The OU football team defeated its rival Baker University 24-14 Saturday.
Head coach Kent Kessinger said the game was an important start for the season.
“The crowd and atmosphere was amazing,” he said.
Adam Henn, a sophomore wide receiver, also said the crowd was great.
“It felt like a playoff game with all the people around the track and all the students in the end zone,” he said. “You don’t get many chances to play in front of that many people.”
OU hasn’t beaten Baker since 1978.
Kessinger said that Baker is fast on the field and a good football team.
“If you want to be the best, you have to play the best,” he said.
Clarence Anderson, junior wide receiver, said he thinks the win is great for the team as well as the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference. Baker is a member of the Heart of America Athletic Conference.
Kessinger said he feels their offensive game wasn’t yet at its best.
“I don’t think we were playing on all cylinders,” he said.
However, Kessinger did say that there were no offensive penalties, and only four defensive penalties.
“That’s amazing for a first game.”
Anderson felt that his performance was average during the first half of the game.
“After the defensive players showing us that they had our back, and after coach getting on me a little bit I think I picked it up in the second half,” he said.
Out of the four defensive penalties, the team was aggressive in areas where Kessinger said they may need to tone it down.
“You can’t really fault a defensive player for being aggressive,” he said. “That’s what they’re paid to do.”
Henn said the win is important to the rest of the season.
“We’ve played a really good one at the beginning of the year,” he said. “So we know we can play with anyone.”
Anderson said the most important thing to him was reclaiming against Baker for the rivalry.
“A lot of us didn’t understand how big of a rivalry this was,” he said. “All week they had people come in and tell us about it.”
Henn said that winning the game feels great from the rivalry perspective as well, from the excitement of the coaches to community involvement.
“It was a long time the last time we beat them,” he said.
The next game is an away game at 7 p.m., September 11 against Bethel College.