Editor’s note: This is the sixth and final story in an occasional series examining the people, events and impacts of Oklahoma’s 2000 national championship season 20 years later. The entire series can be found here.
Torrance Marshall’s most famous moment at Oklahoma took place during the 2001 Orange Bowl coin toss, when he looked across the 50-yard line at Florida State’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Chris Weinke and yelled, “You got my boy’s trophy!”
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That classic exchange set the tone for the game, which Oklahoma won 13-2 to secure the program’s seventh and most recent national title. It showed Marshall at his most raw and stripped down. He grew up in Miami, needing military school and junior college courses to qualify to play major college football. The physically imposing Marshall, 6-foot-2, 252 pounds, felt he and his team were disrespected and doubted at every turn. And just minutes before he confronted Weinke — Marshall believes to this day that he “stole” the Heisman from OU quarterback Josh Heupel — another quintessential Marshall moment nearly blew up the whole thing.
Oklahoma players were lined up at their locker room door. Florida State’s locker room was nearby, and as the designated visitors, the Seminoles took the field first. Someone bumped into OU’s locker room door, cracking it open and giving Marshall a quick view of the Seminoles marching past.
He and a few other teammates became unhinged just at the sight of them, to the point that they tried to push their way past OU coaches and into the corridor.
“They were trying to hold us back with all their might because if we woulda got out into that hallway, it would have been a serious motherfuckin’ situation,” Marshall said. “Let me tell you something, man. If we woulda got out of that door and into that hallway, there might not have been no national championship game.”
It’s a good thing Marshall, the team’s middle linebacker, didn’t make it through the pack of people holding him back. He recorded six tackles and intercepted Weinke to be named the most valuable player of the Orange Bowl, just about 30 miles northeast of where he played in high school.
Today, Marshall lives in Tampa, Fla., with his wife and 10-year-old son. He works as a supply specialist for Trinity Services Group and teaches youth jiu-jitsu classes twice a week. He last visited Norman in the spring of 2018 for Bob Stoops’ retirement celebration. Before the pandemic, he’d planned to return in the fall for the 20th anniversary of the 2000 national championship team.
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Marshall was the heart and soul of that team and arguably one of the most important Oklahoma football players of the past 20 years.
“He was one of those guys you wanted on your side,” said 2000 OU fullback and captain Seth Littrell, who was at midfield with Marshall when he confronted Weinke. “Because if he was on the other side, he was gonna try to kick your ass.”
Teddy Lehman ended his OU football career as one of the greatest linebackers in school history. The 2003 Butkus Award winner is now in the booth as an analyst for official OU football radio broadcasts.
But in the summer of 2000, Lehman arrived on campus for his first season. He hailed from Fort Gibson, Okla., population 4,000. On the day he registered for classes and moved into the dorms, he first stopped by the football facility to meet with Brent Venables, the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
The Sooners had just finished a workout.
“So this massive dude walks by,” Lehman recalled. “He’s got his cleats on, OU shorts, and he doesn’t have a shirt on. Full beard. Shredded. Gigantic.
“Coach V says, ‘Have you met Torrance?’
“That was the first time I thought: ‘Man, I’m getting in over my head here. I’ve got everyone fooled. I don’t know why they gave me a scholarship, but the jig is up.’”
Lehman and Marshall became road-trip roommates, and it was during that time that Lehman learned not only a ton about football from the older and more experienced Marshall but also about Marshall’s story.
Marshall attended Miami Sunset High School, where he was an exceptional athlete and, by all accounts, a good kid who pretty much stayed out of trouble. But his grades were a problem — to the point that he didn’t even play football his junior year.
He moved in with a friend’s parents, who enrolled him in night classes and helped him get his grades up enough to play his senior year in 1994. But he still lacked the overall grades necessary to play major college football right out of high school.
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According to reports from 2000, his friend’s mother, Gloria Thompson, took Marshall to a small college fair, where they were supposed to meet with representatives from a college in Massachusetts. But they got caught in traffic, and by the time they arrived, only one school remained: Kemper Military Academy in Boonville, Mo. The school’s recruiter took one look at him and figured they could find him a spot on the football team.
At Kemper, Marshall became a first-team junior college All-American, the first in Kemper history. He signed with Miami in February 1998, but even after taking an extra class at Miami-Dade Community College, he fell short of UM’s academic requirements.
His younger brother, Sheven, signed with Miami in the same recruiting class and ended up becoming a Hurricanes starter.
But Torrance didn’t give up on his dream and got a little help from a well-connected Miami-Dade counselor named Nick Adamo.
Adamo happened to be close friends with the father of Mark Mangino, Kansas State’s run-game coordinator at the time.
Adamo called Mangino and said he had a recruit worth looking at. “What are you talking about? You guys don’t even have football!” Mangino said.
