Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football: Sooners nearing 100 wins in season openers

By Chip Rouse

NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 27: A general view of the east side of the stadium before the game between the Kansas State Wildcats and Oklahoma Sooners at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
NORMAN, OK - OCTOBER 27: A general view of the east side of the stadium before the game between the Kansas State Wildcats and Oklahoma Sooners at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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Contrary to popular belief, the Oklahoma football season doesn’t always start with a home game.

Only 64 percent of the Sooners’ 124 season-opening games have been played in Norman. When OU does begin the season at home, though, the Sooners are virtually unbeatable, winning 90 percent of the time.

That’s not good news for the Houston Cougars, who begin the 2019 season at OU’s Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. The Cougars, ironically, are the last team to beat Oklahoma in a season opener, upsetting the then-No. 3-ranked Sooners 33-23 in Houston.

Playing at home to begin the season, Oklahoma is a remarkable 69-7-3. Since 1950, the Sooners have won 39 of 43 games at Owen Field to begin the season. Former OU head coach Bob Stoops owns the best record in home season-openers during that period at 13-1. Stoops’ lone home loss to begin a season was in 2005, his seventh year at Oklahoma, a 17-10 defeat at the hands of TCU.

Barry Switzer’s OU teams of the 1970s and ’80s won nine out of 10 season-opening home games.

Of the Sooners’ four head coaches with at least 100 career wins, Bud Wilkinson fared the worst when Oklahoma began the college football season at home. Wilkinson’s lifetime record at OU was 145-29-4, but he was just 11-5-1 when his Sooner teams kicked off the new season in Norman.

Historically, the Sooners are closing in on 100 season opening victories. Through the 2018 season, Oklahoma is 96-23-5 all-time in the inaugural game of the season. Since 1950, the Sooners are 56-12-1 to open a new season. Since 2000, they are 16-3 in 19 season openers, the three losses to TCU (2005), BYU (2009) and Houston (2016). Only one of the three opening losses this century was in front of the home crowd.

Bennie Owen, after whom the playing surface at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is named and the longest running Oklahoma head coach (22 seasons), has the most season-opening wins, 19, including 18 in a row from 1905 to 1923.

Switzer has the best record in season openers among the legendary Sooner coaches, losing just once in 16 seasons.

When OU and Houston meet on Sept. 1, it will be only the fourth time the two teams have played each other, and only the second time they have opened the season. The Sooners are 2-1 all-time against the Cougars. Oklahoma won the first two games: 40-14 in the 1981 Sun Bowl, and 63-13 in 2004 over a Houston team coached by Art Briles (before he went to Baylor).

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