TCU Horned Frogs

Oklahoma vs. TCU: Six Story Lines to Keep in Mind

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Four games into the 2016 college football season, and the Oklahoma Sooners will have already gone toe to toe against three nationally ranked teams. This Saturday it is Oklahoma vs. TCU in a matchup of two Big 12 title contenders.

Oct 4, 2014; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners running back Semaje Perine (32) scores a touchdown in the second quarter against the TCU Horned Frogs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

The reigning Big 12 champion Sooners, who were projected to repeat in the conference’s annual preseason media poll, are on wobbly legs at the moment after incurring knockout punches from a couple of teams currently ranked among the nation’s top 10 teams.

Oklahoma begins Big 12 play on Saturday on the road at TCU, which lies in wait hoping to deliver yet another knockout blow to a team that just a few weeks ago was considered one of the favorites to lock down one of the four spots in this year’s College Football Playoff.

Here are five intriguing story lines to ponder in the week-long buildup to this highly anticipated confrontation between the Sooners and the Horned Frogs:

Perhaps the biggest story line, though, surrounding the Sooners’ game at TCU on Saturday is the fact that you have to go back 51 seasons and eight head coaches to the last time Oklahoma went 1-3 to start a season. In 1965, the Sooners under Gomer Jones went 0-3 to begin the season, losing to Pittsburgh, Navy and Texas before posting their first win, 21-7 over Kansas. Oklahoma finished the season with a 3-7 overall record.

Oklahoma was 0-4 to start the 1996 season, the first under head coach John Blake and the first year of the Big 12 Conference. The Sooners got their first win that year in their fifth game, a 30-27 win over archrival Texas. Oklahoma finished 3-8 that season, with two of its three wins over its biggest rivals: Texas and Oklahoma State.