Oklahoma swagger, toughness and meanness emerged at Ohio Stadium When Baker Mayfield paraded the OU flag around the floor of Ohio Stadium and planted it squarely on the “O” at midfield, with some teammates dancing around, many Ohio State fans…
Let us put this game in perspective.
Oklahoma has not beaten Notre Dame in my lifetime.
And that is a long time.
Not since 1956, when Coach Bud Wilkinson took Jimmy Harris, Tommy McDonald and the rest of the Sooners to South Bend and whipped Notre Dame 40-0.
That day the Sooner players carried Wilkinson off the field on their shoulders.
But the Fighting Irish have been delivering revenge ever since. Seven Oklahoma losses. The closest the Sooners have come to winning was when Coach Bob Stoops took Josh Heupel, Quentin Griffin and the rest of the Sooners to South Bend and lost 34-30.
A win on Saturday will give Bob Stoops 145 victories as the coach of the Sooners.
He will tie legendary coach Bud Wilkinson with a win.
Ironically, if the Sooners come out victorious, it will come against the football program that left the mark on the most significant period of Oklahoma football — the Wilkinson-coached 47 game win streak that ended with a 7-0 lost to Notre Dame and became the NCAA record that has withstood two lifetimes.
In one sense this game between No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 7 Oklahoma stands for more than an early playoff game between contenders hoping to propel themselves into a national championship race in 2012.