Oklahoma, Stoops streak past Cornhuskers, Pelini

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — From the moment Nebraska lined up, Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks knew exactly what was coming.

By the time he and his Sooners teammates were done with their dominating start, the Cornhuskers didn’t know what hit them.

Sam Bradford threw for 311 yards and five touchdowns and No. 4 Oklahoma capitalized on three disastrous Nebraska pass plays in the opening minutes Saturday night to the beat the Huskers, 62-28.

The Sooners scoring outburst was their biggest in the history of the storied rivalry.

“We just really came out firing, really with everybody,” said Sooners coach Bob Stoops. “I thought our guys really were focused in and came out and couldn’t have executed much better in all parts of the game. ... It’s a good way to start a big game.”

The game matched Stoops against his friend, Bo Pelini, who coaches Nebraska. Both are from Youngstown and Cardinal Mooney High.

It was the kind of start that would make Nebraska fans long for the power-running days of the past, and the stars of the Cornhuskers’ “Game of the Century” win in 1971 just happened to be on hand for a reunion.

This game was hardly another classic in a rivalry full of them.

Franks intercepted Joe Ganz’s first pass attempt and returned it 18 yards for a touchdown, and the Huskers (5-4, 2-3 Big 12) also had turnovers on each of their next two passes as the Sooners (8-1, 4-1) raced to a 28-0 lead in the first 51‚Ñ2 minutes.

“I’ve been in a lot of games. I’ve seen it happen,” Pelini said.

“The snowball started rolling on us, and we didn’t do anything to get it stopped.”

Oklahoma had never scored more than 55 points in 83 previous meetings with Nebraska dating back to 1912, but got more than halfway to that total in less than half a quarter.

Chris Brown got it started by capping a seven-play, 53-yard opening drive with a 2-yard touchdown run and only 4 seconds ticked off the clock before Franks, a cornerback, stepped in front of Ganz’s screen pass behind the line of scrimmage and took it in for another score.