1975 Oklahoma Sooners football team The 1975 Oklahoma Sooners football team represented the University of Oklahoma in the college football season of 1975 - 1976 . The team was helmed by Barry Switzer in his third season as head coach . After sailing through their first eight games , Oklahoma suffered a surprising home loss to Kansas , which snapped a 28 – game winning streak . With only two regular season games and a bowl trip left , any hopes for a repeat national championship looked slim . OU defeated Missouri , 28 – 27 , in Columbia before coming home to defeat second - ranked Nebraska , 35 – 10 to take the Big 8 Conference title . With the conference title in tow , the No . 3 – ranked Sooners , in their first bowl game under Switzer , headed to the Orange Bowl to meet Michigan . OU prevailed in that game with a 14 – 6 victory and got pushed to the top spot in the polls when both # 1 Ohio State and # 2 Texas A & M suffered defeats in their bowl games . Oklahoma won its 27th conference and fifth national championship . Season recap . Oklahoma had won the AP National Title in 1974 and began the year by thrashing Oregon 62 - 7 in Norman . OU played host to a Johnny Majors coached # 15 Pittsburgh squad , sporting junior running back sensation Tony Dorsett ( only a year away from the Heisman trophy and the collegiate rushing record ) , and they dominated , outscoring the Panthers 46 – 10 . But a trip to unranked Miami was nearly fatal . The Sooners scored all 20 of their points in the second quarter and finished with just 163 rushing yards and 176 total , barely surviving a ten – point Hurricanes ' fourth quarter en route to a 20 – 17 victory . That win was not enough to knock the Sooners to the second spot in the polls , but a one - point win over Colorado the following week was . Against the Buffaloes , the vaunted Sooner wishbone offense looked abysmal , and they surrendered a 14 – point lead in the second half . A botched CU extra point in the final 79 seconds proved the difference . Ohio State took over the number one ranking . The Sooners , despite the close calls , came into Dallas atop a 24 – game winning streak and a 33 - game unbeaten streak and ranked # 2 in the country . Red River Shootout . Texas came into Dallas with a bona fide superstar in 225 – pound sophomore fullback Earl Campbell . The fearsome runner had trampled everything in his path en route to 508 yards ( 8 . 1 ypc ) , including 198 yards against Washington . Behind the young Campbell , the Longhorns were leading the nation in rushing , total offense and scoring , averaging 44 points per game . The Sooners had a leader in Steve Davis , an ordained minister that could run and pass . The halfbacks , Joe Washington and Horace Ivory were speedy and elusive . The receiving corps , paced by Senior Billy Brooks , was among the best of the wishbone era at OU . Of course , the greatest asset to the Sooners was not on offense . The 1975 OU defense was among the very best in a storied history , led by Lee Roy Selmon , who would go on to win both the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award as the nation ' s best lineman . It was the Sooner defense that made the Longhorns lose a fifth straight Red River Shootout . Neither offense exploded with big plays , both scoring hard fought points in the red zone . The game was best characterized by the hard hitting from both sides , which led to a considerable number of turnovers . The Longhorns fumbled the ball four times and gave away an interception . The Sooners lost two fumbles . The Sooner defense proved its mettle against the powerful Campbell , holding him to 95 yards on 23 carries . Although he was the game ' s leading ball carrier , he also marked the 21st straight time that a team failed to have a 100 – yard rusher against the Sooners . The Sooners prevailed 24 – 17 . Iowa State . November nightmare . After thrashing Kansas State , Iowa State , and Oklahoma State by a combined score of 91 – 17 , the Sooners returned home . Inexplicably , a team that had run roughshod over equivalent teams , managed to suffer a 23 – 3 loss to unranked Kansas , a team that came into Norman with a 5 – 4 record . The Sooners were caught flat and were upset by the Jayhawks , knocking them from the # 2 spot in the polls down to # 7 . In Columbia against # 18 Missouri the following week , they needed a 71 – yard touchdown run from Joe Washington on a critical fourth and one , a Washington run for a successful two – point conversion , and two missed field goal attempts by the Tigers in the final two minutes to eke out a 28 – 27 win . The struggles took their toll , and OU found themselves down another spot in the poll heading into the annual showdown against Nebraska . The defending national champs were reeling and in search of an identity . No game could have had nearly as much on the line as the final regular season game for the Big 8 Championship . Nebraska . Nebraska began 1975 mostly under the radar , but they were riding a 10 - 0 record and sporting one of the best passing quarterbacks in the nation in Vince Ferragamo , who had transferred a season before from California . He had completed 66 of 109 passes for 1 , 007 yards and 12 touchdowns , against only two interceptions . The Huskers had stepped into the # 2 spot in the polls that the Sooners had vacated in their loss to Kansas . The Cornhusker offense was balanced , averaging 265 . 6 yards rushing and 156 . 7 yards passing per game , and was among the nation ' s leaders in scoring , averaging 34 . 3 points per game . The Nebraska defense was allowing only 8 . 5 points per game . They had posted four shutouts , including their last two opponents to run their string to ten consecutive scoreless quarters . The Black Shirt D had held the same Jayhawks team that had upset OU earlier in the season to only 177 yards of total offense . The Big Eight title , as usual , was on the line in 1975 . The winner would play in the Orange Bowl with a possible shot at a national championship . Oklahoma , realizing all that was on the line , had worked with Fiesta Bowl officials for a potential bid in Tempe if they lost to the Cornhuskers . Nebraska had shunned the Fiesta officials , possibly shutting themselves out of the bowls in the event of a loss . Ultimately , the Sooners came out of Norman with the conference title and the shot at a national title in the Orange Bowl , and it turned out to not even be close . Three turnovers in the fourth quarter had ended the Huskers ' chances . Oklahoma scored on all three to make it five touchdowns from six Nebraska turnovers . The Sooners came away with a convincing and incredible 25 - point victory over the second - ranked team in the land . Once again , it was the Oklahoma defense that made the big plays when they needed to and controlled the Nebraska offense , limiting them to 245 total yards , only 70 on the ground . Ferragamo , who came into the game with high expectations , had completed 13 of his 25 passes for 146 yards . His four turnovers , however , had spoiled the game for Nebraska , and Oklahoma was on its way to face Michigan in the 1976 Orange Bowl . 1976 Orange Bowl . UCLA upset top – ranked Ohio State earlier in the day , and Oklahoma knew that it had a chance for a national title in Barry Switzer ' s first bowl game as a head coach . It wouldn ' t be easy . The Wolverines were a punishing team , and made the Sooners know it early . In the end , a 39 – yard end around by Billy Brooks and a nine – yard keeper by Steve Davis were enough for a 14 – 6 victory and a fifth national championship .