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Bob Stoops' worst losses?

PryorFan

Sooner starter
Dec 26, 2004
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We've had a thread on Bob Stoops best wins, just curious about what game you think was his worst loss. Which one caused the belly ache and sleepless night? Maybe we should split it up to worst championship loss and non-championship loss.

Championship losses were to LSU, USC and Florida. For me it's hands down the 2005 loss to USC in the Rose Bowl. The 2004 team was probably Bob Stoops best team and yet he brought them into the big stage totally unprepared. OU was the laughingstock of the sports world after the game when before the game it was hailed as the team of the century. Prior to this game Bob Stoops was the top coach in the nation. It was a gut wrencher for sure.

Non-championship loss. This one is tough. The recent home losses to TOSU and Notre Dame were bad as were some of the Texas and Baylor losses. But the game that stuck in my craw the most was the 2014 loss to the Cowgirls when Bob Stoops elected to re-punt to Tyreek Hill despite his assistants telling him to decline the penalty. To me it was a personal low for Bob Stoops at OU. It was after that game that I (as did many,) for the first time, felt that maybe it was time for Bob Stoops to think about retirement. Don't get me wrong, his recent announcement to retire was a shock and major disappointment. I was hoping he would lead the Sooners to another championship before retiring.

Your turn!
 
We've had a thread on Bob Stoops best wins, just curious about what game you think was his worst loss. Which one caused the belly ache and sleepless night? Maybe we should split it up to worst championship loss and non-championship loss.

Championship losses were to LSU, USC and Florida. For me it's hands down the 2005 loss to USC in the Rose Bowl. The 2004 team was probably Bob Stoops best team and yet he brought them into the big stage totally unprepared. OU was the laughingstock of the sports world after the game when before the game it was hailed as the team of the century. Prior to this game Bob Stoops was the top coach in the nation. It was a gut wrencher for sure.

Non-championship loss. This one is tough. The recent home losses to TOSU and Notre Dame were bad as were some of the Texas and Baylor losses. But the game that stuck in my craw the most was the 2014 loss to the Cowgirls when Bob Stoops elected to re-punt to Tyreek Hill despite his assistants telling him to decline the penalty. To me it was a personal low for Bob Stoops at OU. It was after that game that I (as did many,) for the first time, felt that maybe it was time for Bob Stoops to think about retirement. Don't get me wrong, his recent announcement to retire was a shock and major disappointment. I was hoping he would lead the Sooners to another championship before retiring.

Your turn!
I was at the 2005 Orange Bowl game between OU and USC. USC definitely showed up to play. I'm not sure what squad Stoops brought to the game. For me, this has got to be the worst.
 
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I was at the 2005 Orange Bowl game between OU and USC. USC definitely showed up to play. I'm not sure what squad Stoops brought to the game. For me, this has got to be the worst.
A kid I used to coach was a door man at a club in Coral Gables area... He told me "Coach your boys are gonna lose, they cant stay out of the clubs". I went to that game and was not overly shocked.
 
Taco Tech several times. Including the night we had a good free safety (Lynn) playing CB all night while WR's ran by him. Baylor in Norman where Mikey played his corners 10 yards off and they threw 8 yard hitches all day. EVERY loss to Texas.
 
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55-19 loss to USC in the National Championship Game of 2005 (following the 2004 season).
OU lost a championship.
OU was completely and utterly dominated. Game was over at halftime.
OU's players allegedly were asking the USC offensive players to run the ball to get the game over with.
All of which was seen on prime time TV nationwide.
This trumped the 31-6 loss to Arkansas in 1978.
Otherwise, the losses to Texas Tech, the 2007 loss to Colorado blowing a 24-7 lead, O-State in 2001, 2002, 2014, Texas in 2013 (had OU showed up to play this game and won, the Sooners would have defeated Notre Dame, Texas and Alabama in one season), losing to Clemson so badly in 2014 and 2015. Finally, the losses to LSU and Florida in the other championship games.
 
