Saturday will be just the third time Oklahoma and LSU have competed against one another in football, but also the first time in the regular season.
Each team has registered a blowout win in the three-game series, but the combined score in the three games is just a one-score difference, 84-77, in LSU's favor.
It's the last game between these two elite college football brands, however, that will be most remembered and reviled by Sooner fans.
LSU and Oklahoma were matched up in the national semifinals of the 2019 College Football Playoff in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta as the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds, respectively.
The conestoga has loaded up with Sooner Magic and rolled into the Valley of Death.
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) November 30, 2024
Scene Setter presented by @FollowMercy pic.twitter.com/bdGFIMG7pu
It took LSU just three plays to go up 7-0 on its first possession of the game. The Sooners responded with a matching touchdown of their own shortly thereafter on a three-yard run by Kennedy Brooks following a 51-yard aerial strike from Jalen Hurts to CeeDee Lamb. After that, the course of this game changed in abrupt fashion.
The first thing you needed to know about the 2019 LSU team was that Heisman-winning quarterback Joe Burrow was the Tigers' quarterback and two of his receiving targets were Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase. All three players are currently stars in the NFL, and that was just a smattering of the LSU players on that team who went on to play on the NFL. But to be fare, Oklahoma had a few of those as well.
After the game was tied at a touchdown apiece midway through the first quarter, LSU exploded for 28 unanswered points to take a 35-7 advantage with just six minutes gone in the second quarter. And the Tigers were not finished. They scored twice more in the second stanza to extend the lead to 49-14 at halftime.
By halftime, Burrow had thrown for an NCAA bowl record seven touchdowns and the game was effectively over.
The second half was largely anticlimactic after the explosive first 30 minutes. Both teams scored a touchdown in the third and fourth quarters, and the game ended with a 63-28 demolition of the Sooners, appearing in their third consecutive College Football Playoff and third in the previous four seasons. It was also the last playoff appearance by an Oklahoma team.
LSU, which went on to defeat Clemson for the national championship that season, amassed nearly 700 yards of offense (692) in the game compared to just 322 for Oklahoma. Burrow passes for 493 yard and Jefferson had 14 catches for 227 yards and four touchdowns. Chase finished with two catches for 61 yards and was one of four LSU receivers with at least 60 receiving yards.
Oklahoma is hoping for a much different outcome -- and at the very least a more competitive performance -- on Saturday night in the heart of Bayou Country. In any event, that last meeting with LSU is one Sooner fans will not soon forget.