Saturday night will be the final Big 12 home opener for the Sooners. They host an Iowa State team that snapped a two-game losing streak last Saturday by handing Oklahoma State its second consecutive defeat. In recent years the Cyclones have made some strong appearances in Norman, even defeating a Baker Mayfield led Sooner squad in 2017. Here are some interesting game notes along with some quotes from the coaches ahead of Saturday’s matchup.
- Oklahoma owns a 79-7-2 all-time record against Iowa State and is 18-2 in the series in the Big 12 era.
- The Sooners’ .909 series winning percentage against ISU is the best by one Power Five program against another (minimum of 50 games played).
- Iowa State only has seven wins in 88 all-time meetings against Oklahoma, but two of the victories have come over the last six seasons.
- OU has won the last three matchups.
- OU is 75-10 (.882) in September games since the start of the 1999 season, which was Bob Stoops’ first as head coach.
- The Sooners’ 34 points allowed are their fewest over the first four games of a season since 1992 (gave up 32).
- Oklahoma ranks in the top four nationally in both scoring offense (No. 4 at 46.8 ppg) and scoring defense (No. 2 at 8.5 ppg).
- The only time the Sooners trailed this season was for a 7:05 stretch in the first quarter at Cincinnati (3-0), and the only times they’ve been tied were at 0-0. They have led for 217:17 out of 240 minutes on the year.
Quotes From Oklahoma Head Coach Brent Venables
“We’d love for someone to establish themselves, but we haven’t had that yet.” – On Oklahoma’s running back rotation
“He’s back.” – On the injury status of left guard Savion Byrd
“We’ve done accomplished nothing but getting better. Don’t want to downplay it, but we’re going to have a lot stiffer tests along the way and I’ve got long-term vision of what we can do to have an elite, consistent defense and we’ve got work to do. But like the direction.” – On defensive improvement
“I like him a lot. He’s instinctive, he’s athletic. He’s confident, throws the ball well on the run. Seems to be a good leader. Likes to play. You see the emotion without being overly dramatic.” – On Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht
Quotes From Iowa State Head Coach Matt Campbell
“It’s a huge week for us to continue to move forward. How do you build on what you did well last week? How do you keep growing forward in some of the areas that we need to get better at?” – On playing at Oklahoma
“And then how do you handle a road game environment? We didn’t handle our first test, and you have another opportunity to get on the road in one of the great places of all time to play college football.” – On playing on the road
“They create chaos on defense. They’re so multiple, they’re really talented and they are (a) high-pressure defense.” – On Oklahoma’s defense
“Especially in a game like this, you’ve got to do a great job of protecting the football. You look at the games we’ve won this year and we’ve won the turnover margin. The games we’ve lost, we’ve either tied or lost the turnover margin. It’s hard to win football games here if that part of the football game fails.” – On the value of ball protection
“He’s a kid that, elite precision. He’s a guy that knows what his answers are. He’s almost the offensive coordinator at times on the football field and can make all the throws.” – On Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel
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