55-19 loss to USC in the National Championship Game of 2005 (following the 2004 season).
OU lost a championship.
OU was completely and utterly dominated. Game was over at halftime.
OU's players allegedly were asking the USC offensive players to run the ball to get the game over with.
All of which was seen on prime time TV nationwide.
I don't care what anyone says, the USC loss was the most embarrassing loss of the Stoops era. That game effectively ended the nickname "Big Game Bob". That was one of, if not THE best team of the Stoops era, and they got absolutely humiliated by USC in the game on national TV.

And ya..the Boise State debacle is a very close 2nd. What an embarrassment and disservice to all of college football to show up and let that team stick around the entire game and whip you at the end with gimmick plays.
 
2001 - OSU, 16-13, at home, ranked #3 in the AP poll, with a likely berth in the BCS title game if we win this game and the Big Twelve title. We lost to a 4-7 OSU.

2007 - Texas Tech or Colorado, both on the road. Win either of those two games and we're playing Ohio State for the National Championship instead of two-loss LSU.

2012 - Texas A&M 41-13 in the Cotton Bowl. Just embarrassing. Johnny Manziel runs roughshod over us.

2013 - Texas 36-20, to a Mack Brown team that had been blown out by BYU and others.

2014 - Clemson 40-6. Probably the most one-sided game under Stoops. To a backup QB to boot.

2015 - Texas 24-17. Any time you lose to a 5-7 team, it sucks. Especially when that team is Texas.
 
2001 - OSU, 16-13, at home, ranked #3 in the AP poll, with a likely berth in the BCS title game if we win this game and the Big Twelve title. We lost to a 4-7 OSU.

2007 - Texas Tech or Colorado, both on the road. Win either of those two games and we're playing Ohio State for the National Championship instead of two-loss LSU.

2012 - Texas A&M 41-13 in the Cotton Bowl. Just embarrassing. Johnny Manziel runs roughshod over us.

2013 - Texas 36-20, to a Mack Brown team that had been blown out by BYU and others.

2014 - Clemson 40-6. Probably the most one-sided game under Stoops. To a backup QB to boot.

2015 - Texas 24-17. Any time you lose to a 5-7 team, it sucks. Especially when that team is Texas.
This is the clear cut, hands down #1 for me. OSU's other wins that year:

La. Tech
Northwestern State (LA)
Baylor

To be lumped in with that group, especially with a great shot at the conference title (& thusly a trip to the NCG) is easily the most unacceptable loss of the games mentioned thus far to me.
 
We've had a thread on Bob Stoops best wins, just curious about what game you think was his worst loss. Which one caused the belly ache and sleepless night? Maybe we should split it up to worst championship loss and non-championship loss.

Championship losses were to LSU, USC and Florida. For me it's hands down the 2005 loss to USC in the Rose Bowl. The 2004 team was probably Bob Stoops best team and yet he brought them into the big stage totally unprepared. OU was the laughingstock of the sports world after the game when before the game it was hailed as the team of the century. Prior to this game Bob Stoops was the top coach in the nation. It was a gut wrencher for sure.

Non-championship loss. This one is tough. The recent home losses to TOSU and Notre Dame were bad as were some of the Texas and Baylor losses. But the game that stuck in my craw the most was the 2014 loss to the Cowgirls when Bob Stoops elected to re-punt to Tyreek Hill despite his assistants telling him to decline the penalty. To me it was a personal low for Bob Stoops at OU. It was after that game that I (as did many,) for the first time, felt that maybe it was time for Bob Stoops to think about retirement. Don't get me wrong, his recent announcement to retire was a shock and major disappointment. I was hoping he would lead the Sooners to another championship before retiring.

Your turn!
Stoops is gone. Only the future matters.
 
