I can make all sorts of claims out of statistics. Jack Mildren was the reason that the Sooner offense in 1971 set national records for scoring and obliterated national records for rushing yards. That OU was a solid favorite over Auburn just means that Jack was great all year. That doesn't reflect on whether or not he was great that day.
If you want to make the case that Trevor played better than he'd ever played in comparision to who he was earlier. then you'll get no argurment. Every time we ran the option pitch that day, that was Jack doing for his offense what Knight was doing for his.
That day was his crown. It was the OU quarterback ending the best offensive season ever, at his best, the culmination of an incredible performance. We brought back every player on that offense the next year, except the wide, one offensive guard, and Jack Mildren. And we weren't close to as good offensively. Because we didn't have Jack. There might have been Sooner quarterbacks who were better for a career, but that year, that offense was incredible.
We played a one loss SEC team from Alabama whose only loss was in their last game of the season, and featuring a Heisman winner. And that day, Jack was so much better than Pat Sullivan, that everybody knew who was better.
I saw both games. I saw Jack with a mastery of the option never seen before. I saw Knight make dangerous throws all day and make maybe five really terrific throws. He threw into crowds and the guys kept bailing him out. And said so that night.
Trevor was never better. But Jack was more than once, including when we rolled to a 31-0 lead so convincing that we were playing backups most of the second half. Part of why in an era of much less statistical offense, we were still eye popping great.
