Today we take a trip in the YouTube machine back to 1999 during Oklahoma’s first trip back to South Bend since ’66 and the first game with the Irish since 1968. And hey, it’s the first season under then 39-year old head coach Bob Stoops!

Quick aside, this game really was a poor example of highlighting the future of each program. To be fair, the Sooners really were a moribund program in the previous 5 seasons averaging 6.6 losses per year for half a decade. Oklahoma was showing signs of improvement in this 1999 season–they’d win all of their home games, were competitive across the board with everyone despite a 7-5 record, and came into South Bend at a convincing 3-0–but virtually no one saw a National Championship coming the next fall.

As it were, Notre Dame won this game by 4 points and had 12 more first downs, 241 more rushing yards, 329 more total yards, and +2.8 in yards per play differential. The Sooners actually led 30-14 in the 3rd quarter before the Irish rallied for 20 unanswered points.

Rest in peace to Dick Enberg who passed away on December 21st and was the original announcer for Notre Dame football on NBC, calling 4 seasons overall the last coming during this ’99 campaign. He’s truly one of the best.

At 0:29 a shot of Bob Davie on the Stadium Walk carrying a brown briefcase has me in absolute stitches. What does he have in there? Is it so important that he just has to carry it from Mass? Was there no one on the payroll willing to sneak it over to the locker room coach’s office earlier?

At 0:42 that’s my favorite Oklahoma logo, funnily enough dropped by the Sooners as an official mark to start 1996 so it seems NBC didn’t update properly. Oklahoma quietly has a really drab logo.

It’s kind of funny to listen to Enberg and Haden talking briefly in the intro about Oklahoma passing the ball so much relative to their history. Then-junior quarterback Josh Heupel would throw the ball 500 times in ’99 and the Sooners run game was absolute trash, again zero signs pointing to them winning a title the next season. Heupel by the way was hired as Scott Frost’s replacement at UCF and if I can say so has packed on quite a few pounds since his playing days.

At 1:17 I still think the 1998-2000 jersey is the best in school history.

No way that’s a touchdown at 2:04 in today’s game. I’ve re-watched this grainy footage 14 times and he appears down about a yard short. There’s roughly a 20% chance he actually fumbles the ball before it hits the turf, too.

You may be wondering how Oklahoma kept this game close? As you can see early in the video the Sooners took back a kickoff and also benefited from a botched punt leading to a safety. Irish kicker Jim Sanson also missed both of his field goal attempts–imagine his life if that happened in the internet era. Sanson only hit 59.6% of his career attempts, he’d be a dead man walking today. Special teams in general were awful in the game for Notre Dame.

That’s the ugliest looking fade throw at 4:13 from Heupel.

At 4:29 we have a Pirate sighting! As many know, this initial ’99 staff assembled by Stoops was out of this world with blossoming talent. You had Mike Leach in his first year as OU’s offensive coordinator, Mark Mangino as the assistant head coach and OL coach, and Brent Venables as the co-defensive coordinator with Mike Stoops. Perhaps the game’s best defensive coordinator (Venables) this century plus a pair of coaches who would go on to win to-date 172 football games.

In the middle of this video at 5:42 after Heupel throw’s a touchdown pass NBC flashes a graphic that is truly amazing. In just 3.5 games, Huepel broke the Sooners’ school-record for touchdowns in a season. More evidence that really anything pre-late 90’s for most schools was the stone age in most offensive categories, especially passing the football.

As a fellow lefty it pains me to watch Heupel’s stiff legged throwing motion. You can see why he lasted only one off-season in the NFL before hanging up his cleats.

Lastly, Jarious Jackson always looked like DMX to me. Who agrees?