Most everyone is familiar with the age-old phrase "records are made to be broken," but the truth is, some records may never be equaled or exceeded. And in the universe that is college football, a number of those record milestones belong to the Oklahoma Sooners.
The Oklahoma football program, No. 6 on the list for the most wins in college football history, is one of the sport's blue-blood programs with seven national championships and seven Heisman Trophy winners to its credit.
Although the Sooners have set and held records in numerous statistical categories over their 131 years of varsity football, perhaps the one that Oklahoma football is best known for is its 47 consecutive wins between 1953 and 1957, a record that in the estimation of many experts has a good chance of standing the test of time and never being eclipsed.
Read more: Even the Sooners’ longest losing streak feels like a story of dominance
Until the last few years, Oklahoma held the college record for the most weeks ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25, the most weeks ranked in the AP Top 5 and the most 11- and 10-win seasons.
Aside from the remarkable 47-game win streak during the glory years of Sooner football in the 1950s under the legendary Bud Wilkinson, Oklahoma owns a handful of present day team and individual NCAA records.
Oklahoma currently holds at least 17 NCAA football records
- Most points scored all-time: 38,986
- Most rushing yards by a team in a single game: 768 vs. Kansas State (1971)
- Average number of rushing plays per game for a season: 73.9 (813 in 11 games) in 1974
- Most yards of total offense gained by both teams: 1,708 (854 by Oklahoma and 854 by Texas Tech in 2016)
- Average rushing yards gained per game over a full season: 472.4 per game (1971)
- Most touchdowns in a single season: 99 in 14 games (2008)
- Most individual rushing yards in a single game: 427 by Samaje Perine vs. Kansas (2014)
- Career passing efficiency: 175.6 by Sam Bradford (2008)
- Career punt return average: 23.64 by Jack Mitchell (1947)
- Most touchdowns scored in a game on punt returns: 3 by Antonio Perkins vs. UCLA (2003)
- Most punt return yardage in a single game: 277 by Antonio Perkins vs. UCLA (2003)
- Most extra points made in a season: 94 of 99 by Jimmy Stevens (2008)
- Most career extra points made: 310 of 315 by Austin Seibert (2015-18)
- Most career points scored by kicking: 499 (96 FGs, 211 extra points) by Austin Seibert (2015-18)
- Total tackles in a game: 28 by Kenneth Murray vs. Army (2018)
- Most defensive extra points returned for a touchdown in a single game: 2 by Corey Ivy vs. California (1997)
And one other very onerous record distinction:
- Most consecutive fumbles lost: 14 over a five-game stretch in 1983
Another noteworthy Oklahoma football record that isn't often talked about and may not be widely known: In the modern era of college football, from 1946 to present, the Sooners' 716 victories are the most of any college team, 27 more than Alabama (689) and 29 more than Ohio State (687).
While individual and team records are nice to have and certainly are important at the time they occur, the reality is, they do not win ball games going forward. What they will do, however, is reinforce the pedigree of the program and help explain why it has been so successful and nationally relevant for so long.
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