Only showing up for one quarter to take a sure win & hand it right back to Boise frikken State, seen over & over to this day has to be included
This was a damn embarrassing loss but at the same time I still have a hard time believing we made it to a BCS bowl game that year considering our QB situation going into the year. The West Virginia bowl game loss was bad considering everyone was picking us to win IIRC. The Houston beatdown last year was pretty embarrassing. The USC game is probably the worst but how about the A&M bowl game beatdown from Manziel, we looked lost. The Clemson debacles. Stoops won a bunch of games but we sure have a handful of memorable beatdowns too. I guess it happens to every team to some extent.
 
I was at the 2005 Orange Bowl game between OU and USC. USC definitely showed up to play. I'm not sure what squad Stoops brought to the game. For me, this has got to be the worst.

Nothing in the history of the program rivals the USC debacle: It was a nationally televised NC game (my gawd, I left an OU NC game in the 3rd quarter - that's how bad it was). Anyone griping about Boise is clueless - miracle we made it there in the first place after converting Thompson back to QB a week before game 1 and HC Petersen is considered a top coach.

The primary reason we got creamed vs. USC was our corners - both Perkins and Walker (who came back from missing several games for the NC) were gimped by injuries (and neither even ran good pro 40 times months later). Pool had a bad day at FS as well, but Mikey had no scheme (stay deep Pool!) for stopping Leinart from going over the top to Jarrett, again and again again. If its any consolation, we actually gave up fewer yards than UT did the next year, but their VY O was better, which leads us to...

Offensively we simply ran into the best D in college football that year. USC was particularly stout in their front 7 (AD was just shy of 100 yards I think for the game) , with stud DTs (Cody and Patterson) and MLB (Tatupu) all gone in 2005 to the NFL, so UT faced a USC D gutted up the middle.

Ultimately it was Mike's "Bobby Proctor-esque" air defense scheme - featuring gimped CBs - that did us in.
 
Nothing in the history of the program rivals the USC debacle: It was a nationally televised NC game (my gawd, I left an OU NC game in the 3rd quarter - that's how bad it was). Anyone griping about Boise is clueless - miracle we made it there in the first place after converting Thompson back to QB a week before game 1 and HC Petersen is considered a top coach.

The primary reason we got creamed vs. USC was our corners - both Perkins and Walker (who came back from missing several games for the NC) were gimped by injuries (and neither even ran good pro 40 times months later). Pool had a bad day at FS as well, but Mikey had no scheme (stay deep Pool!) for stopping Leinart from going over the top to Jarrett, again and again again. If its any consolation, we actually gave up fewer yards than UT did the next year, but their VY O was better, which leads us to...

Offensively we simply ran into the best D in college football that year. USC was particularly stout in their front 7 (AD was just shy of 100 yards I think for the game) , with stud DTs (Cody and Patterson) and MLB (Tatupu) all gone in 2005 to the NFL, so UT faced a USC D gutted up the middle.

Ultimately it was Mike's "Bobby Proctor-esque" air defense scheme - featuring gimped CBs - that did us in.
I agree with everything you posted, but Mikey was already the HC at Arizona when this game was played. It was all on BrentV that night.
 
Nothing in the history of the program rivals the USC debacle: It was a nationally televised NC game (my gawd, I left an OU NC game in the 3rd quarter - that's how bad it was). Anyone griping about Boise is clueless - miracle we made it there in the first place after converting Thompson back to QB a week before game 1 and HC Petersen is considered a top coach.

The primary reason we got creamed vs. USC was our corners - both Perkins and Walker (who came back from missing several games for the NC) were gimped by injuries (and neither even ran good pro 40 times months later). Pool had a bad day at FS as well, but Mikey had no scheme (stay deep Pool!) for stopping Leinart from going over the top to Jarrett, again and again again. If its any consolation, we actually gave up fewer yards than UT did the next year, but their VY O was better, which leads us to...

Offensively we simply ran into the best D in college football that year. USC was particularly stout in their front 7 (AD was just shy of 100 yards I think for the game) , with stud DTs (Cody and Patterson) and MLB (Tatupu) all gone in 2005 to the NFL, so UT faced a USC D gutted up the middle.

