College Football season is upon us and I, for one, welcome our new NCAAFB overlords. Let’s live blog the biggest early game of the day, shall we? On ABC we’ve got No. 3 Oklahoma taking on No. 15 Houston.
As always, scroll on down for the live blog. Keep reading for the press release from Oklahoma.
OPENING KICK
• No. 3/3 Oklahoma begins its 122nd season of varsity football when it faces No. 15/13 Houston on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT in the AdvoCare Texas Kickoff inside NRG Stadium (71,795). The game will mark the start of OU’s 18th season under head coach Bob Stoops.• The Sooners are looking for their 14th season of at least 10 wins under Stoops. Oklahoma is the only FBS program to rack up 13 seasons of double-digit victories since 2000.
• Oklahoma is 93-22-6 all-time in season openers (15-2 under Stoops).
• OU has won six straight season openers, its longest streak since winning seven in a row from 1998 through 2004.
The last time Oklahoma opened the season against a team ranked as highly as No. 15 came in 1986 when No. 1 OU beat No. 4 UCLA 38-3 in Norman.
• In games where both teams are ranked 15th or better, Oklahoma is 30-15 (.667) under Stoops, including 21-6 (.778) when it is the higher ranked team.
• This marks just the second time under Stoops that Oklahoma is opening the season against a ranked team. The other occasion was in 2009 when the No. 3 Sooners lost 14-13 to No. 20 BYU in Arlington, Texas. Sooners QB Sam Bradford, who won the Heisman Trophy the previous year, missed the second half with a shoulder injury.
• The Sooners are 49-6 (.891) in September under Stoops, outscoring teams by an average of 42 to 17. OU has won nine straight September games and 19 of its last 20 dating back to 2009.
• Oklahoma is 55-28 (.663) vs. AP Top 25 teams in the Stoops era. The win percentage is the best in the country during the span and the win total is second behind LSU (57).
• Last year’s Big 12 title was Oklahoma’s ninth under Stoops, meaning he has won league championships at OU more years than he has not. No other program has claimed more than two Big 12 championships during the Stoops era.
• Oklahoma (11-2) and Houston (13-1) posted the best combined 2015 record (24-3) of any two teams that will meet in week one this season. The matchup will be the only one on opening weekend that features two teams ranked in the top 10 of last year’s final AP poll (OU fifth, Houston eighth), and one of two between teams ranked in the top 15 of this year’s preseason AP poll (No. 4 Florida State vs. No. 11 Ole Miss is the other).
• This is just the fourth time in its history that OU has opened the season at a neutral site, and the second under Stoops (2009 vs. BYU in Arlington, Texas). The only other such games came in 1896 when OU opened against Norman High (won 12-0) and in 1898 when OU opened against Arkansas City (won 5-0). Both games took place in Oklahoma City.
The game is on ABC at noon. You’re going to watch it. Why don’t you watch it with me?
