Sooners aim for history

The Oklahoma Sooners will win the Big 12 title if they defeat Kansas State on Saturday night. The Sooners can then win the national title in the Sugar Bowl.

But this Oklahoma team has been so good, the Sooners are playing for more than championships. They are playing for a place in history.

Oklahoma has scored 50 points in seven of its 12 games. No Big 12 team has come within two touchdowns of the Sooners, who have Heisman Trophy front-runner Jason White at quarterback.

The Football Writers Association of America named six Sooners to its All-America team.

But before one can measure whether this Oklahoma team is one of the best in college history, it has to be determined whether this is one of the best teams in school history.

Forget living up to the 1947 Notre Dame team or the 1971 Nebraska team. Oklahoma has seven national championships to be measured against.

“Win the rest of them, and they’re the best team I’ve ever seen at Oklahoma,” said no less an authority figure than former OU coach Barry Switzer, who coached the Sooners to three of their national titles. “This is the best-coached team I’ve ever seen and the one with the best overall team chemistry. That’s not to take anything away from my guys. There’s a lot of my guys who would start for this team. I just look at the talent level and how they play.”

Switzer’s 1974 team won a national title with eight All-Americans, but he said his best team was probably the 1978 squad that lost a regular-season game to Nebraska and finished third in the polls.

“We fumbled nine times and lost six that day in Lincoln and got beat 17-14,” said Switzer, whose team won a rematch with Nebraska in the Orange Bowl that season. “We were No. 1 and undefeated. If we win that one, we would have beaten whoever we played in the Orange Bowl.”

Of course, Oklahoma history goes back long before Switzer. In the Bud Wilkinson era (1947-63), Oklahoma posted three consecutive undefeated seasons and a 47-game winning streak.

Oklahoma’s last national title came in 2000, when the Sooners beat five teams ranked in the Top 12. However, that team eked out wins over Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Florida State at the end. This year’s team seems to be getting stronger.

The Sooners’ last four games have been 52-9 over Oklahoma State, 77-0 over Texas A&M, 41-3 over Baylor and 56-25 over Texas Tech. The routs are one reason the Sooners are being talked about as one of the best ever.

“You have to consider it, yeah,” longtime college football analyst Beano Cook said. “This Oklahoma team is very, very good. It’s not just another team that’s very good.”

Cook said the 1947 Notre Dame team of Johnny Lujack, Leon Hart and George Connor is the best of all time. But he is impressed with these Sooners.

“I would definitely say it’s better than any team in the 1990s because they can throw the football,” Cook said. “I mean, 40 touchdown passes …”

However, Cook said what may hold Oklahoma back is a perceived weakness of opposition. Oklahoma’s closest game was a 20-13 win at Alabama, a Southeastern Conference team.

“The thing about the Big 12, though, it’s kind of down,” Cook said. “It’s obviously not as good as the SEC.”

A man who compares scores and schedules for a living, Jeff Sagarin, is hesitant to declare this Oklahoma team as one of the greatest of all time.

“You sort of have to wait until the end,” said Sagarin, who compiles the weekly Sagarin Ratings. “If they were to beat Kansas State decisively and win their bowl game decisively, that would be the thing.”

Sagarin said the 1971 Nebraska team was even more dominant, winning every game but one by at least 24 points.

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Even the 1995 Nebraska team ranks ahead of Oklahoma at this point, according to Sagarin.

“People see a team that beats everybody so bad, and they say it’s unbeatable,” Sagarin said. “Each year there’s somebody like that.”