Ultimately it was Mike's "Bobby Proctor-esque" air defense scheme - featuring gimped CBs - that did us in.
I'd also add that our DL took a big step towards being average when Dusty got the boot. There just wasn't another DT who demanded that double team. I started having really bad feelings about that possible matchup with USC when both A&M & OSU were bombing us silly & I got to thinking what Leinart & that offense would do if we didn't somehow get some heat on him. Wish I'd been wrong.
 
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For a regular season game I cannot think of a worse loss than the 2011 game in Norman vs. Texas Tech,
OU was undefeated 6-0. We had beaten Florida State in Talahassee 23-13 with a late Kenny Stills TD.
We had Stomped Texas in the RRR 55-17.
I think we were ranked #1 or #2 in the polls
Then on a rainy night a very poor TT team came to Norman I believe we were about a 40 point favorite
The game was delayed in the middle of the game by lightening
So what happened.
Texas Tech in Norman shocked the football world beating us 41-38.

Teas Tech got stomped in their remaining 5 or 6 games

To me this by far was our worse regular season loss

#2 was our home loss to OSU when Bob decided to repunt to the fastest player in college football that year Tyreek Hill. OU was ahead by 7 points with only one minute left in the game and OSU had no time outs. If Bob had not elected to punt again, OSU would have had the ball on their own 20 yard line with 80 yards to go with only the 1 minute left in the game.

The OSU game had to be Bob's worse brain fart in his 18 years at OU electing to punt the ball again especilly to Tyreek Hill.

I was at that game and I can still picture Tyreek Hill running back the punt for over 80 yards for the tying TD, OSU won the game in overtime.
 
Bull, ya that Texas Tech loss was pretty bad. It's right up there near the top of the worst regular season losses. Getting absolutely raped by OSU later in that same year is right there with it.

But for me, the worst regular season loss was losing to BYU in the season opener in 2009. OU was a Top 5 team and expected to make another run for a national title. Bradford had come back and highly looked at to make a 2nd Heisman run. I think the double gut punch of losing to BYU AND losing Bradford just completely derailed the entire season before it really ever got going. I was at that game and I don't think I have ever left an OU game with such an deflated feeling. A season that started with the makings of making a natty title run, ended up being a 5 loss season. That outcome was determined that night against BYU. I was at the TCU loss in 2005 and even that wasn't as bad a feeling as the BYU game.
 
Bull, ya that Texas Tech loss was pretty bad. It's right up there near the top of the worst regular season losses. Getting absolutely raped by OSU later in that same year is right there with it.

But for me, the worst regular season loss was losing to BYU in the season opener in 2009. OU was a Top 5 team and expected to make another run for a national title. Bradford had come back and highly looked at to make a 2nd Heisman run. I think the double gut punch of losing to BYU AND losing Bradford just completely derailed the entire season before it really ever got going. I was at that game and I don't think I have ever left an OU game with such an deflated feeling. A season that started with the makings of making a natty title run, ended up being a 5 loss season. That outcome was determined that night against BYU. I was at the TCU loss in 2005 and even that wasn't as bad a feeling as the BYU game.
2009 was a lost season with OU suffering 15 significant injuries...Bradford, Gresham, Broyles, Simmons, Murray, Wort, English and others. After losing to BYU and with the injuries, OU's chances of any championship run was gone quickly. But OU finished with a win over OSU and a bowl win over Stanford.
The 2011 loss to Texas Tech was not the worst loss when you consider OU lost to Baylor and OSU later on, but it was perhaps the most surprising loss in the Stoops era. Tech was awful that year and never won another game afterwards.
 
