Oklahoma Football: Six Bowl Losses Sooner Fans Would Like to Forget
By Chip Rouse
1978 Orange Bowl – No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 6 Arkansas
Oklahoma entered its 1978 New Year’s night Orange Bowl game with Arkansas as the No. 2 team in the country and as a heavy favorite to beat coach Lou Holtz’s Razorbacks, primarily because Holtz had suspended three Arkansas players for the bowl game, including two running backs who had accounted for nearly 80 percent of the team’s rushing yardage that season.
The table was set for coach Barry Switzer’s fifth straight Big 12 championship team. Top-ranked Texas had lost earlier in the day, soundly beaten 38-10 in the Cotton Bowl by the Joe Montana-led Notre Dame Fighting Irish. All the Sooners had to do was beat an undermanned and heavy underdog Arkansas team and a third national championship in four seasons was likely theirs for the taking.
Realists will tell you that’s why they play the games. As fate would have it, Oklahoma fumbled inside its own 10-yard line on the third play of the game. Moments later, Arkansas cashed in the Sooner turnover with its first of two first-quarter touchdowns.
That’s the way the first half ended, with the Razorbacks owning a 14-0 lead over the thoroughly frustrated Sooners. Arkansas would tack on 10 more points in the third quarter. The Razorbacks were gaining confidence with every possession and clearly had Oklahoma on its heels.
The Sooners finally scored in the fourth quarter, but a failed extra-point kick pretty much summed up OU’s performance on this particular night.
Arkansas added another touchdown to close out the scoring and give Lou Holtz and the Razorbacks a 31-6 win one of the biggest upset victories in college bowl history.
Switzer later referred to this game as “the most disappointing loss of my career.”