Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: OKLAHOMA TOP STORYLINES BY LOU SOMOGYI Stoops in 1999, Oklahoma University is 79-4 (.952) at home in Memorial Sta- dium. Only Boise State, which doesn't play in a BCS conference, has a better home record over that same span with an 84-3 (.966) ledger. As a comparison, consider that Since the arrival of head coach Bob HOME COOKIN' ranked teams at home — until the 24-19 loss this Sept. 22 to Kansas State, which was ranked No. 4 in the first BCS poll Oct. 14, one spot ahead of Notre Dame. • From 2005-11, Oklahoma won 39 since 1999 Notre Dame has yet to fin- ish with an unbeaten season at home while posting a 58-31 (.652) mark prior to last week's contest with Brigham Young. Here are some other home cookin' facts from the Stoops era: • Oklahoma had been 14-0 against The Sooners boast a 79-4 record in Memorial Stadium since head coach Bob Stoops took over in 1999 — the top home winning percentage (.952) among all BCS conference schools during that time span. PHOTO COURTESY OU ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS at 85,161, which was 103.7-percent of Memorial Stadium's official capacity of 82,112. It has exceeded that capacity in 48 straight games. This visit by Notre Dame has spe- straight home games, a stadium record and the fifth longest home win streak in the modern football era. • The Sooners also had a 19-game winning streak at home from 2002-04 and won their first 17 home games stretching almost over Stoops' first three seasons from 1999-2001. • Oklahoma's average margin of victory at home has been 22 points or higher each of the past six seasons and 11 of 13 full seasons under Stoops. • In 2011, Oklahoma fans set a re- cord for average season attendance cial meaning to the state of Oklahoma because no school has had its football program's number like the Irish, who are 8-1 against the Sooners (see pages 50-51) — including an amazing 4-0 in Norman. The most famous, of course, was the 7-0 triumph in 1957 that snapped Oklahoma's NCAA-record 47-game winning streak. This is a State Pride game, similar to when Notre Dame visited Alabama — which was 0-4 all time against the Irish — in 1986 under first-year head coach Lou Holtz. The game was a cru- sade for the Crimson Tide, and it won handily, 28-10. This 2012 Notre Dame team should be more established as a program than