Oklahoma football: Sooners, Bruins have some history

If history is any indication, UCLA will have a bad time when it comes to Norman to take on the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday.

The Oklahoma Sooners have played UCLA four times, owning a 3-1 all-time advantage over the Bruins including a 2-0 mark in Norman. The Sooners have won the two home games in the series by a combined score of 97-27. The Bruins do own the last win in the series, a 41-24 victory in Pasadena in 2005.

Each of the four games provides a distinct snapshot of where the Oklahoma program was at the time. Let’s have a look back at the four previous meetings between the two historic programs.

1986: Oklahoma 38, UCLA 3

It was hyped as one of the biggest games of the year going in. The No. 1 Sooners, fresh off a 1985 National Championship, took on the No. 4 Bruins.

Unfortunately for UCLA the game didn’t live up to the hype.

Oklahoma rushed the ball 75 times for 470 yards in a wishbone clinic and intercepted UCLA quarterbacks a school-record five times in a dominant display of force, leaving no doubt in the minds of spectators.

UCLA head coach Terry Donahue told the Washington Post:

“We were badly embarrassed by a much superior team.”

Some fun facts:

• Troy Aikman, a prominent figure in both teams’ history, was a member of the Bruins’ program for the first time during this game. He had transferred to the school after getting injured during the 1985 Sooners’ season and had to sit out one year before taking over for UCLA in 1987.
• The UCLA three-man defensive front weighed in between 228-248 pounds, a real sign of how different college football players looked in 1986.
• The 1986 Sooners’ non-conference schedule included two top four teams, No. 4 UCLA and No. 2 Miami. The Hurricanes would hand Oklahoma its only loss of the season – 28-16 in the Orange Bowl two weeks later. The Sooners also played Minnesota and Texas in non-league games.
• The game marked the first of seven times the Oklahoma defense would hold an opponent without a touchdown in 1986, including five shutouts.

1990: Oklahoma 34, UCLA 14

The Sooners were a different team four years later when they made the trip to Pasadena in 1990. Oklahoma was serving an NCAA probation and barred from postseason play, but the results were pretty similar on the field.

No. 17 Oklahoma pushed around No. 19 UCLA on a balmy 100-degree Los Angeles day. Steve Collins introduced a more pass-friendly Oklahoma offense that still held to it is option principals as the Sooners silenced the Bruins’ home crowd.

Fun facts:

• The Sooners’ non-conference schedule was again loaded in 1990 as Oklahoma played both UCLA and No. 13 Pitt along with Tulsa and Texas.
• Oklahoma would rise as high as No. 4 in the polls before dropping three straight to Texas (14-13), Iowa State (33-31) and eventual National Champion Colorado (32-22). The No. 4 ranking was the highest Oklahoma would climb in the polls for the next 10 years.
• Current Oklahoma assistant coach Cale Gundy made his first collegiate appearance in this game. Gundy would go on to seize the starting job later in the season, the first of four years as the Sooners’ starting quarterback.
• Oklahoma finished No. 17 in the AP poll in 1990, one of only three seasons the Sooners were ranked in the entire decade.

2003: Oklahoma 59, UCLA 24

The day Antonio Perkins became a legend. That’s really the best takeaway from this dominant performance by Oklahoma.

Perkins returned three punts of 74, 84 and 65 yards for touchdowns – an NCAA record that stands to this day.

Oklahoma trailed 10-7 at the end of the first quarter before rolling off 28 straight and never looking back. It was the beginning of Jason White’s Heisman campaign. The Tuttle, Oklahoma native threw for 243 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The Sooners had another non-offensive touchdown in the second half when Eric Bassey returned a 34-yard interception for a score.

Fun facts:

• There were five non-offensive touchdowns altogether as UCLA would score on a 91-yard kickoff return in the third quarter.
• This was part of yet another tough non-conference slate for the Sooners. Oklahoma would also travel to Alabama and play North Texas and Fresno State.
• It was the second-straight 50-point performance from the Sooners’ offense and part of a string of four straight. The Sooners would hand a half a hundred or more on seven opponents in the 2003 season.

2005: UCLA 41, Oklahoma 14

Coming off back-to-back BCS title games and three appearances in the previous five years, Oklahoma was due for a hangover season.

That year was 2005.

The Sooners kept pace with UCLA’s high-powered attack all the way until the fourth quarter when UCLA’s Drew Olson took over. The Bruins outscored the Sooners 21-7 in the final period to pull away for the two-touchdown victory.

Rhett Bomar looked shaky and not even the great Adrian Peterson could bail out the young Oklahoma offense. The Sooners turned the ball over four times and the Bruins held Peterson to just 58 yards on 23 carries as they loaded up the box and dared Bomar to beat them with his arm.

The 2005 Sooners team fell to 1-2 with the loss, but the 8-4 finish marked one of Stoops’ best coaching jobs as the team gained maturity down the stretch.

Fun facts:

• Before this game the Sooners owned a perfect 2-0 record in the Rose Bowl Stadium, but haven’t won there since including a 54-48 double overtime loss to Georgia last January.
• The Sooners 8-4 record in 2005 was the worst since 1999 and one of only three times Oklahoma failed to win 10 games under Bob Stoops.
• The Sooners were briefly ordered to vacate the 2005 season because of self-reported NCAA violations involving Bomar and center J.D. Quinn taking money from a car dealership. Oklahoma successfully appealed that decision and had the season reinstated in 2008.
• Oklahoma fell out of the polls after the loss for the first time since 1999. They would remain unranked until a 17-14 win over then-No. 6 Oregon earned them a No. 22 spot in the final poll of the year.