Skip to main content
All Sooners

OU-Nebraska: One Big Thing

While respecting the rich history of their long rivalry with the Cornhuskers, the Sooners need to put on a show against a middling football team.
John E. Hoover|
OU-Nebraska: One Big Thing
OU-Nebraska: One Big Thing

The game that Joe Castiglione has nurtured for almost a decade has come to fruition. The brainchild of his years of planning is here.

And yet, Oklahoma-Nebraska is both greater than and less than just one nostalgic non-conference game.

On one hand, the 2021 version of OU-Nebraska represents a taste of what sold generations of fans on the greatness of the game: decades of sustained excellence. Over a 48-year reign from 1963 to 2010, either OU or Nebraska won the Big Eight or the Big 12 a total of 44 times. No two schools have ever dominated a league like that. They also won a total of nine national championships during that stretch. The 1971 “Game of the Century,” featuring No. 1 NU vs. No. 2 OU, was just a sampling of the dueling dynasties.

On the other hand, the Sooners are competing for a national championship this year, and OU’s path to the playoff can be made easier two ways: by dominating a middling Nebraska team, and by hoping these Cornhuskers really aren’t all that middling.

Nebraska comes in 2-1, but with victories over cupcakes Fordham and Buffalo. NU’s opening loss to Illinois was followed by the Illinis’ back-to-back losses to UTSA and Virginia. Not a good look.

If fourth-year Nebraska coach Scott Frost takes a licking in Norman and then can’t get his act together against a rugged Big Ten schedule — Michigan State, Northwestern, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Iowa all have bigger fangs than the Huskers right now — the Sooners’ non-conference schedule will look even less impressive to the playoff committee.

OU is a 22.5-point favorite Saturday, according to SI Sportsbook. If Nebraska really is still in rebuild mode under Frost, it would serve Lincoln Riley and the Sooners to put on an impressive show Saturday and leave no doubt.

Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the AllSooners message board community today!

Sign up for your premium membership to AllSooners.com today, and get access to the entire Fan Nation premium network!

Follow AllSooners on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest OU news.  

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

Share on XFollow johnehoover
Home/Football