Oklahoma football notebook: Notre Dame coach compliments OU football program

The Irish lost five games in each of Kelly's first two campaigns in South Bend, Ind., but Notre Dame is back in the national spotlight with a 7-0 record and No. 5 ranking entering Saturday's game at No. 8 Oklahoma.

Kelly said this week that Bob Stoops' OU program is “where we want to be.”

“It's a great program, a great tradition,” Kelly said. “Coach Stoops is looking to do what we want to do here, and that's build a program on consistency.”

He repeated the sentiment when asked about Stoops' 79-4 home record.

“We want that consistency,” Kelly said. “Year in and year out, you know Oklahoma is going to be part of the conversation. And that's where we want to get our football program.

“We're nowhere near that yet. We think we're moving in the right direction; we're trending the right way. But I think the hallmark of great programs is that consistency, the consistency that we saw here for a number of years that we haven't seen; we want to be able to bring that back.

“That takes time. And that takes a lot of winning. And that's why there's so much pride and tradition in their program as well.”

CRYSTAL BALL COMING TO NORMAN

The BCS national championship trophy didn't bring Oklahoma any good luck the last time it visited Norman — the Sooners' 2011 upset loss to Texas Tech — but the crystal ball is returning to town for this weekend's top-10 clash with Notre Dame.