An Oklahoma rematch with Nebraska, an Oklahoma State road trip to Boise State and Tulsa game with Ohio State highlight the nonconference schedules for the state’s major college football teams in 2021.
Here are breakdowns of some of history and coaches that OU, OSU and TU will face this fall.
Oklahoma Nonconference Schedule
- September 4 at Tulane
- September 11 – Western Carolina
- September 18 – Nebraska
Oklahoma went 9-2 in the coronavirus season last year, with conference losses to Kansas State and to Iowa State. The Sooners rebounded and played their way into the Big 12 Championship Game, where they avenged their loss to Iowa State and won their sixth straight Big 12 Conference title.
OU head coach Lincoln Riley has won the Big 12 in each of his four years as head coach and he got OU into the four-team College Football Playoff three of the last four years. The only nonconference game the Sooners had in 2020 was a 48-0 home win over Missouri State. OU was ranked No. 6 in the final AP Poll.
Tulane
Oklahoma won the only meeting between these two schools, 56-14, in Norman on September 16, 2017. In that game, Tulane jumped out to a 14-7 lead against No. 2 Oklahoma. The Sooners cranked out 631 total yards while holding Tulane to 291 yards.
Former OU quarterback Baker Mayfield hit 17 of 27 pass attempts for 331 yards and four touchdowns. When the game was out of reach, former OU quarterback Kyler Murray stepped in and his all three of his passes for 103 yards and one touchdown.
In 2020, Tulane went 6-6, 3-5 in the American Athletic Conference (including a 24-30 double overtime loss to Tulsa). The Green Wave lost to Nevada 27-38 in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
Former Tulane players Cameron Sample and Patrick Johnson were drafted in the fourth and seventh round of the NFL Draft.
Tulane added two new assistant coaches. Michael Colosimo will be the new offensive analyst and will help in recruiting. He was at Tennessee the last two seasons. Jesse Schmidt will be the special teams’ analyst after spending the past three seasons at Purdue.
Western Carolina
Western Carolina, a member of the Southern Conference, went 1-8 in the pandemic shortened season in 2020. Their season started on November 14 and ended April 10, 2021. The lone victory was against The Citadel.
Western Carolina and Oklahoma have never played each other. This is only the second time WCU has played a member of the Big 12 Conference.
Kerwin Bell was named the 14th head football coach at Western Carolina in April. Bell was offensive coordinator at South Florida under head coach Charlie Strong (former of Texas). Bell won the 2018 NCAA Division II National Championship as head coach of Valdosta, where he coached for three years.
Bell played quarterback for Florida from 1983-87 and was SEC player of the year in 1984. He was drafted by the Miami Dolphins and played in the NFL for 13 years.
Nebraska
OU leads the series with Nebraska, 45-39-2. Nebraska’s record in Lincoln versus OU is 23-18-1 while OU leads in Norman, 23-16. OU is 6-4 against Nebraska in their last 10 games.
The “Game of the Century” was played in Norman on November 25, 1971 between No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Oklahoma. The Cornhuskers won 35-31 and went on to capture the national title.
Both teams were in the Big 8 Conference and then the Big 12 Conference but Nebraska left to join the Big Ten. The last meeting between OU and Nebraska was in the Big 12 Championship game in Arlington, Texas, in 2010. OU won 23-20. In that game, former OU quarterback Landry Jones hit 23 of 41 passes for 342 yards and one touchdown. Jones also rushed for one score.
Nebraska suffered a disappointing 3-5 record last season. The Big Ten Conference cancelled all nonconference games due to the Chinese coronavirus. The Cornhusker game with then-No. 9 Wisconsin was canceled due to the virus.
Nebraska coach Scott Frost, who played for the Cornhuskers, was hired in 2017. The Huskers went 4-8 in his first season and 5-7 in 2019.
Oklahoma State Nonconference Schedule
- September 4 – Missouri State
- September 11 – Tulsa
- September 18 at Boise State
Oklahoma State was 8-3 overall last season and 6-3- in the Big 12 Conference.
The Cowboys opened with season with four straight wins and then fell to Texas 34-41 in overtime. OSU upset Iowa State 24-21 but were upset themselves in a 22-29 loss to TCU. OSU finished strong with a 37-34 win over Miami in the Cheez-It Bowl.
Entering the 2021 season, Oklahoma State has been ranked in the top 15 of the Associated Press poll in 11 of the past 13 seasons.
Since 2010, Oklahoma State has six seasons with at least 10 wins, an outright Big 12 title (2011) and a share of the Big 12 South title (2010). The Cowboys reached the top 10 of the Associated Press poll in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020.
OSU coach Mike Gundy (137-67-0) ranks fifth among all active head coaches with 137 wins at his current school. Since 2017, Gundy has coached the leading passer in the FBS (Mason Rudolph in 2017), the leading receiver in the FBS (James Washington in 2017) and the leading rusher in the FBS (Chuba Hubbard in 2019).
