Oct 24, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; The Oklahoma Sooners take the field prior to action against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Oct. 23, 1971 – Oklahoma 75, Kansas State 28
Kansas State had won two straight games over the Sooners, and two seasons before this, in Steve Owens’ 1969 Heisman season, had beaten Oklahoma soundly, 59-21.
Chuck Fairbanks was in the fifth of what would be six seasons as head coach of the Sooners. Entering the 1971 season, his record at Oklahoma was 30-13-1, and the Sooners would introduce the new-fangled Wishbone offense beginning in the 1971 season.
With quarterback Jack Mildren and running back Greg Pruitt leading a rushing offense that would set an NCAA rushing record of 472 yards per game that season, Oklahoma featured a running attack that proved to be one of the most difficult to corral, or even contain, in all of college football – and it would get even more prolific in the seasons to come.
Against Kansas State in 1971, Pruitt rolled up 294 rushing yards (then an Oklahoma single-game record; broken just one year ago by Samaje Perine, who had a 427-yard rushing game against Kansas) and the Sooners piled up 711 yards on the ground as a team on the way to a 75-28 thrashing of the undermanned Wildcats, who were considered one of the worst teams in college football and were still 18 years away from hiring Bill Snyder as head coach.
You can relive the electric-glide moves of Pruitt, the option offense directed by Mildren and the explosive 1971 Sooner offense in action against K-State in this video.
Oklahoma ran 30 fewer plays than Kansas State did in the game (99 to 69 by the Sooners), but the Sooners scoring drives covered so much yardage (over 11 yards per play) and took so little time, the Wildcats held the ball longer than Oklahoma and managed 562 yards of their own offense against a good but not great Sooner defense.
Next: Nov. 25, 1971 - Nebraska 35, Oklahoma 31