The Sooners were forced to place their trust in freshman quarterback Jamelle Holieway and a physical defense featuring three All-Americans, who led them to a Big 8 Conference title and a national championship.
[1] [3] Quarterbacks Running backs Receivers Tight ends Offensive line Defensive line Linebackers Defensive backs Kickers Courtesy of Soonerstats.com After struggling in the 1985 Orange Bowl to a scrappy Washington Huskies football team and letting any National Championship aspirations for that year disappear in a puff of smoke (and be awarded to the BYU Cougars, the nation's only undefeated college football team that year), the defending Big 8 Champion Sooners came into the 1985 season on a mission.
Led by an aggressive and punishing defense (which later drew comparisons to their NFL counterpart Chicago Bears) and budding superstar quarterback sophomore Troy Aikman, the Sooners seemed poised for a run at the Orange Bowl and the National Championship.
Nothing seemed to indicate otherwise, as the Sooners rolled past Minnesota and Kansas State before beating the Longhorns in the annual Red River Shootout.
Oklahoma came into the contest with the nation's most aggressive defense (leading to their comparisons to the Monsters of the Midway), which seemingly got better each week, and was led up front by All-American nose tackle Tony Casillas, whose injury against Texas forced him to miss the game.
Lining up behind the group was the menacing Brian Bosworth, with fellow linebackers Paul Migliazzo and Dante Jones (another talented sophomore).
Juniors Tony Rayburn and Sonny Brown, and sophomores Rickey Dixon and Derrick White, patrolled the secondary, allowing only 91 yards passing per game.
Alonzo Highsmith and Melvin Bratton lined up in the backfield, and the acrobatics of top-flight wide receivers Michael Irvin and Brian Blades helped the team average 36.2 points per game.
The Hurricane defense came in after a shutout of Cincinnati, permitting an average of only 16 points per game, featuring junior tackle Jerome Brown and cornerback Bennie Blades.
Together with quarterback McCathorn Clayton and junior I-back Doug DuBose, whose 1,115 rushing yards made 1985 his second straight season over 1,000, the Cornhuskers were poised for a national title run.
Freshman quarterback Jamelle Holieway, starting just his fifth game and in charge of a wishbone that was the third best rushing offense in the land, optioned to the left and gave a reverse handoff to big sophomore tight end Keith Jackson, who raced untouched down the right sideline 88 yards for a touchdown, the sixth longest run in school history.
SEC champion Tennessee and Miami were playing in the Sugar Bowl, with the Hurricanes allowed an outside shot at the title with a Penn State loss.
[21] On their opening possession, Oklahoma reached into their bag of tricks and a handoff to Keith Jackson was flipped to Anthony Stafford, but linebacker Shane Conlan was ready for it, stuffing the play for a two-yard loss.
[21] The game was very close, and remained a defensive struggle into the 4th quarter, but Oklahoma proved to be too much for the Lions, particularly after it was announced at the half that Tennessee was pounding Miami to the tune of 28-7 in the Sugar Bowl.