Oklahoma football: Eight FBS teams OU has played but never beaten

In 128 seasons of Oklahoma football history, the Sooners have played 104 teams that currently make up the 131-team Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

Oklahoma has beaten 96 of those 104 teams at least once, but there are eight teams the Sooners have played but never beaten. And one of those teams is currently a new member of the Big 12.

Oklahoma has won 463 of the 583 total games against the 13 other member teams that make up the Big 12 Conference. Two dozen games ended in a tie. That is a winning percentage of .815. In two all-time meetings with Big 12 newcomer BYU, however, the Sooners have come away empty-handed.

BYU and Oklahoma met for the first time in 1994 in the Copper Bowl. The Cougars outgained the Sooners 556 to 235 and won that game 31-6. The two teams played again at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in the opening game of the 2009 season. Sam Bradford suffered a shoulder injury right before halftime in that game. Landry Jones replaced him in the second half. Although trailing 10-7 at halftime, BYU scored a fourth-quarter touchdown and held on to defeat the Sooners 14-13.

Illinois and Indiana

Two of the Sooners’ earliest games against teams from what is now the Big Ten Conference were against Illinois and Indiana. Oklahoma played Illinois in 1917 and was totally dominated by the Fighting Illini to the tune of 44-0. The Sooners had beaten three previous opponents that season by the combined score of 330-9, but obviously weren’t up to the task on the road at Illinois.

Eleven years later, Oklahoma traveled to Indiana, which borders Illinois on the eastern side. The Sooners played better against the Hoosiers, but still found themselves on the losing end of a 10-7 score.

Oklahoma has played neither of those teams a second time.

Navy

Oklahoma and the U.S. Naval Academy have played just one time in the history of both schools. They played in Norman in the fall of 1965. The Midshipmen shut out the Sooners, 10-0, which has happened very rarely in OU football history. Neither team was very good that year. OU finished 3-7 that season and Navy was 4-4-2.

Arizona State

The 1983 Fiesta Bowl game featured the one and only meeting on the gridiron between Oklahoma and Arizona State. There was a lot of offense in the game, nearly 900 yards between the two teams. The Sooners held a slim 21-18 lead over the Sun Devils, largely behind the phenomenal rushing performance of OU freshman running back Marcus Dupree. Dupree amassed 239 yards on the ground in just three quarters but was forced to leave the game in the third quarter with recurring leg injuries and physical exhaustion.

Dupree did not return to the game, and the Sooners couldn’t get much going offensively afterward. OU surrendered two Arizona State touchdowns in the final quarter and lost 32-21.

Boise State

Oklahoma and Boise State have played just one time, but it was a game that neither school will soon forget. It is the classic David and Goliath story. Big bad Oklahoma, a seven-time national champion and the college team with the most wins since the end of World War II, going up against a team clamoring for the opportunity to play and knock off one of college football’s blue bloods and all-time best teams.

The undefeated Broncos (12-0) got their chance against the Big 12 champion Sooners, who were 11-2 and ranked No. 7 in the country by the Associated Press. The two teams met in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Boise State rolled out to a 28-17 advantage after three quarters, but the Sooners rallied for 18 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to take a 35-28 lead with under a minute to go in the game.

With the ball around midfield faced with a fourth down and 18 yards to go for a first down, Boise State ran an old-fashioned hook-and-ladder trick play that resulted in a stunning 50-yard touchdown and extra point to tie the game at 35 and send it to overtime.

In overtime, Oklahoma drew first blood and capitalized, scoring on 25-yard touchdown run by Adriam Peterson. At that point, it appeared that the Sooners might have pulled off one of the most dramatic comebacks in bowl history and averted an embarrassing upset.

The Broncos still had some tricks up their sleeves, however. Down to their final down in its first overtime possession, Boise State pulled off another stunner with a halfback pass into the end zone for a touchdown. At that point the score was 42-41 in favor of the Sooners. Instead of kicking an extra point and sending the game to a second overtime, however, Broncos head coach Chris Peterson, elected to roll the dice and go for a two-point conversion to win the game.

Ian Johnson, one of the Boise State stars of the game took a handoff on a Statue of Liberty trick play, executed to perfection by Broncos quarterback Jared Zabransky, and ran untouched into the end zone, successfully completing the two-point conversion and giving the underdog Broncos one of the most dramatic wins in bowl history.

This loss still stings for Sooner fans, who are faced to see the highlights of the finish in this game practically every bowl season.

Two SEC teams with unbeaten records vs. Oklahoma

The Sooners have a winning all-time record against all but five teams in the SEC, the conference they will be joining after the 2023-24 academic year, and none of the five is named Alabama or Tennessee. OU has never played two of the current SEC teams (South Carolina and Mississippi State), and the Sooners have a losing record in three games against LSU but have beaten the Bayou Tigers once.

Two SEC teams OU has played but never beaten are Georgia and Ole Miss.

The Sooners and Ole Miss played for the only time in the Independence Bowl in Bob Stoops’ first season in Norman. Oklahoma lost the game 27-25 on a 39-yard Mississippi field goal on the final play of the game.

The one game Oklahoma and Georgia have played came on Jan. 1, 2018, as part of the College Football Playoff. No, 2-seeded OU was paired against No. 3 Georgia in one of the semifinal games and was played in the Rose Bowl. The Sooners charged out to a 31-14 second-quarter lead before Georgia kicked a long field goal right before the half to cut the margin to 31-17.

It was all Georgia in the second half with the Bulldogs scoring 21 unanswered points in the third and fourth quarters to take a 38-31 lead two minutes into the fourth quarter. An 11-yard TD pass from Baker Mayfield to Dimitri Flowers tied the game with 8:47 to go, and less than two minutes later, Steven Parker scooped up a Georgia fumble and returned it 46 yards to the house to put Oklahoma up 45-38 at the 6:50 mark in the fourth quarter.

Each team went three-and-out in the ensuing two possessions. With 3:15 to go in regulation, Georgia took possession at its own 41-yard line following an OU punt. Quarterback Jake Fromm led the Bulldogs on a seven-play, 59-yard scoring drive tying the game at 45-45 and leaving 55 seconds on the clock. That’s the way things ended in regulation.

Georgia took possession first in overtime and settled for a 38-yard field goal to go up 48-45.

On OU’s first overtime possession, the Sooners advanced the ball to the Georgia 10-yard line but were faced with a fourth-and five from there. Austin Seibert came on to attempt a 27-yard field goal to send the game to a second overtime session, but missed the kick, ending the game and sending Georgia to the national championship game against top-seeded Alabama, the eventual 2017 national champion.