Oklahoma Football: Big Games Nothing New for Sooners
By Chip Rouse
Playing in big games is part of the allure of Oklahoma football.
The Sooner players themselves are quick to tell you that one of the primary reasons they chose Oklahoma as where they wanted to play college football is because of the opportunity to play in big games and play for a program with great championship heritage.
It doesn’t get much better than a home game against one of the nation’s best college programs. That’s what’s on tap this Saturday night at newly renovated Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium when the No. 4-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes will be the Sooners’ opponent in a game that is expected to play out as one of the premier nonconference showdowns of the 2016 college football season.
The last top-five-ranked team to pay a visit to Norman was No. 5 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish came in for a late-October nonconference clash of titans in 2012. That also was a highly anticipated game. The Sooners were ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press poll at the time the game was played.
The game lived up to its advance billing, for three quarters, anyway. The contest was air tight for the first 45 minutes. Notre Dame held onto a slim 10-6 advantage after three quarters. The Fighting Irish extended their lead to 13-6 early in the final quarter before Oklahoma pushed across a game-tying touchdown and extra point to knot the game at 13 with half a quarter left to play.
Notre Dame responded to the Sooner fourth-quarter scoring drive with 17 unanswered points over the final eight minutes to win the game going away, 30-17.
The outcome was much different when two other teams ranked in the top five traveled to Norman during Bob Stoops previous 17 season as Oklahoma’s head coach.
Nebraska brought its No. 1 ranking to Oklahoma in the 2000 season, only to suffer a 33-14 defeat to the then No. 3 Sooners. And in 2008, Texas Tech, fresh off a huge win over previously undefeated Texas, came in to Norman as the country’s No. 2-ranked team. The Red Raiders left town, however, on the embarrassing end of a 65-21 shellacking by the fifth-ranked Sooners.
Under Stoops, the Sooners are an impressive 50-24 against teams ranked in the top 25 at the time the game was played. That’s a .677 winning percentage. Over Oklahoma’s long football history, the Sooners are 132-77-5 (.629) in top-25 matchups.
During Stoops coaching tenure at OU, the Sooners are 41-2 at home against nonconference opponents (the two losses coming against TCU in Oklahoma’s home opener in 2005 and against Notre Dame in 2012).
Ohio State is the highest-ranked team to visit Oklahoma since the Texas Tech game in 2008. You can expect Owen Field to be as loud as, if not louder than, its ever been in the last 18 seasons, and it will be sold out (84,000-plus) for the 106th consecutive home game.
The Buckeye’s head coach, Urban Meyer, expressed concern about the noise level expected at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday at his weekly press conference on Monday, calling the OU venue one of the “loudest stadiums in the country.
Emotions are expected to run high on both teams as preparations continue this week for Saturday’s nationally televised prime-time game.
Bob Stoops was asked by reporters at Monday’s Oklahoma practice about managing the emotions of the Sooner players leading up to game time.
"“I don’t know that you have to tamper down emotions,” the Sooner head coach said, “but you definitely have to concentrate on what really matters, and that’s the work you do on the (practice) field and film room and those kinds of things and ignore the rest. Pay attention to what makes you perform at your best, and that’s what we’ll emphasize.”"