Norman, Okla. ? When Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and his players look back on their struggles away from home this season, they’re not thinking about the weakness it might portray to poll voters who’ll have a major say in whether they play for the national championship.

Instead, the No. 2 Sooners (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) are chalking up the narrow victories — each by 10 points or less — as valuable experience they never had the chance to gain in a dominant regular season last year.

Through second-half comebacks at Kansas State and Texas A&M and a 3-point win against Oklahoma State, the Sooners feel they’re much more battle-tested than they were a year ago.

Back then, Oklahoma was an obvious No. 1 pick. Jason White and Co. had stormed through the regular season winning their games by an average margin of five touchdowns.

Then, for the first time, adversity struck.

Kansas State pulled ahead of the Sooners in the Big 12 championship game, and a startled Oklahoma squad didn’t have an answer. When LSU gave the Sooners another tough test, the result was another Oklahoma defeat.

“We never was in that situation last year until the last few games, and in the last few games we all know that we didn’t respond to adversity at all,” White said.

Offensive coordinator Chuck Long said Oklahoma’s coaches had wondered during the regular season how their team would respond if adversity struck.

“We didn’t know that answer until it was too late,” Long said.

On Saturday against Texas A&M, the Sooners trailed by 14 points on three separate occasions in a stadium with a crowd White described as the loudest he’d ever experienced. But as they did against Kansas State three weeks earlier, the Sooners had an answer and came away with the victory.

“This year, as an offense, we’ve had tight games,” White said. “We’ve had games where we’ve been down and we needed to come back, and we’ve done it.”

Against A&M, the Sooners also had to combat two momentum-building trick plays — a fake punt and a fake field goal — that both went for touchdowns and deal with the loss of talented tailback Adrian Peterson on the drive that ended up being the game-winner.

“We’ve been through a lot, and I feel like we can handle whatever football has to throw at us,” defensive tackle Lynn McGruder said. “We’re ready for it now.”