Oklahoma football: ‘Stormin’ stat-liners for October off week

This is one of three off weekends for Oklahoma football this season, but that doesn’t mean the Sooners aren’t making news.

Through the first six weeks of this atypical college football season, Oklahoma stands an uncharacteristic 2-2 and just 1-2 in Big 12 play. The last time an OU team started out conference play losing two of the first three games, believe it or not, was in Bob Stoops first season as head coach, in 1999. That was also the only time in his 18 seasons as the Sooners’ head coach that Oklahoma won fewer than eight games.

Interestingly, the year before, in 1998 when the Sooners were coached by John Blake, Oklahoma lost five games in a row, including its first four Big 12 games. OU finished 2-6 in the Big 12 that season, the second time in the horrific 1990 years of Oklahoma football that the Sooners won just twice in conference play.

TCU is the next game up for Oklahoma in the COVID-altered 2020 schedule. The game is at TCU, which isn’t a particularly good thing if you’re a TCU fan. The Sooners have a 15-5 record all-time against the Horned Frogs and are 7-1 in games played at TCU.. The lone loss was in 2014, when the No. 25 Horned Frogs upset No. 4 Oklahoma 37-33.

Here are a couple more stat-liners to whet the appetite of Sooner fans for next week’s matchup in Ft. Worth.

• Since the 2000 season, Oklahoma is 19-1 in the game immediately following the Red River Showdown with Texas.
• Oklahoma is 21-7 since 2000 when the Sooners have had an extra week to prepare for an opponent.

Through four games, Oklahoma leads the Big 12 and ranks eighth nationally in total offense, averaging 502 yards per game. The Sooners also lead the Big 12 in passing offense, averaging 358 yards per contest. OU ranks eighth nationally in passing offense.

The Oklahoma defense has been the subject of continued criticism, yet the Sooners are third in the Big 12 and 19th in the country among FBS teams, allowing 342.5 yards per game.