For Oklahoma, 'Championship November' is a New Season

When the calendar turns to November, something changes in Norman.

The Oklahoma Sooners, now ranked No. 8 after getting dinged by the College Football Playoff committee in their initial rankings, have entered a month so special they gave it its own name.

Championship November.

OU hasn’t lost in November since 2014, and they’ll need to continue that streak this year if they hope to make the College Football Playoff.

Lying ahead for the Sooners are trips to No. 12 Baylor and No. 11 Oklahoma State, with a home date with the Iowa State Cyclones in-between.

The late season success has boiled down to one thing, safety Delarrin Turner-Yell said. The need to finish.

“We're just big on finishing,” Turner-Yell said during a Zoom press conference on Wednesday. “We have an understanding that in order to get in those games that everyone loves to play in at the end of the season, that you have to win in November, because that is when those decisions are made.”

But this November will be different.

Every year since 2005, Oklahoma has entered the final month of the season with a loss. In the College Football Playoff era, the Sooners have had to earn back the respect of the playoff committee, and give them a reason to select the Sooners as one of the best four teams in the country.

This year, OU is 9-0.

And yet, the committee still has put little stock in their resumé to date.

The Sooners could win out in unconvincing fashion and still likely make the playoff. But if player reactions to the rankings on Twitter are any indication, Oklahoma feels slighted.

While sophomore corner D.J. Graham said on Wednesday he’s not concerned with the rankings, he still stressed the team’s need to finish strong.

“It's Championship November and the whole team knows that,” Graham said. “The whole staff knows that. Everybody knows that. And even coming in, it's preached that the second half of the season, that's our season.

“Like that's our time to shine and that's when we really make our strides and we become more tight knit and we become pretty much a completely different team.”

Even the off week isn’t deterring Oklahoma, as Graham said the team has done a nice job of balancing the need to rest up versus keeping the practices intense and improving as a group.

“Coach (Lincoln) Riley preaches all week that a bye week is not an off week,” Graham said. “We’re still working and we’re preparing like we have a game on Saturday.”

Whether the Sooners again can navigate their November slate remains to be seen. But their track record says it’s more than likely that Oklahoma will find it within themselves to play their best football this month, whether they escape undefeated or not.

“We make it a big deal to play our best ball in the month of November,” Turner-Yell said. “I haven't had to experience a loss in November here, and I just hope to keep the streak going without losing.”

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