Berry Tramel| Oklahoman
Miami defenders Jerome Brown and John McVeigh sandwiched Troy Aikman, Aikman’s ankle fractured, football history was changed and soon enough literally everyone thought it for the best.
On Oct. 19, 1985, many fortunes changed. All seemingly for the better.
The Hurricanes found a landmark victory on Owen Field; indeed, Miami went from a 14-7, second-quarter lead to a 27-14 victory.
The Sooners found a franchise quarterback — true freshman Jamelle Holieway relieved Aikman and eventually led OU to the 1985 national championship and a 28-1 record as the starter through the 1987 season.
Aikman found a ticket out of the wishbone. In the wake of Holieway’s success, Aikman transferred to UCLA, eventually became the first pick in the 1989 NFL Draft and went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Dallas Cowboys.
Everybody ended up happy.
But what if Aikman’s ankle hadn’t cracked? What if Aikman had bounced up from that sack and kept throwing and running the Sooners up and down Owen Field? What if Aikman had remained the OU quarterback for 1985 and beyond? Football in the American Southwest would look a lot different.
One thing would not have changed, in Barry Switzer’s opinion.
“We’d have won the national championship that same year,” Switzer said. “I’ve always said that. We’d have beaten the rest of the people on our schedule, with Aikman. Hell, we might have beaten Miami’s (butt) that day.”
The ’85 Sooners won eight straight with Holieway at quarterback, including a 25-10 victory over Penn State in the Orange Bowl, the same night Tennessee routed Miami in the Sugar Bowl and ended all ‘Cane debate.
Beating Miami that day in Norman would have been difficult. But entirely possible.
When Aikman went down, the Sooners had reached the Miami 17-yard line, with 9:18 left in the second quarter. Aikman had completed six of seven passes for 131 yards and a touchdown. Out of the wishbone. The ‘Sooner bone was 15 years old in 1985, and Norman never had seen anything like an option quarterback who could fire the football like a pro. Aikman, who was quite mobile in his OU days, had uncorked a 26-yard run that would have been a 47-yard touchdown run, had officials not mistakenly ruled he stepped out of bounds.
With Aikman that day, OU gained 218 yards on 27 plays. Without Aikman, OU gained 144 yards on 50 plays.
Seems incredulous that with a talent like Aikman, the Sooners would have stuck with the wishbone. But you never know. Holieway was quite the ballplayer, too, as we found out.
“I think as coaches, we would have implemented both of ‘em,” Switzer said. “Played him and Jamelle both.”
In fact, Switzer said he told Aikman that off-season that without the injury, OU still would have won the championship but that both quarterbacks would play in 1986.
A few things to consider:
Would Aikman have stayed? Would he have felt threatened by Holieway? Why wouldn’t Aikman have felt threatened by Holieway? Switzer just testified that OU would have won the national title with Aikman and the plan still would have been a two-quarterback system.
If the plan had been Aikman the starter, with Holieway in short-yardage packages — ancestor of the Belldozer — it’s hard to imagine Aikman leaving. He’d have been the Oklahoma Kid who led the Sooners to the promised land.
But Aikman’s a smart guy. If the plan was some kind of platoon, Aikman might have sniffed it out and decided watching Holieway take 30 wishbone snaps a game was no way to spend autumn Saturdays.
What if Aikman had stayed? Yes, the OU wishbone became quite lethal again, after several years of stagnation from the glorious ‘70s. The Sooners went 33-3 from 1985-87.
But those three losses all were to Miami. The tremendously-talented Hurricanes could run sideline-to-sideline with OU’s burners. The Sooners stayed a step ahead of the likes of Nebraska and Texas. Not so Miami.
The best OU offense against the Hurricanes — heck, including 1973 and 1975 games before Miami turned into a powerhouse — came in those 20 minutes with Aikman. Aikman’s arm neutralized Miami’s speed.
Could Aikman have won all those games Holieway won? That’s a tall order. But Aikman absolutely would have given the Sooners a better chance against Miami, on the road in 1986 and in the 1987 national championship Orange Bowl. Plus, as Switzer said, the rest of that 1985 game.
Maybe for all those Miami frustrations from the 1980s, the Sooners had the antidote. Until Jerome Brown squashed it.
What kind of draft status would Aikman have had in spring 1988, compared to coming out of UCLA in spring 1989?
NFL scouts weren’t blind in the ‘80s. They could see talent, then as now. But NFL front offices had biases and convictions that went unspoken and unexplained.
For example, in 1988, only one black quarterback, Doug Williams in 1978, had been selected in the first round of the draft.
For another, the NFL didn’t embrace mobile quarterbacks. Drafting an option quarterback early, if it all, just wasn’t done.
But if Aikman had stayed, he likely would have been in the ’88 draft, which was quarterback poor. Believe it or not, no QB was taken in either of the first two rounds of the 1988 draft.
So Aikman clearly would have been selected reasonably early. But to Dallas?
The Cowboys needed a quarterback in 1988. Danny White was 36 and about finished. But in the last year of the Tom Landry/Tex Schramm regime, Dallas didn’t take a QB until Virginia’s Scott Secules in the fifth round.
Dallas did all right in that draft. The Cowboys took Michael Irvin 11th in the first round and Ken Norton 41st in the second round.
It’s possible the Cowboys would have jumped on Aikman in ’88, but possibly in place of Irvin. It’s more likely that another franchised would have landed Aikman. Kansas City, Green Bay, Detroit. All kinds of teams needed quarterbacks in that QB-light draft of 1988.
Aikman might have changed that.
He would have been good wherever he went. But with Irvin and Emmitt Smith and Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones, Aikman in Dallas was the perfect fit. It led to three Super Bowl titles, the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a place in the Fox broadcast booth.
Not too many Detroit Lion quarterbacks make the Fox broadcast booth.
But Aikman made it, via the Cowboys. All stemming from a broken ankle on Owen Field.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at oklahoman.com/berrytramel.
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What-if series
Berry Tramel continues a seven-part what-if series – seven looks at alternative realities in Oklahoma sports history:
Sunday: What if Darrell Royal had become the OU football coach in 1964?
Monday: What if the Tyson Chandler trade had gone through for the Thunder in February 2009?
Tuesday: What if Eddie Sutton had thrived at Kentucky and never returned to OSU?
Wednesday: What if Mickey Mantle had become a Dodger instead of a Yankee?
Thursday: What if OU quarterback Troy Aikman hadn’t suffered a broken leg against Miami?
Friday: What if the Hornets had stayed in Oklahoma City?
Saturday: What if Oklahoma A&M had joined the Big Eight Conference long before 1960?
