TIPTON — Mistakes were mounting in the Shattuck showdown back on Aug. 24.
“We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Tipton coach Travis White said after the Tigers gave up 463 rushing yards and committed several turnovers in a 44-14 loss to Shattuck.
Known for challenging itself early on in the season against other elite 8-man football teams, Tipton’s home opener featured the 2017 defending state champions in Class B and C going head to head.
It was supposed to be a matchup for the ages, but Tipton’s head-scratching start created questions to whether the dynasty could pull through with a ‘W’ when it really mattered come late November.
A turnover on downs and a fumble highlighted Tipton’s opening two offensive drives.
Right before halftime, Tipton was stuffed inches away from goal line and the clock ran out with the Tigers threatening to make it a two-score game after digging themselves a 22-0 hole to the Indians, who are likely to win the Class B title again this Friday.
“Any time you can step on the field against teams like Shattuck, it’s going to make you better,” White said after the disappointing loss. “That’s probably the best team we are going to play all year. If nothing else, it’s going to increase our physicality.”
Sure enough, it did.
This past Friday in Weatherford, Tipton’s physicality re-emerged — specifically in the fourth quarter when the Tigers made several big hits and impact blocks to score the final 22 points of the Class C title game and take down previously unbeaten Southwest Covenant, 50-34.
Did White and the Tigers see this coming the night after the Shattuck loss?
Probably not.
But Tipton still knew what it was capable of and more importantly realized the season was not lost.
All of the Tigers’ goals were still in front of them.
Sound familiar?
It should.
Oklahoma Sooners coach Lincoln Riley was in a similar position earlier this fall, too, when his team suffered an agonizing loss to Texas in the Cotton Bowl, a defeat that significantly hampered the teams goals of winning the Big 12 for a fourth straight year and returning to the College Football Playoff.
With tears in Kyler Murray’s eyes, Riley was adamant at the postgame press conference the Sooners could and would be back in Dallas contending for a Big 12 championship.
Everyone knew what the Sooners were capable of at the time, but naysayers laughed at the notion OU could be a national title contender come December. A day after the Red River Showdown in Dallas, the Sooners fired defensive coordinator Mike Stoops.
“This team could make a run here,” Riley said the Monday following the Cotton Bowl, by far the most intense day of the season. “I think we’ve got a really darn good football team right now that’s got a chance to make a really good run. This team happens to have a chance to accomplish every single goal at the beginning of the year, and I think they are very capable of doing it.
“We just needed a little bit of a spark.”
The parallelism between Tipton’s and OU’s championship journeys is uncanny. Both wound up winning championships less than 24 hours apart from the other this past weekend.
Tipton, too, faced adversity and needed a spark. While the Tigers didn’t have to fire a defensive coordinator, Tipton did have to overcome two losses in the first three games (Shattuck, Snyder) in addition to losing star player SemaJ McBride to a broken collarbone injury in October.
“I’m gonna be honest with you. I think it took SemaJ breaking his collarbone for our guys to amp it up and start playing,” White said. “He’s such a great player so when he broke his collarbone we thought, 'We better get going.'”
McBride valiantly returned in the semifinals and scored two touchdowns before going on a tear in the title game for three touchdowns and 205 yards of total offense, which propelled Tipton to its third straight Class C state championship and the program’s fourth in the past five seasons.
“This is going out with a bang,” said McBride, a senior.
The Sooners and Tigers knew how to win this time of year, and that’s why this past weekend ended in trophy ceremonies for both powerhouses.
Despite all the ups and downs that threatened to derail both teams’ seasons, winning is in their championship DNA.
“It sounds cliché,” White said. “But I think it was just experience, playmaking and tradition in the end.”
A spark helps, too.
solson@swoknews.com