Ohio State and Oklahoma are ready for rematch

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield clearly recalls the blowout when Ohio State visited Norman a year ago. The young Buckeyes dominated, quieting the home crowd in a 45-24 thumping of the Sooners.

Oklahoma didn’t lose a game after that, reeling off 11 straight victories, and tonight the No. 5 Sooners (1-0) visit Columbus to face No. 2 Ohio State (1-0). While Mayfield and his teammates downplay the revenge factor, they haven’t forgotten the humiliation of last year’s meeting, including the “embarrassing” spectacle of Buckeyes players singing the Ohio State school song on the Sooners’ turf.

“Everybody who was here for last year’s huge loss definitely remembers that,” Mayfield said.

Mayfield, who threw two interceptions, accepted much of the blame.

“I think it was a huge learning curve for me, losing that game and watching the film and realizing I didn’t play well at all,” he said. “Yeah, we had some good plays and we wound up scoring 20-plus points on a good team. But obviously we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, and a huge part of that was on me.”

Offensive tackle Orlando Brown said the Sooners are trying to keep the focus on this year’s game, but the distasteful memory lingers.

“As far as last year, there are certain things that do stick with us,” he said. “But right now, we’re really focused on this year’s record and doing what we have to do to go win every week and go undefeated, if that’s possible.”

Offensively, Oklahoma is not the same team, despite the rock-solid presence of Mayfield and Brown. Gone are Joe Mixon and Samaje Perrine — who both topped the 1,000-yard rushing mark last season — as is Mayfield’s favorite target, Dede Westbrook, who accounted for 1,524 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns last year.

Abdul Adams leads a group of young running backs who will try to pick up the slack, and tight end Mark Andrews hauled in seven passes for 134 yards and a touchdown in a 56-7 win against UTEP last week. He’s going to catch a ton of Mayfield passes this year.

On Ohio State’s side, quarterback J.T. Barrett’s top three receivers in last year’s game against Oklahoma have moved on, including Noah Brown, who had four touchdown catches against the Sooners.