Oklahoma football: Five best games with Kansas State in Big 12 era
By Chip Rouse
#2 — October 14, 2000 — Oklahoma 41, Kansas State 31
Oklahoma began the 2000 season ranked 19th in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25. The Sooners were 7-5 in their first season under new head coach Bob Stoops and the future expectations were bright for a team that had won no more than five games the three seasons before Stoops arrived.
Five wins into the 2000 season, by an average scoring margin of 37 points, including a 63-14 hammering of archrival Texas, Oklahoma had moved all the way up to No. 8 in the country by the time it visited Kansas State in Week 6 that season. After over a decade absence, the Sooners appeared to be moving back into the national spotlight.
Kansas State was the nation’s No. 2 team at the time this game was played trailing only top-ranked Nebraska.
Oklahoma opened the scoring with a 40-yard field goal by Tim Duncan. Kansas State countered with a touchdown on the next possession to take a 7-3 lead over the underdog Sooners. That didn’t last long, however, as Oklahoma scored twice over the next four minutes to take a 17-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Sooners added a one-yard quarterback run by quarterback Josh Heupel and a 17-yard touchdown run by Quentin Griffin to go up 31-14 at the half.
Antwone Savage hauled in a 74-yard touchdown pass from Heupel to put seven more points on the board for the Sooners in the third quarter and extend the OU advantage to 38-14.
Kansas State added a field goal and two touchdowns the rest of the way — one of the TDs on a blocked Oklahoma punt that was returned 16 yards for a touchdown by K-State Terence Newman — but it wasn’t enough to catch resurgent Sooners, who held on to knock off the Wildcats 41-31 and claim their second straight win over a ranked team.
The very next week, Oklahoma would put away top-ranked Nebraska and earn the top spot in the national rankings for the first time since the 1987 season.