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The Truth About Oklahoma Sooners Fans
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By now you’ve probably seen the hot mic video of two Oklahoma beats talking about the upcoming Temple game at Lincoln Financial Field:
“It’ll be like coming to a high school game… it’s gonna be like a weird bowl game.”
These guys aren’t wrong, but we’re the only ones allowed to talk shit about Temple’s football attendance, or lack thereof. So these two need to show some respect, because we’ll turn this into bulletin board material the same way Nolan Smith claimed that people were predicting a 7-5 season for the Georgia Bulldogs.
If these jamokes keep talking, Oklahoma might come out of Philly with only a two touchdown win instead of a four touchdown win.
That being said, here’s the truth about Oklahoma fans:
They are some of the nicest and most knowledgeable people out there. Seriously. One of the top three fan bases I’ve been around in 40 years on Earth.
The background is this:
My dad and I used to do this thing where we’d go to one Big 12 road game every year. This was when conference realignment threw everything out of whack and WVU started playing OU, Texas, Iowa State, and all of these schools that were nowhere close. So we figured “when else are we going to be in Oklahoma?” and went out there in 2019 to see Austin Kendall vs. Jalen Hurts while crossing another one off the bucket list.
OU fans were chill, respectful, and welcoming, and knew pretty much everything about both teams. We didn’t run into a single asshole in Norman or Oklahoma City. It probably helped that they absolutely plastered us 52 to 14, so there wasn’t any threat of losing the actual game. We may as well have been The Little Sisters of the Poor. Hurts completed 16 of 17 passes for 316 yards and three touchdowns while running for 75 yards and two more scores on 10 carries. Some guy named “CeeDee Lamb” caught three passes for 71 yards and the game was about as competitive as the Big 5, pre-Kyle Neptune. The highlight of the afternoon may have been the Sooner wagon taking a turn too tight and completely falling over. But during the entire trip, no one said a single douchey thing to us.
Texas fans were the same way when we went out there in 2018. Similar story, with no actual team history and no bad blood. But a lot of them were Cowboys fans and they were super cool, like actual Texas-based Cowboys fans and not the poseur cockroaches we have up here. This was the game where Will Grier walked it off for a 42-41 win in Austin. We exited the stadium surrounded by hundreds of fans and all they did was say “good game” and shake hands. It was jarring how nice they were, almost unnerving in a way.
So yeah, that’s the truth about OU fans. They’re cool as shit! Big 12 country has really nice football fans. And make no mistake, these are not SEC teams. They’re Big 12 teams currently playing in the SEC. If Oklahoma is part of the “Southeastern Conference” then I’ve got beachfront property in Norristown for sale.
Furthermore, I only got two pieces of hatemail from OU fans this week. It’s usually 5-7 from losers out in San Francisco, for instance, who stab each other at burger joints when the Niners lose. These Oklahoma fans, I couldn’t even muster the energy to send a snarky reply. The one guy tried to do a Kensington insult and wrote “Kessington” instead, so you can tell they’re not very good shit talkers to begin with, probably because they don’t do it very often. Unless they’re playing Texas, then maybe both fan bases change, but that’s a guess. We’ll have to get to a Red River game at the Cotton Bowl one of these days.
That being said, hopefully K.C. Keeler’s boys go out there and stomp a mudhole in their Sooner asses. Realistically, however, I’ll say OU wins it 31 to 13. Temple plays tough in the first half and ultimately covers. Hopefully you got the Owls at +24.5 because the public is hammering Temple and has moved the line three full points. Tail me now!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com