Not that he could remember.

How about 2000?

“That group really had just something to prove,” he said, “I don’t know, maybe this group feels the same way.”

I don’t have the first clue how to decipher that exactly, I just know the head coach sees some kind of parallel. And that 2000 team did all right.

Next in line, defensive end Alonzo Dotson.

He said the players spend so much time together. They stay in town for summer conditioning, for voluntary workouts, for everything being a Sooner football player requires. It’s no wonder they grow close. But that could apply to every team, and Dotson’s been around.

Is this team different?

“It is a special team and we do seem to hold each other more accountable for the things we do on the field and off the field,” he said. “The way we prepare for games, trying to do every little thing we can do right, so we can go further and reach the goal. That’s why we break it down into little things like focus and no turnovers and the simple things … A lot of teams don’t focus on the little things.”

Maybe any player would say that about any team. But maybe not. Maybe not every team breaks it down.

Last in line, defensive back Nic Harris.

According to Harris, this is just what they do.

Ahead by 50, they play like they’re behind.

“We just have that undivided focus,” he said.

It’s like Harris had memorized his answer, like Alec Baldwin in Glengary Glen Ross. No four letter words, but straight ahead, no nonsense

“We just try to be perfect. And anything less than perfect is unacceptable.”