5 Hidden Camera Moments

My friend Matt and I were joking on Saturday morning that we wish we could have a camera on each other to watch the other person’s reaction to massive plays since we don’t seat near each other. Then Gilbert housed the kickoff with 3 minutes left and I absolutely lost my mind. All of this led me to make a list of the 5 plays of which I wish I had footage of my reaction.

1. Dez’s Punt Return | UH 2009 – This will never ever ever ever be topped. I don’t think. The combination of the weather (misty and overcast), the score (down 24-7 at half), the ranking (#5), Dez (my favorite OSU football player ever),  and that I was sitting with my parents and one of my best friends was like the perfect storm of  an “I can’t believe this is happening I wish somebody was video taping my reaction right now” moment. I’m not even real sure what I did but my buddy, Nolo, started dropping 5 and 4 letter words right after Dez’s first juke towards the sideline and we both just freaked out. It was like that though, Dez standing on his own 30 staring at Gallagher-Iba ready to return a punt made me feel like I could do anything. I don’t even know why, I just loved the scene: 50,000 suspenseful OSU fans, 1 terrified punter, an opposing special teams coach who couldn’t look, Dez in all his justified swagger ready to house anything kicked his way. It was perfect.

2. D’Juan’s 4th down fake FG | Texas 2005 – We had the BCS #1 on the ropes. Gundy had nothing to lose. We were trying to slay mighty Texas and the coaching staff was letting ’em hang. I remember watching us line up for the field goal and for some reason I kept my eyes on D’Juan who was lined up on the end. Right as the ball was snapped he just took off and there was NOBODY within 30 yards of him. It was as if Texas never even saw him. I just screamed, “OHMYGOSHHE’SWIDEOPEN!!” at the top of my lungs and celebrated like a lunatic. I mean, we had #1 ON THE ROPES! Then VY Pontiac’ed Donovan and you guys know the rest…

3. Gilbert’s Kick Return | OU 2010 – I wrote this about it on Sunday, “I saw him make a juke at the 20 and I saw a massive hole because he was running right at us. There was a mild block in the back and my heart just sank because I knew it was going to get called (and should have been) but then he just kept coming. I looked at Brett to my right and screamed “no flags” and then looked back at the field to see him cross their kicker over at the 50. I looked back at the 20 one last time to check for laundry, saw nothing, and just started screaming “no flags! no flags! no flags!” at the top of my lungs and started sprinting the aisle looking for people to hug before he even reached the endzone. My hat ended up 2 rows in front of me. My phone flew out of my jacket. I lost my mind for about 10 seconds. I love Justin Gilbert.”

4. Anthony Parks Tip Drill | OU 2006 – This was the 27-21 game. The one where D’Juan had a chance to tear down the stadium with a last-second TD in the back of the west endzone. Earlier on that drive though (a drive I believe led by Zac Robinson) we had a 4th and like 9. So we go over the middle to Pettigrew or Bowman or maybe dump one off to Savage or Toston or even bootleg one out the other way with Zac…right? Wrong. We throw a freaking 10-yard out to Anthony Parks. And it got tipped. And he caught it! It was his third, and last, catch of the entire season. I couldn’t even believe what I was looking at. I turned around and just stared at Nolo who was like 38 rows behind me. He just stared back at me with a “wait, that was the biggest play of the season and Anthony Parks and his 1 kidney just caught a tipped ball from Zac to keep the drive alive?!?!” look. Bedlam I guess. I wonder what Anthony Parks is doing these days…

5. Blocked Punt | OU 2004 – This was the punt we blocked in the East endzone that Grant Jones recovered to put us up 14-7. They were ranked #2 and undefeated at the time. I still contest that block and recovery is the loudest I’ve ever heard BPS. I couldn’t even hear myself yell after a while and when we lit up Blake Ferguson and the ball spun around and squirted into the endzone and Jones fell on it I almost collapsed I was so excited.