Missouri State
Missouri State had one of the oddest schedules in the nation in 2020. After losing to Oklahoma in Norman, MSU lost to Central Arkansas on September 26 in Conway and then lost to UCA a second time on October 17 in Springfield Missouri.
Then they didn’t play until February 27 when they began an eight-game conference slate end on April 17. On April 24, Missouri State lost to North Dakota, 10-44, in the NCAA FCS Playoffs.
Missouri State hired Bobby Petrino as their head coach in January of 2020. Petrino was named Missouri Valley Football Coach of the Year for resurrecting the program. He went 5-1 in conference play last season.
Petrino was head coach at Louisville twice and he was also head coach at Arkansas and Western Kentucky. His overall record is 119-56 including 11 bowl appearances in 14 seasons as head coach.
Tulsa
After going 3-9 in 2018 and 4-8 in 2019, the Golden Hurricane had a dramatic turnaround in 2020, going 6-0 in the American Athletic Conference and 6-3 overall. Tulsa lost to No. 6 Cincinnati 24-27 in the AAC Championship and fell to Mississippi State 26-28 in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Opening against No. 11 Oklahoma State in 2020, the Golden Hurricane defense rose to the occasion, holding OSU’s offense to 16 points.
OSU holds the series edge 42-27-5 in a series that started in 1914.
TU coach Philip Montgomery is in his sixth season as head coach. His record at TU is 31-40, with the best season in 2016 when Tulsa went 10-3 and played in the Miami Beach Bowl.
Boise State
Boise State went 5-0 in the Mountain West Conference and 5-2 overall in 2020. Their losses were to No. 9 BYU (17-51) and 20-34 to No. 25 San Jose State in the Mountain West Championship game. Boise State had a regular season game cancelled against San Jose State and also against UNLV.
Andy Avalos is the head coach for Boise State. Avalos played for Boise State and was named head coach on January 9, 2021. Avalos previously coached at Boise State (as an assistant), Oregon, Colorado, Sacramento State and Nebraska-Kearney. He was defensive coordinator for Oregon in 2019 and was a semifinalist for the Broyles Award, given to the best assistant in the nation.
Boise State lost to Oklahoma State, 21-44, in Stillwater in 2018. Former Boise State quarterback Brett Rypien passed for 380 yards against Oklahoma State but it wasn’t enough as OSU’s Justice Hill ran for 123 yards
Tulsa Nonconference Schedule
- September 2 – University of California at Davis
- September 11 at Oklahoma State
- September 18 at Ohio State
- September 25 – Arkansas State
Tulsa stunned the college football world on October 3, 2020, when the Golden Hurricane beat No. 11 Central Florida 34-26 in Orlando. That was just a week after TU almost upset then-No. 11 Oklahoma State, 7-16, in Stillwater.
Starting with UCF, Tulsa ran off six American Athletic Conference wins in a row to capture a spot in the championship game. The Golden Hurricane was scheduled to play then-No. 7 Cincinnati in Tulsa in the final game of the regular season but that was cancelled due to the coronavirus. Instead, Tulsa has to travel to Cincinnati a week later to play the Bearcats and they were edged 27-27. Tulsa had another close loss (26-28) in the Armed Forces Bowl.
UC Davis
In a coronavirus-shortened schedule last season, UC Davis went 3-2 in the Big Sky Conference with losses to No. 2 Weber State and No. 9 Eastern Washington (both in the NCAA Division 1 Football Championship Division).
Dan Hawkins is the head coach and is in his third season. Hawkins led the Boise State Broncos to four WAC titles, collected Coach of the Year honors in 2002 and ’04, and ended the 2004 season as a finalist for the Paul “Bear” Bryant College Football Coach of the Year Award
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State leads this series 42-27-5 and has won eight in a row since 1999. Oklahoma State was ranked No. 20 at the end of last season.
Ohio State
Tulsa is 0-1 against Ohio State. Ohio State was ranked No. 2 in the final AP Top 25 in 2020.
Ohio State’s only loss last year was a 24-52 thrashing by No. 1 Alabama in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.
The only time Tulsa played Ohio State the Buckeyes won 48-3 in Columbus. Ohio State coach Ryan Day has 23-2 overall record and is 15-0 in the Big Ten Conference.
Arkansas State
Tulsa is 1-2 against Arkansas State.
Arkansas State went 4-7 overall in 2020 and 2-6 in the Conference. They made big headlines with a 35-31 upset of Kansas State from the Big 12.
Their head coach is Butch Jones, who was hired in December of 2020 after being released by Tennessee where he coached for five years. He also coached at Cincinnati and Central Michigan. He was an assistant coach for Alabama coach Nick Saban.