Big Blue Preview: Kentucky at Oklahoma

Info to Know

Preview

Riding a four-game winning streak, No. 15 Kentucky hits the road, facing Oklahoma in Norman on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network).

Kentucky (5-1, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) has won consecutive games, by the same score, both in overtime. The Cats won at South Carolina 35-34 two weeks ago, then beat LSU by the same score at Kroger Field last weekend. Both times, UK head coach Will Stein elected to go for a do-or-die two-point conversion, and both times, Kentucky executed the winning play.

Oklahoma (3-2, 1-1) is coming off its biggest win of the season. The Sooners topped then-No. 1 Texas 27-24 in Dallas on Saturday in the Red River Rivalry.

Kentucky and Oklahoma have played just three times on the gridiron, with the Sooners winning two and the Cats one. The last meeting came in 1982 in Lexington.

Cat Scratches: Stein Wants Cats to Capitalize on Opportunities

While the Kentucky football team did beat then-No. 10 LSU on Saturday night, UK head coach Will Stein knows that his team can still play better. He addressed that, and more, during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

“We have to continue to push and grow and understand there were opportunities this past Saturday for us to really put the game out of hand and to score 42 points,” Stein said. “That’s a fact. There’s so much to clean up. We didn’t tackle well. We’ve got to tackle better.”

Stein knows that every team in the Southeastern Conference is good, and that every team is vulnerable if they don’t play their best…Read More

Kentucky-Oklahoma Series

The Series

• Oklahoma leads the all-time series, 2-1.
• The Sooners won the only meeting in Norman, Oklahoma in 1980, 29-7.
• The teams last met in 1982 in Lexington and OU won that matchup, 29-8.
• This will mark the first meeting between the teams since Oklahoma joined the Southeastern Conference.
• The most famous meeting was in the 1951 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, resulting in a 13-7 Kentucky victory.

1951 Sugar Bowl

• The Wildcats, 11-1, displayed a tough defense and opportunistic offense in snapping Oklahoma’s 31-game winning streak, the longest in the nation at that time. More than 13,000 Kentucky fans made the long trip to New Orleans to watch the SEC champions pick up their school-record 11th win.
• Under the direction of coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, Kentucky continually confused the favored Sooners with different defensive looks. The Wildcats used three tacklers much of the time, causing OU quarterback Claude Arnold to hasten his playmaking.
• Kentucky marched 81 yards in the second quarter to go up 13-0. Wilbur Jamerson dove over from the one to cap the drive, but Bob Gain missed wide on the PAT.
• The Wildcat defense, ranked No. 2 in the nation, showed Oklahoma why late in the third quarter. The Sooners drove 67 yards with the second-half kickoff, sitting at the UK 3 with a first-and-goal. Walt Yowarsky helped UK turn back the Sooners, throwing an OU runner for a 5-yard loss on third down and Oklahoma eventually turned the ball over on downs.

By the Numbers

1
Will Stein is the first coach in Kentucky history to begin 3-1 in SEC play in his first season

1
Kentucky is the first team in FBS history to win consecutive games by one point in overtime

2
UK has two wins in one season over AP Top10 teams for fourth time in school history

12
Brock Coffman is the first UK player with a punt return touchdown against an AP Top10 team since Derek Abney at No. 7 Florida in 2002. Both players wear jersey No. 12.

161
Rushing yards needed for C.J. Baxter to reach 1,500 career rushing yards