Yards............... 3-20 	4-20
Possession Time............... 30:30 	29:30
Third-Down Conversions........ 4 of 16 	5 of 17
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 1 of 2 	2 of 2
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 1-2 	2-2
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 5-32 	0-0

RUSHING: Oklahoma Sooners-Kejuan Jones 20-63; Renaldo Works 6-12;
TEAM 1-minus 1. Alabama-Shaud Williams 17-91; Ray Hudson 3-13; Brodie Croyle
10-12; Kenneth Darby 1-minus 2; Team 1-minus 6.

PASSING: Oklahoma Sooners-Jason White 21-35-0-259; Blake Ferguson
1-1-0-22. Alabama-Brodie Croyle 24-42-2-195.

RECEIVING: Oklahoma Sooners-Brandon Jones 7-86; Mark Bradley 4-83;
Mark Clayton 3-54; Travis Wilson 2-9; Micha Thompson 1-22; J.D. Runnels
1-17; Jejuan Rankins 1-5; James Moses 1-4; Lance Donley 1-3; Kejuan Jones
1-minus 2. Alabama-Dre Fulgham 4-59; Triandos Luke 4-48; Shaud Williams 4-8;
Zach Fletcher 2-23; Brandon Greer 2-17; Clint Johnston 2-15; Tim Castille
2-7; Kenneth Darby 2-5; Ray Hudson 1-7; Lance Taylor 1-6.

INTERCEPTIONS: Oklahoma Sooners-Antoni Perkins 1-0; Dont Nicholson
1-0. Alabama-None.

FUMBLES: Oklahoma Sooners-None. Alabama-Brodie Croyle 2-0; Team 1-0.

SACKS (UA-A): Oklahoma Sooners-Dan Cody 1-0; Tommie Harris 1-0; Larry
Birdine 1-0; Jonath Jackson 1-0; Dusty Dvoracek 1-0. ALABAMA-None.

TACKLES (UA-A): Oklahoma Sooners-Lance Mitchell 10-0; B. Everage 7-3;
Teddy Lehman 8-1; Dont Nicholson 7-1; Derrick Strait 3-1; Jonath Jackson
3-0; Antoni Perkins 3-0; Dan Cody 3-0; Tommie Harris 2-0; Brodney Pool 2-0;
Travis Wilson 1-1; Mark Bradley 1-0; Larry Birdine 1-0; Kory Klein 1-0;
Pasha Jackson 1-0; Mark Clayton 1-0; Dusty Dvoracek 1-0. ALABAMA-Derrick
Pope 10-4; Demeco Ryans 6-3; Freddie Roach 5-3; Anthony Madison 4-3; Roman
Harper 5-1; Anthony Bryant 2-2; Charles Jones 3-0; Charlie Peprah 3-0;
Thurman Ward 3-0; Ahmad Childress 3-0; David Scott 2-1; Antwan Odom 2-0; N
M. Loescher 1-0; Shaud Williams 1-0; Mark Anderson 1-0; Juwan Garth 0-1;
Ramzee Robinson 0-1.

Attendance: 83,818

Updated: 09/08/03