Week 3 of the college football season is already here and the Sooners are taking to the road for the first time. They’ll be staying in the state, though and you can expect there will be a sea of crimson overtaking Tulsa’s Chapman Stadium as OU and the Golden Hurricane meet for 29th time. Here are some things to take note of as Saturday approaches.
- The Sooners own a 20-7-1 series lead and are 7-3 against the Golden Hurricane in Tulsa.
- The Sooners have won the last nine games in the series by an average score of 48-13.
- They have won the last four meetings at H.A. Chapman Stadium by an average score of 54-7.
- First-year Tulsa head coach Kevin Wilson spent nine seasons (2002-10) on the Oklahoma staff under head coach Bob Stoops, helping the Sooners to a 98-24 (.803) record, a 59-13 (.819) Big 12 mark, six Big 12 championships and national championship game appearances in 2003, 2004 and 2008.
- The Sooners have allowed just two scores (one touchdown) through two games.
- OU has yet to commit a turnover this season and has registered three takeaways on defense (one interception and two fumble recoveries).
- Oklahoma has won 30 of its last 37 true road games.
- OU has scored at least 30 points in 38 of its last 42 true road games.
- Last Saturday marked the 10th in Gabriel’s career in which he threw at least four touchdown passes.
- Oklahoma running back Tawee Walker rushed for career-high 117 yards last week against SMU.
- The Sooners held SMU to 26 fewer points and 106 fewer yards than it averaged last season.
- Danny Stutsman finished the SMU game with 17 tackles (one shy of his career high).
Quotes From Oklahoma Head Coach Brent Venables
“He’s one of my favorite people that I’ve worked with and a good friend and a great dad and a great husband and a dang good football coach. And Tulsa’s lucky to have him.” – On Tulsa head coach Kevin Wilson
“He’s playing in a confident way, playing with a different level of anticipation because of his knowledge … he’s a lot more comfortable and he’s able to lead.” – On linebacker Danny Stutsman
“I mean, he’s our No. 2 quarterback. I don’t see any reason we would want to redshirt him. We can’t afford to. We don’t have the depth at that position. So I’d like to continue to bring him along, and what we’re doing with him, I don’t think that’s necessarily indicative of what he can do. So, we’ll continue to give him some opportunity when it’s the right time and try to get him experience, confidence, comfort, all of those things through getting on the field in meaningful playing time.” – On playing freshman quarterback Jackson Arnold in the 4th down package
“Preston’s a very good player. As we saw, he has tremendous accuracy, can throw on the run, really never panicked… I thought for that test, they responded well.” – On SMU quarterback Preston Stone
“This is the league we signed up for…. I don’t think it’s indicative of that Alabama is gonna fall off the face of the planet.” – On Texas beating Alabama
Quotes From Tulsa Head Coach Kevin Wilson
“He’s a great coach. A passionate coach. Right now, he’s in a room with some players and he’s got a grease board with a thousand lines all over it and you can’t see anything. But he’s blowing up and stopping plays, because that’s what he does. And he does it as well as anybody.“ – On Brent Venables
“There’d be many days when you’d go out to stretch and every group would be there except one group — those Linebackers were still meeting… because his guys were gonna be prepared.” – On coaching with Brent Venables
“Let’s not make the game so big that we don’t enjoy the opportunity. The focus right now is my team. We’ve got a great challenge. Those are great years that I loved (at OU), but this is about Tulsa for me.” – On playing Oklahoma
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