page_title: 2007 Oklahoma Sooners football team
section_title: North Texas
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 Oklahoma Sooners football team / Game summaries / North Texas
caption_attribution_description: The Oklahoma Sooners football team takes on the North Texas Mean Green.
context_page_description: The 2007 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season, the 113th season of Sooner football. The team was led by two-time Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award winner, Bob Stoops, in his ninth season as head coach. They played their homes games at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. They were a charter member of the Big 12 Conference.
  Conference play began with an upset loss to the Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder, Colorado on September 29, and ended with a victory over the Missouri Tigers in the Big 12 Championship Game on December 1. The Sooners finished the regular season with an 11–2 record while winning their fifth Big 12 title and their 41st conference title overall. They received an automatic berth to the Fiesta Bowl, where they lost to the West Virginia Mountaineers, 28–48.
  Following the season, Malcolm Kelly and Curtis Lofton were drafted in the 2nd round of the 2008 NFL Draft, Reggie Smith was selected in the 3rd, and Allen Patrick was chosen in the 7th.
context_section_description: The Sooners opened the season at home against the North Texas Mean Green coached by Todd Dodge. Going into the game, Oklahoma was 8–1 in home openers under Bob Stoops. The last time Oklahoma played North Texas was in 2003, when the Sooners held the Mean Green to 154 yards of total offense in a 37–3 win. At the time, North Texas was affiliated with the Sun Belt Conference in the NCAA Division I FBS. The Sooners were favored to win by a wide margin with most estimates between 38 and 41 points. The official attendance for the game was 84,472, the 50th consecutive sellout and the largest crowd ever to see an opener at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
  Oklahoma scored on their first possession only 32 seconds into the game. By halftime, the Sooners had exceeded the point spread and were up 49–0. Two redshirt freshmen were the stars of the day. Sam Bradford, making his first start as the new quarterback, threw for 350 yards in the first half, the most yards thrown in a half by any Oklahoma quarterback in history. He came out of the game early in the third quarter after throwing for a total of 363 yards, the most ever for a Sooner in his debut game. During this time, he tied Heisman Trophy winner Jason White's record of 18 consecutive pass completions. He finished the day with 23 pass attempts and 21 completions and a passing efficiency rating of 266.92, the second highest ever for a Sooner (behind Jason White). Head coach Bob Stoops felt Bradford "threw the ball fantastic, from the deep balls to some of those quick bubble screens that he put right on the money." DeMarco Murray, another redshirt freshman, also set a school record as he became the first Sooner to score four touchdowns in a half in his first game. He finished the day with five touchdowns.
  The game ended with a final score of 79–10. North Texas's points came on a field goal in the third quarter and a 69-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Giovanni Vizza to Casey Fitzgerald at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Mean Green finished with 15 yards rushing and 232 yards passing. All three of Oklahoma's quarterbacks saw gametime. Joey Halzle followed Bradford in the third quarter and completed four of his five pass attempts. Nichol finished the game, but did not attempt a pass. The Sooners had 668 yards of total offense against North Texas, the 11th-highest in school history to that point, and 403 passing yards, the fifth-highest in school history to that point. Oklahoma's 482 yards in the first half was the third highest for yardage in a half. Coach Stoops did admit being worried about running up the score. He said, "Well, we were telling our guys not to score, if they broke free we were telling them to take a knee or something. Their style of play didn’t really help either. They got on the line and snapped the ball with 20 or so seconds left on the play clock. I’m not criticizing, I’m just saying that the style of play doesn’t help either." Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer agreed: "They had no game plan for losing… Because when you can't win a game, you need to run the clock, don't let it stop, don't throw passes incomplete… get the game over with, get on the bus and go home." Stoops requested a running clock for the fourth quarter, but the request was not granted. North Texas's coach handled the loss well and held no ill-feelings towards to Sooners for the lopsided win. "When you play a great team like that, you always have the chances of obviously this happening," Dodge said. "Give credit where credit is due – a great Oklahoma football team. Um ... Wow! Very, very impressive."
caption: The Sooners line up for the next play with the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band looking on.
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