Oklahoma stunned Aggies last year

<br>NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ The outcome was staggering, really. <br><br>Here was Oklahoma, unranked and having lost its past two games, rolling over No. 13 Texas A&M, 51-6. Hadn't the Aggies beaten Oklahoma

Thursday, November 9th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ The outcome was staggering, really.

Here was Oklahoma, unranked and having lost its past two games, rolling over No. 13 Texas A&M, 51-6. Hadn't the Aggies beaten Oklahoma by a combined score of 80-7 in the previous two years?

``We were embarrassed last year,'' coach R.C. Slocum said of last year's game, the third-worst loss in program's history. ``We've always taken a lot of pride in playing defense here. But they executed, made the plays they needed to make and they thoroughly beat us.''

The Sooners scored the first six times they had the ball in last year's game. Josh Heupel threw three touchdown passes and scored three other times on sneaks.

The teams meet again Saturday in College Station. This time, Oklahoma is 8-0, ranked No. 1 and leads the Big 12 South Division at 5-0. Texas A&M is 7-2, ranked No. 23 and is 5-1 in the division.

A victory would put the Aggies in a tie for first place in the division and knock the Sooners out of the national championship picture. Oklahoma, conversely, needs to win to keep its conference and national title hopes percolating.

``They're probably going to come out with a different game plan than they did then,'' Oklahoma center Bubba Burcham said. ``I'm expecting to see different things, because everything just seemed to work. It was one of those things where we had a play called and they had a defense called and it just happened to work where it was the right one.''

The defeat was A&M's worst since a 46-0 loss to Baylor in 1901. Oklahoma held the Aggies to 230 yards, after having allowed more than 500 to Texas and Notre Dame in its previous two games.

``We're probably a little more capable offensively than we were this time last year,'' Slocum said. ``Defensively, we may not be as well equipped as we were.''

Slocum said his secondary is by far the youngest in his 12 years at A&M. That could mean trouble against Heupel, who was 31-of-50 for 372 yards in last year's game. But Heupel said what happened in that game will have no bearing on what takes place Saturday.

``Last year is exactly that, it's last year,'' said Heupel, who has completed 68 percent of his passes and is averaging 313 yards per game passing. ``It does absolutely nothing for us, it does nothing for them. These are two different teams, two much-improved teams from a year ago.''

The Aggies have allowed just 13 points per game, which leads the conference and ranks sixth-best nationally. They rank fifth in the Big 12 in pass defense, allowing 191 yards per game, and they're fourth in the league in total defense, one notch below Oklahoma.

Slocum said he doesn't expect his players to have revenge in mind Saturday. Instead, he said, the result from last year should serve as motivation to play better this time around.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said there's no way the Aggies could be more motivated than his team.

``We've got a lot here on the line,'' he said. ``Our players understand that. Our players understand that we're 8-0 right now and this is going to be a major factor in the conference race, and they're hungry for that. We haven't had it in a while. So there's no way anybody's going to be more motivated than our players.''