Oklahoma football: Disregard the series history as OU gets set to host Kansas
By Chip Rouse
An Oklahoma football team has not lost to Kansas in 18 consecutive games.
That lengthy win streak, which goes back to 1997, nearly came to an end last season when the Sooners recovered twice from double-digit deficits and tallied 21 points in the fourth quarter to avoid an upset at Kansas with a 35-23 victory.
That same Kansas team is Oklahoma’s opponent on Saturday in Norman for Homecoming weekend. And this is a much-improved Jayhawk team under second-year head coach Lance Leipold. Kansas is 5-1 this season and ranked 19th in this week’s Associated Press poll. This is the best Kansas team to come to Norman since 2008, when the Jayhawks were ranked No. 16 in the country and coached by former OU offensive coordinator Mark Mangino.
These two longtime conference foes have met 112 times on the gridiron, with Oklahoma winning 79 times or 71 percent of the total games played.
Kansas is coming off a heartbreaking 38-31 home loss to then-No. 17 TCU this past weekend, the Jayhawks’ first loss of the season after five straight wins. Meanwhile, Oklahoma is 0-3 to begin Big 12 play and is coming off back-to-back losses by an average margin of 40 points. The Sooners’ 49-0 whitewashing by Texas last weekend in the annual Red River rivalry game was one of the worst losses in the Sooners’ long and highly successful history.
The two teams that will come together on Saturday at the Palace on the Prairie are definitely headed in opposite directions this season, something that has very rarely been the case when these two teams have played each other. Despite this, the Las Vegas oddsmakers have established the Sooners as an early 7.5-point favorite. Go figure.
The Sooners’ have dominated Kansas over the years, but the Jayhawks are responsible for two monumental upsets in the series, both times when Oklahoma was ranked No. 2 in the nation.
Barry Switzer became the Oklahoma head coach in 1973, taking over for Chuck Fairbanks, who had left to become head coach of the NFL New England Patriots. Switzer did not lose a game for almost three full seasons after taking over the top job. Oklahoma was 28-0-1 under Switzer heading into the ninth game of the 1975 season against Kansas.
The Sooners were loaded with offensive and defensive talent and were ranked No. 2 in the county. OU trailed 7-3 at the half, but with the offensive weapons the Sooners had, they were certain they would make up the difference and then some in the second half. The Jayhawks, who ran their own version of the Wishbone offense with Nolan Cromwell, a gifted athlete, at quarterback managed 16 more points in the second half. Meanwhile, Oklahoma committed eight turnovers in the second half and failed to score another point, handing Kansas an improbable 23-3 upset.
Oklahoma would not lose another game the rest of the season and defeated Michigan 16-7 in the Orange Bowl, which earned OU its fifth national championship.
Nine years later, this time at Kansas, the 1984 Oklahoma team traveled to Lawrence, Kansas, as the No.-2 ranked team in the AP poll and a record of 5-0-1. The unranked Jayhawks kicked four field goals and cashed in a 63-yard interception return on the way to a 23-11 upset win over the Sooners. The victory margin would have been even worse had the Sooners not scored a touchdown with three seconds to go in the game.
Oklahoma would finish with a 9-2 record in 1984, it’s only other loss to Washington in the Orange Bowl.
This season, for the first time in many a season, the roles are reversed. The Sooners are going to have their hands full on Saturday with this surprising Kansas team.