Counting down my undergrad OU football games: 39-34 – The Blowout Wins

I was blessed in my time at OU to have seen many very fun football games. I was also blessed in my time at OU to have attended many 11:00 kicks in the middle of September with a heat index climbing to near 100 as I had to explain to Elizabeth what a UTEP was. The duality of football.

39. Oklahoma 56, UTEP 7 – 2017

This was one of those games that’s most noteworthy for what kind of numbers the offense can put up, and what the backups can manage to do. Baker Mayfield went 19 of 20 in the season opener before leaving with plenty of time left in the game. Kyler Murray then went 10 of 11. In retrospect, both of those guys were pretty good, and UTEP wasn’t. The game was best remembered for being a billion degrees, and Elizabeth nearly passing out and having to share her drink with a sorority girl who had also almost passed out.

38. Oklahoma 34, Iowa State 24 – 2016

This one is kind of a weird game, since it was played in Ames on a Thursday night. I was a freshman attending an OWL shift that night, and we hooked the game up to the OWL TVs to watch. Obviously, back then Iowa State wasn’t all that good, so the close score wasn’t the greatest thing. Extenuating circumstances explained it – Samaje Perine was hurt and Joe Mixon was suspended for being a bad person at the time. Therefore, OU only had fullback Dmitri Flowers available, and he did yeoman’s work in a game where the Sooners clearly just wanted to control the ball and get out of Ames. Flowers converted a big 4th down that I watched from the OU Union while getting dessert or something, and that was that.

37. Oklahoma 59, Louisiana-Monroe 17 – 2016

This was my first-ever OU game, and I suppose there may be some nostalgia associated with that. To be honest, it feels like a lifetime ago. Since it was my first home game as a student, I got to walk out onto the field in the pregame with my fellow National Merit Scholars. I tried chatting some of them up in line while waiting to enter, and was entirely nonplussed by the unenthused reaction everyone displayed at being there. Some dude literally said he’d rather be reading. That was my last-ever association with the group of people who had their college paid for for being smart. And to top it all off, the Merit Scholars got booed when they made it out on the field. Every time they appeared thereafter, I booed them louder than anyone else. The one moment that saved the event for me was getting picture with (soon-to-be-ousted-among-scandals) president David Boren.

OU thrashed Louisiana-Monroe. Then I went to the Adams basement to hang out with friends, non-philistines who could appreciate football.

36. Oklahoma 51, Kansas State 14 – 2018

This was the definition of a truly forgettable home game. I can only list a few of my very limited memories of this game, which is still the last time that OU managed to beat Kansas State as of the time of this post. First of all, Gus Johnson called the game. Second of all, Kansas State had some dirty defensive players. Third of all, Kennedy Brooks scored a long touchdown. That is all I remember.

35. Oklahoma 66, Baylor 33 – 2018

I have a somewhat more distinct memory of this early season game than the one listed directly above. Namely, I remember that Baylor had literally no answer for the most basic wide receiver screens that Oklahoma ran, so Hollywood Brown and CeeDee Lamb were constantly running free in wide open space. Baylor scored some points, but Baylor was never going to score quite enough to keep in the game with Oklahoma, who thoroughly obliterated them. From the beginning, I was more focused on the Michigan/Northwestern game, wherein Michigan fell behind big early and had to scrap and claw their way back into the game. I was glued enough to the game that I committed the ultimate sacrilege and agreed to leave early to see how the Michigan game would end. To my everlasting relief, they did manage the win and I hadn’t left an OU game early for naught.

34. Oklahoma 55, Texas Tech 16 – 2019

This was part of a brutal stretch of 11:00 kickoffs in 2019 that I’m convinced helped precipitate OU’s exit from the Big 12. At least we got Gus Johnson for the highlights. Jalen Hurts didn’t fail to produce some highlights, throwing several bombs to Charleston Rambo early and beautiful touchdowns to CeeDee Lamb late. It wasn’t *too* hot, which was nice. Was it kind of a boring game? Yes.