Swagger Is in the Oklahoma Sooners' DNA

There’s no denying it. 

It’s embedded within the DNA of the Oklahoma football program. 

The "it" being referred to here is road swagger. Sooner fans as of late are more familiar with it being the team's Achilles' heel. 

Too many road game losses over the last few years have kept Oklahoma from making more than their unprecedented four national championship appearances.  

The TTU and Colorado games of 2007 most assuredly kept them out of the title game which would have given them back-to-back title game appearances. 

2006 was the year that Stoops showed Rhett Bomar the door right as the season was about to start. He was forced to move Paul Thompson back from wide receiver to play QB. 

Even still, they were one road loss away from yet another title game appearance. Of course, most Sooner fans don't really consider that one a loss as almost everyone knows that Oklahoma did beat Oregon that day, regardless what the final score indicated.

Despite the recent lack of success in road games, Oklahoma does know what it takes to win out there. 

Barry Switzer's boys didn't play road games. Wherever they played it was their field. It didn't matter what color clothes the fans in the stadium were wearing, or who they were yelling for. 

It was OU's field. 

From the 1971 season through the 1980 season, Oklahoma lost only three road games.  That's three losses in 43 opportunities. 

They did it again from 1984 through 1988, and again from the 2000 season through the 2004 season. Both times suffering only three road losses in those time frames.

There was some meat in those years as well including road wins over the likes of Miami, Alabama, Pittsburgh, Nebraska, and of course everyone (over 30) remembers when Von Schamman taunted the Ohio State student section only seconds before he stepped on the field and delivered a knockout blow to the buckeyes, in their house. 

What he did that day was the very definition of "swagger."

The one disadvantage against a program like that of the Sooners is that wherever they go, they are more than likely the marquee matchup on that opposing team's schedule. 

They go into every town they play with a huge bull's eye on their back.

Who doesn't want a piece of the Sooners?! 

A win over Oklahoma more often than not, legitimizes that program. Just ask Boise State (although that wasn't a road game, the point is the same). 

If Oklahoma has any aspirations of making a return trip to the title game this year, they better reach way back in their history and remember what it took to dominate someone else's facility. 

They better realize that winning on the road is more mental than skill. Oklahoma is better than every team they face on the road this year, so if they drop any of them, Sooner fans will know they don't have their swagger back.

Boomer Sooner Baby!!