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Quarterback Jamelle Holieway led the Sooners to an 11-1 record in 1986.
Barry Switzer’s 1986 football squad was one of the best he had ever coached. An early setback, at Miami, on the third weekend of the season was the only thing to keep this team from their second consecutive national championship after the Sooners had already won it all in 1985.
The `86 team ripped through the Big 8 with a 7-0 record and won their games by an average score of 50-6. Minnesota (63-0), Oklahoma State (19-0), Iowa State (38-0), Missouri (77-0), and Colorado (28-0) were all shutout victims of an Oklahoma defense that led the nation in all four major defensive categories (total, rushing, passing, and scoring).
Champions of the Big 8, the Sooners capped off their season with a 42-8 thrashing of #9 Arkansas on January 1st 1987, in the Orange Bowl. With a little more than 52,000 fans watching on, Oklahoma scored 14 points in each of the final three quarters of the game to take the win and finish the year with the #3 national ranking.