“Trust me,” Adamo responded. “There’s somebody here you’re gonna like.”
So Mangino pulled up Marshall’s tape from Miami Sunset High and Kemper and realized he was the real deal. Mangino showed the tape to Venables, then Kansas State’s linebackers coach, and the two agreed to bring Marshall in for a visit.
Marshall and Mangino quickly hit it off, and Marshall agreed to become a Wildcat.
But then, just a few days later in December 1999, Venables and Mangino — along with defensive coordinator Mike Stoops — left Kansas State to join Stoops’ new staff at Oklahoma.
Adamo called Mangino back and said Marshall wouldn’t go to Kansas State now without Mangino.
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“I told Nick, ‘I can’t recruit him. That’s not right,’” Mangino said, then added with a chuckle, “but I figured that didn’t stop someone else on the staff from recruiting him.”
So the staff brought Marshall to Norman for a visit, and he committed on the spot.
Oklahoma was coming off the worst three-year stretch in program history, but in 1999, the Sooners went 7-5, with Marshall leading the team in sacks (8 1/2) and tackles for loss (19). His fiery personality quickly made him a team leader, and entering the next season, the team voted him a captain.
“Torrance had an edge to him, a lot to prove,” Venables said. “No filter. Very raw. But he’s a fighter, man. He was easy to coach because all you had to tell him was, ‘Nobody thinks you’re any good; nobody thinks you’re worth a dang.’
“He was always out to prove his coaches, his teammates and the world wrong.”
Marshall’s leadership and play on the field contributed heavily to what the Sooners did in 2000, but he’s remembered mostly for two games in particular. The first is Oklahoma’s near-loss on Nov. 11 at Texas A&M.
The year before, Oklahoma had humiliated the No. 13 Aggies 51-6 in Norman, the most impressive victory of Stoops’ first season. The Sooners entered the 2000 game at A&M as the No. 1 team in America, buoyed by their remarkable run through “Red October.” The Aggies were ranked No. 23 and two weeks earlier had beaten No. 10 Kansas State.
Oklahoma had never won at Kyle Field before, and Texas A&M added temporary seats for the game in an attempt to break its own attendance record, which it did with more than 87,000 in attendance. Sooners coaches blared the “Aggie War Hymn” in practice all week.
Oklahoma coaches emphasized one play in particular that they were sure Texas A&M would run on the Sooners. It involved the tight end running a “banana route,” named because the shape of the route looks like the fruit. In Oklahoma’s defense, the middle linebacker was responsible for covering that route but was also responsible for manning the C-gap and pushing any potential runner to the outside.
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Marshall had difficulty with the banana route all week in practice. Two days before the game, he messed it up so much that Venables pulled him and replaced him with Lehman.
“Get the hell out!” Venables yelled at Marshall.
“That’s kind of a Coach Venables special,” Venables said recently with a laugh.
The Texas A&M game became an all-time example of what OU fans call “Sooner Magic.” OU trailed 24-10 with nine minutes to go in the third quarter.
“You don’t go through an entire season and not have some uphill moments,” Stoops said. “We had one of them that day. We dug ourselves a hole, but we settled in, clawed back and found a way to make it happen.”
With Oklahoma trailing 31-28 about halfway through the fourth quarter, Texas A&M ran the banana route, and Marshall recognized it, jumping just in front of the receiver and picking off Mark Farris’ pass. He followed his blockers all the way to the end zone, putting the Sooners up 35-31, which ended up being the final score.
OU even got away with one when OU linebacker Rocky Calmus shoved Farris in the back and out of the way as Marshall ran past.
“Rocky pushed a guy in the back, and they didn’t call it,” Venables said. “It was just our day.”
Oklahoma beat Texas Tech, survived a close call at Oklahoma State and then won a rematch with Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game, securing the Sooners’ spot in the Orange Bowl, site of that season’s BCS national championship game.
The big debate centered on whether Florida State or Miami deserved the spot opposite Oklahoma. Miami was ranked No. 2 in both of the human polls that were part of the BCS formula and had beaten the Seminoles head-to-head. But Florida State’s strength of schedule pushed it ahead of the Hurricanes in the final BCS rankings. Some even believed that a Florida State-Miami rematch would have been the better title game.
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For Marshall, the matchup was perfect. Even though his brother was on the Miami roster — and he’d once been committed to Miami himself — he really wanted a piece of Florida State. Marshall grew up a Florida State fan. He wore jersey No. 10 because of Seminoles linebacker Derrick Brooks.
But after his time at Kemper ended, Marshall said that Florida State coaches told him they didn’t recruit junior college players.
“That national championship game was motivating to me all the way around,” Marshall said. “It was the first time anybody from back home could see me play since high school. I wanted to go to Florida State, and they didn’t recruit me. I knew some of those (Florida State) guys from high school. Then there was everyone thinking we didn’t belong there.”
