Oklahoma football: Five reasons to be excited about a 2020 season
By Chip Rouse
The schedule
Oklahoma loves playing at home. Conversely, visiting teams face not just a road disadvantage at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium but an enormous mountain to climb if they are going to hang an improbable home loss on the Sooners. You’re not only taking on the Oklahoma players on the field of battle, but 85,000 passionate and boisterous OU faithful who are not accustomed to losing, especially on home turf.
Back in the day opponents used to refer to Owen Field as the Snake Pit, and with good reason.
Since the beginning of the 1999 season, Bob Stoops first season as head coach, Oklahoma has lost just 10 times at home in 129 games, a winning percentage of .922 over 21 seasons.
The Sooners are scheduled to play six home games in 2020. They open up with back-to-back nonconference games with Missouri Sate on Sept. 5, followed by Tennessee. Baylor, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Kansas come calling in the conference season.
In recent seasons, Oklahoma has proved to be almost as difficult to beat on the road as at home. The Sooners have won 23 of their last 24 true road games, the lone loss over that streak coming at Kansas State last season. In the annual rivalry against the hated Texas Longhorns, played on a neutral field at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Oklahoma has won seven of the last 10 meetings.
Next. Five worst Sooner championship losses in the Big 12 era. dark
In 2020, the Sooners travel to West Point, New York, on the third weekend of the season to square off with an Army team that came perilously close to upsetting OU in Norman two seasons ago. They also hit the road in the conference to go up against Iowa State, TCU, West Virginia, and close out the regular season in Lubbock against Texas Tech.