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Oklahoma football: Clemson challenging two of OU’s record win streaks

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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Going undefeated in a college football season is tough enough. Doing it two years in a row is extraordinary. In the illustrious history of Oklahoma football, the Sooners have gone undefeated for two consecutive seasons on two different occasions.

On Jan. 13, undefeated Clemson Tigers, the No. 3 seed in this year’s College Football Playoff, will defend their national title against the undefeated and top-ranked Tigers of LSU. Between them, the two teams are 28-0 this season and clearly two of the top three teams in college football.

At the end of the night next Monday, only one team will finish the season undefeated. If that team is Clemson, it not only will mean back-to-back national championships and the third in the last four seasons — something only Nebraska and Alabama have accomplished previously — but also 30 consecutive wins.

Only five schools in the modern era of college football (the end of WWII to the present) have won as many as 30 games in a row. Clemson could be the sixth, which would tie them with Texas.

The standard bearer in the category of college football win streaks, of course, is Oklahoma, whose epic 47-game winning streak is one of those records, like Joe DiMaggio’s record 56-game hitting streak in baseball, that many believe will never be broken.

The Sooners’ 47-game win streak began with the third game of the 1953 season and ran through the seventh game of the 1957 season. During that span no opponent got closer than five points against the Sooners, and that only happened twice. Oklahoma won two national championships during the time (in 1955 and ’56).

Ironically, the team that ended OU’s record-setting winning streak, Notre Dame, was also the last team to beat the Sooners, a 28-21 victory at Oklahoma to open the 1953 season.

The last team to beat Clemson was Alabama, a 24-6 victor in the College Football Playoff national semifinal on New Year’s Day 2018.

In season with at least six games, Oklahoma has had 11 undefeated seasons in its history.

The Sooners not only own the longest winning streak in college football history, but two of the 10 longest all-time. Oklahoma won 31 straight games from 1948 to 1950. Both win streaks were during the Bud Wilkinson era at OU.

With two more wins, Clemson would tie Oklahoma for ninth place on the all-time list.

For Clemson to equal or break OU’s NCAA record 47-game winning streak, the Tigers would need to go undefeated again through 15 games next season (2020), then win the first two in 2021 to tie the record. A third consecutive win that season would break the 63-year-old record.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though. First, Clemson will need to get by LSU on Monday in the Tigers’ backyard in New Orleans, which will be no easy task.

From there, they will just have to go 18-0 over the next two seasons to have the record all to themselves.

Best of luck!

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