Oklahoma — and Marshall in particular — felt disrespected during the month leading up to the Orange Bowl. First, Weinke won the Heisman, edging Heupel by 76 points, one of the closest margins in the award’s history. Despite being undefeated, Oklahoma entered the game as an 11.5-point underdog.
Oklahoma sensed attitude from Florida State.
Coaches from both programs and their wives gathered at a pre-Orange Bowl party in Miami. Florida State coach Bobby Bowden and his more seasoned staff intermingled with Stoops, Venables and the rest of OU’s young, confident staff.
“We were freaking Clampett,” Venables recalled. “We were the hillbillies from Oklahoma, for sure. We felt like we didn’t belong. It was like they were at a cocktail party and we were out having a day at the lake.”
Before being hired by Oklahoma, Stoops spent three seasons as Florida’s defensive coordinator. He knew how intimidating FSU could be to opponents. The Seminoles were one of the best college football programs of the 1990s and didn’t mind telling you.
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“They liked to get in people’s heads,” Stoops said. “The only way you were gonna beat them is if they question that, or if you don’t acknowledge it and fight back. That’s your only chance.
“We told our guys that we weren’t gonna take any of their shit. We were gonna be the ones dishing it out.”
That message may have been necessary for most of the team, but Marshall surely didn’t need it.
“I assure you, when Coach Stoops says that, he isn’t talking about me,” Marshall said. “Being from Miami, I know what time it is when we’re playing Florida State or Miami. I went to school with those guys. I know the culture down there.
“Love it or hate it, that’s just what we do. We’re gonna talk a little shit and then try to kick your ass. We don’t mean no disrespect about it; that’s just how we do stuff.”
Marshall said he didn’t plan his famous coin-toss moment with Weinke. He got to midfield, saw Weinke and said what he felt. And he was so into the moment that he said he didn’t even notice the guy flipping the coin: actor Denzel Washington.
“Once Torrance started talking, I knew we were already ahead,” Littrell said.
Today, Weinke is Tennessee’s quarterbacks coach. Tennessee declined to make Weinke available for an interview, but in Stoops’ 2019 memoir, “No Excuses,” he is quoted describing that pregame moment with Marshall and adding, “It was crazy.”
With 9:33 left in the first quarter, Oklahoma’s Andre Woolfolk caught a pass and picked up 20 yards before fumbling it away near midfield. On the very next snap, Weinke dropped back to pass and threw the ball over the middle, right at Marshall, who picked it off. Oklahoma’s Tim Duncan kicked a field goal to end the ensuing drive, securing all the points the Sooners would need that night.
Florida State finished with 301 total yards — 248 below its season average. The Seminoles’ only points came because of an errant long snap and a smart decision by punter Jeff Ferguson in the final minutes.
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The Green Bay Packers drafted Marshall in the third round in 2001, and Marshall ended up playing a couple of NFL seasons and then a few more in the Arena Football League, where he played fullback in addition to linebacker. In 2007 and 2008, with the Tampa Bay Storm, he rushed for 40 touchdowns.
Marshall retired from football and settled in Tampa.
About five years ago, Marshall found himself out of shape. He weighed more than 300 pounds and had done some boxing, so he thought jiu-jitsu might be an effective way to get back in shape.
(Courtesy of Gracie Westchase)Gracie Westchase gym is owned and operated by Joe Wissman, a 37-year-old former MMA fighter and black belt known as “Bamboo.”
“Torrance just randomly walked in the gym one day,” Wissman said. “He wanted to do something else athletically.”
Marshall lost around 60 pounds. After a couple of years of training, Gracie Westchase’s children’s instructor left, and because Marshall’s son was in the program, he started helping teach.
Wissman liked what he was doing and asked if he would consider taking over the class for good.
“At first, he was kinda running it like a football camp,” Wissman said. “I worked with him on what to teach and everything, and he grew the program from there. He commands authority really well in the class. I’ve got nothing but the best things to say about him.”
He usually wears OU gear when working out or teaching, but his football career doesn’t come up a ton. Every once in a while, he’ll drive to Orlando and watch Heupel as head coach at UCF.
Oklahoma played in three more national championship games in the decade after the 2000 season and has reached the College Football Playoff four times but hasn’t made it past the semifinal round.
Twenty years later, Marshall has nothing left to prove. He made sure of it during OU’s championship season and in the title game, from the coin toss to the finish.
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“We knew that was gonna be the game of all games for Torrance,” Venables said. “And on so many levels. People didn’t think he could do it. He was representing his state. Florida State didn’t recruit him. One of the largest point spreads ever in a national title game. It all played right into our hands.
“Pretty remarkable. We couldn’t have written a better script.”
(Top photo: Brian Bahr / ALLSPORT)
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