After a win like Missouri recorded over then-No. 1 Oklahoma during last year’s Homecoming, many changes take effect. Pain and embarrassment from previous losses subside. A new-found confidence settles in. A team-wide belief in measuring up to the best reigns throughout.
A year later, post-game feelings from the team’s 36-27 victory over the Sooners linger in the Missouri locker room. The players that lost themselves in the crowd of golden students in the midfield celebration haven’t forgotten the mob, the magnitude or the moment of one of the biggest wins in school history.
Rather, they enter this year’s contest with the Sooners, No. 1 yet again, with a new-found understanding of what it means to measure up, silence the doubters and shock the world. And even in the face of Saturday’s trip to the feared Norman, Okla., where the Sooners have tossed aside every challenger since 2005, fear is no more.
“They have some good athletes, but so do we,” senior captain and safety Kenji Jackson said. “We’re confident in ourselves that we can beat anybody if we just put our minds to it and go out and play Missouri football.”
Although poised, the players and coaches are more than aware of the challenge of playing the Sooners, especially at their own home.
Fresh off a 23-13 victory at then-No. 5 Florida State on Saturday, Oklahoma has held the top spot in the Associated Press and Coaches Polls since the season started. It boasts one of the nation’s most respected passing games, led by Heisman Trophy hopefuls quarterback Landry Jones and wide receiver Ryan Broyles. And it seemingly never loses at home, boasting a 72-2 home record under coach Bob Stoops.
Missouri coach Gary Pinkel attributes Oklahoma’s near-perfection in Norman under Stoops to an even mixture of environment, talent and Stoops’ ability to prepare his team.
“That’s also the challenge anybody has going to play in Norman,” Pinkel said. “But that’s the exciting part of competing.”
The Tigers have felt the wrath of the Sooners success during Stoops’ tenure. Stoops won his first six games against Missouri before falling in last season’s matchup. Four of the wins came by at least 21 points.
Oklahoma flustered Missouri most in 2007, when Pinkel’s best team finished ranked No. 4 with a 12-2 record. Both losses came at the hands of the Sooners. Oklahoma’s 38-17 victory over Missouri in the Big 12 Championship Game prevented the Tigers, then No. 1 in the BCS, from reaching the BCS National Championship Game.
The sting of the previous losses made last season’s victory all the more meaningful to the program.
“That was like making history,” senior defensive tackle Dominique Hamilton said. “That was hands-down a historic moment that I can take with me, that we beat Oklahoma here. It’s going to be that much more if we go to their place and beat them.”
The players also recognize the motivation at hand for Oklahoma to avenge last season’s loss.
“They knew they were No. 1 ranked then, they’re No. 1 ranked now, and they’re definitely going to want to knock us off, especially at home,” wide receiver Wes Kemp said.
To match that intensity, the Tigers will have to look beyond the rankings, statistics and environment that has the Sooners heavy favorites once again — the same way they did last season.
“We know they’re going to pose a good challenge to us and we like that,” Jackson said. “It’s fun and that’s why you play football.”