2009 was a lost season with OU suffering 15 significant injuries...Bradford, Gresham, Broyles, Simmons, Murray, Wort, English and others. After losing to BYU and with the injuries, OU's chances of any championship run was gone quickly. But OU finished with a win over OSU and a bowl win over Stanford.
The 2011 loss to Texas Tech was not the worst loss when you consider OU lost to Baylor and OSU later on, but it was perhaps the most surprising loss in the Stoops era. Tech was awful that year and never won another game afterwards.
Ya that's true. 2009 was gonna be a tanked year no matter with how injuries turned out the rest of the season. But BYU alone and Bradford going down just was as big a gut punch as I've ever felt after an OU game.

And I agree the TTech loss in 2011 was probably the most surprising. I wouldn't necessarily use the opponents quality or record in determining how bad of a loss it is for OU. Just like I think THE SINGLE most horrific loss of Bob Stoops career was the USC game. And USC was the best team in the country that year.
 
Ya that's true. 2009 was gonna be a tanked year no matter with how injuries turned out the rest of the season. But BYU alone and Bradford going down just was as big a gut punch as I've ever felt after an OU game.

And I agree the TTech loss in 2011 was probably the most surprising. I wouldn't necessarily use the opponents quality or record in determining how bad of a loss it is for OU. Just like I think THE SINGLE most horrific loss of Bob Stoops career was the USC game. And USC was the best team in the country that year.
Agree. And the inability to stop BYU from going the distance late in the game, with OU up 13-7, was painful to watch. As BYU entered the red zone, I knew they would score.
Then there were the Miami (20-21), Texas (13-16) and Nebraska (3-10) losses. Think a healthy OU team would have lost those games ?
 
Agree. And the inability to stop BYU from going the distance late in the game, with OU up 13-7, was painful to watch. As BYU entered the red zone, I knew they would score.
Then there were the Miami (20-21), Texas (13-16) and Nebraska (3-10) losses. Think a healthy OU team would have lost those games ?
Losing those close games that season was just brutal. Heck, even have a healthy Bradford and I think that adds a few points to each game to pull out the wins. That season overall I think was Bob's most disappointing of his career. And it was pretty much all out of his control that season. Injuries were just unbelievable. I don't care how good a program recruits, there is no way ANY program is deep enough to absorb that many injuries and not have it derail their season.
 
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2009 was a lost season with OU suffering 15 significant injuries...Bradford, Gresham, Broyles, Simmons, Murray, Wort, English and others. After losing to BYU and with the injuries, OU's chances of any championship run was gone quickly. But OU finished with a win over OSU and a bowl win over Stanford.
The 2011 loss to Texas Tech was not the worst loss when you consider OU lost to Baylor and OSU later on, but it was perhaps the most surprising loss in the Stoops era. Tech was awful that year and never won another game afterwards.

Yes CTOkie it was probably the most surprising loss of the Stoops era,
The 2011 Sooners got off to a great start. The nation was talking for months about our game vs. FSU at their home. It was #1 vs. #5 in very hostile environment and OU won.
Then we stomped Texas.
Yes in 2011 we lost to Baylor & eventual Heisman winner RG lll. on a TD pass near the end of the game. Then we lose badly to an Okie State team who in 2011 could have been in the National Championship game except for an OT loss to Iowa State.

So here in 2011 we were 6-0 ranked in the top 5 and we were a 40 point favorite over a pitiful TT team with the game in Norman.

I still rank this as the worse loss in the Bob Stoops era in the regular season .
 
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I'm not disputing the sequence of events but didn't the weather delay come before the game and not during ? Too many peeps reading their pressers in the long wait perhaps ?
Maybe the most unexpected loss but the worst one has to remain the loss against the cheating bastages of Carroll & Reggie Bush $c
 
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I'm not disputing the sequence of events but didn't the weather delay come before the game and not during ? Too many peeps reading their pressers in the long wait perhaps ?
Maybe the most unexpected loss but the worst one has to remain the loss against the cheating bastages of Carroll & Reggie Bush $c

I agree that was the worse loss. But the worse loss for a regular season game was TT in 2011 when we were a 40 point favorite
 
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