Oklahoma’s trip to Florida on Saturday gives the Sooners another first, and it comes in one of college football’s loudest places. It will be OU’s first-ever visit to The Swamp, where No. 24 Florida will host the Sooners in the teams’ first meeting since Oklahoma joined the SEC.
That game also pushes Oklahoma deeper into a strange little map of places it still hasn’t played. This season alone, the Sooners have already made their first appearance at Michigan’s Big House and Georgia’s Sanford Stadium, and now Ben Hill Griffin Stadium joins the list. After this weekend, Oklahoma will have 16 power-conference schools it has never played in that team’s home stadium, with the odd wording there tied to the Fiesta Bowl meeting with Arizona State at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., on New Year’s Day 1983.
Among the biggest venues still missing from Oklahoma’s road log is Beaver Stadium. The Sooners and Penn State have never met on either campus, even though the teams first played on Dec. 31, 1972 in the Sugar Bowl.
Oklahoma won that one 14-0 at Tulane Stadium, in the last Sugar Bowl until 1995 that did not include an SEC team. It also turned out to be Chuck Fairbanks’ final game as Oklahoma’s head coach, since less than a month later he was hired by the New England Patriots and Barry Switzer moved up from offensive coordinator to take over the program.
The schools met again in another major moment for the Sooners, a 25-10 win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl to finish the 1985 season and secure Oklahoma’s sixth national championship. Beaver Stadium, which opened in 1960, now seats 106,304 and trails only Michigan Stadium among college football venues. Its attendance record is 114,419, set this season in a loss to USC.
Clemson is another big-name stop Oklahoma has not made. The Sooners and Tigers have met five times, including three bowl games and two games in Norman, but OU still has not played in Memorial Stadium.
The programs are scheduled to meet there in 2035, so that one is on the calendar for the next decade at least. Their biggest showdown came in the 2015 College Football Playoff semifinals, when Clemson - with Brent Venables coordinating the defense - beat Oklahoma 37-17 after the Sooners led 17-16 at halftime.
Memorial Stadium, which opened in 1942, picked up the “Death Valley” nickname a few years later from an opposing coach, and Clemson coach Frank Howard started using it in the 1950s. In 1967, the school’s “Howard’s Rock” tradition began, with players rubbing the rock, which is from Death Valley, Calif., as they head down the hill on the east side of the stadium before games.
Iowa is another place Oklahoma has yet to visit, though the Sooners have played Bob Stoops’ alma mater twice - in the 2011 Insight Bowl and in 1979 in Norman. Kinnick Stadium, which opened in 1929, has its own unique feel, especially since the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital was built overlooking the east stands in 2017.
The building includes a lounge where patients and families can watch Hawkeyes games, and in that first season fans started waving to them after the first quarter. That gesture spread, and now players from both teams and others around the game take part in the “Kinnick Wave.”
The stadium is also known for its pink visitor’s locker rooms, a touch added by Hayden Fry.
Oklahoma has also never played at Spartan Stadium, home of Michigan State. The Sooners and Spartans have never met on the field, and Michigan State is one of only four power-conference programs Oklahoma has not faced, along with Georgia Tech, Purdue and Rutgers.
Spartan Stadium opened in 1923 and holds just under 75,000. It was the site of one of the “Game of the Century” matchups, the 10-10 tie with Notre Dame in 1966, though Oklahoma’s only game against Michigan State came in Norman in 1991.
One more stadium stands out for a different reason: Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium. It opened in 1965 and seats 65,632, not especially large by college football standards, but it became one of the sport’s most intimidating settings during the Frank Beamer era. Since 2000, the Hokies have taken the field to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” a tradition that fits the moment perfectly in Blacksburg.
In Other News...
Florida Suddenly Has A Major Lineup Problem Before Oklahoma
Floridas trip to face Oklahoma is suddenly looking a lot different, and not in a way the Gators wanted. Starting defensive tackle Jeramiah McCloud will be suspended for the game because of conduct detrimental to the team, leaving Florida to reshuffle the middle of its defense against a Sooners offense that will be paying close attention to the interior matchup.
The injury report adds even more uncertainty around the depth chart, with receiver Vernell Brown III and defensive end Emmanuel Oyebadejo among the players listed as doubtful or questionable. Florida is already preparing lineup adjustments and has identified replacements for some of the missing starters, but the full picture of how the Gators will line up in Norman is still taking shape. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma Heads Into Florida With One Major Secondary Concern
Oklahomas trip to Florida comes with a familiar late-week wrinkle, as the Sooners are sorting through a secondary that may not be at full strength when they arrive in Gainesville. Cornerback Eli Bowen and safety Peyton Bowen are both listed as questionable, adding some uncertainty to a unit that already has to account for several other absences on the roster, including Jacobe Johnson, Dakoda Fields and Ryan Fodje.
The timing matters because Florida also has its own injury questions, with wide receiver Vernell Brown III listed as doubtful. For Oklahoma, though, the bigger concern is how much flexibility it will have on the back end if those defensive pieces cannot go, especially against a Gators offense that will be looking to test the Sooners wherever the depth chart looks thinnest. [Read more 🡒]
Venables Just Reopened A Painful Oklahoma Offense Debate
Brent Venables spent part of this week revisiting one of the more uncomfortable chapters of Oklahomas recent football story, acknowledging past mistakes in promoting Seth Littrell while shifting his full attention to Florida. It was a reminder that the Sooners offensive coordinator situation has not just been about play-calling, but about the broader coaching decisions that have shaped the programs direction.
Floridas Buster Faulkner is part of the backdrop now, and Venables made a point of praising his offensive philosophy and his feel for defensive structures, along with the experience he has picked up around successful programs. For Oklahoma, the interest is obvious: the Sooners are still living with the consequences of getting that hire wrong once, and every new opponent seems to reopen the question of how they want that side of the ball to look going forward. [Read more 🡒]