By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Columnist
NORMAN — Bob Stoops said moments after winning at Tennessee that his 170th career victory might have been his favorite.
So does Stoops have a least favorite? Of his 45 losses, is there one he qualifies as the worst? And if so, is Saturday’s 24-17 defeat at the hands of a downtrodden, demoralized Texas club near the top of that list?
“They are all on it,” Stoops said Monday, still clearing the smoke from another Red River meltdown.
This one is certainly up there.
In fact, it’s the 15th time in Stoops’ 17 seasons — and fifth time in the last four years — that Oklahoma has lost a game as a double-digit favorite. That’s one-third of his total losses.
Forget Clemsoning. Stoops’ teams have invented Soonering.
Monday, Stoops essentially laid the blame for yet another catastrophe at the hands of his players. After senior captain Ty Darlington said the players came out flat, Stoops said that was on them.
“The bottom line, you talk about it, you show ’em why, you show ’em — we (coaches) did our part,” Stoops said. “We showed ’em a hundred times. We went through the last, two years ago, the Texas game (a 36-20 loss in which OU was a 14-point favorite), where they’re ranked, where we’re ranked, what’s happening. You show it to ’em, you show it to ’em, you show ’em. We even showed 10 minutes of the game, of them beating us. So you can only — they’ve got to choose to be ready to play. I can’t figure out why that would be, that a 20-year-old, a 21-year-old, when you’re only getting to play so many times and you have a rivalry game, they’re not.”
Stoops, however, stubbornly insisted that any in-game adjustments were not needed against Texas, despite the Longhorns having repeated success with what looked like a limited and frequently one-dimensional game plan.
For example, when Texas produced consistent pressure on quarterback Baker Mayfield with both a four-man rush and a blitz of five and sometimes six defenders, Stoops said no additional protection schemes with fullbacks or tight ends would be needed, and none would be coming.
“That changes everything you’re trying to do in the passing game and the spacing of everything. It’s not easy to do in the way we operate,” he said, adding that coordinator Lincoln Riley’s offense would remain set with five blockers up front and four receivers. “Yeah, that’s what we’re doing now. We’re not going to go in at halftime and all of a sudden have a whole new offense. We don’t operate that way.”
Stoops also dug his heels in on a new defensive scheme wherein two defensive linemen are supplemented by four linebackers and five defensive backs. OU ran the setup on 50 of Texas’ 70 offensive plays, and the Longhorns averaged 6.7 yards per carry against it. Against OU’s 3- and 4-man defensive line, Texas averaged just 3.3 yards per carry. (Even discounting an 81-yard run, the ‘Horns gained 4.5 yards per carry against the 2-man front).
This against a Texas offense that failed to surpass 120 passing yards in four of its first five games.
“We felt good about what we were doing in the four and for a good part of the game it worked really well,” Stoops said. “So that’s the other part that you look at, how many series where they don’t get anything.”
Still, it was curious to see a pass defense against a team that doesn’t pass. Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said Saturday that some elements of Texas’ quarterback run game caught him by surprise.
“It hurt us early and we stopped it for a good bit of the game and then it hurt us late,” Bob Stoops said. “That’s the game. We got blocked, someone doesn’t get to the space that they are supposed to — that’s just part of it.”
The Sooners play at Kansas State this week, and it’ll be a tall task. But for now, that’s secondary. Nearly two-thirds of Monday’s news conference went by without one question about the Wildcats. There are too many questions still to answer about everything that went into yet another epic loss.
“I felt we had a good week of practice,” Stoops said. “I felt like we came into the game knowing we needed to play well. Then you get in the game and you’re not, you know, they out-execute you, get charged up and then it appears that way that they’re excited and we’re not.”
NORMAN — Bob Stoops said moments after winning at Tennessee that his 170th career victory might have been his favorite.
So does Stoops have a least favorite? Of his 45 losses, is there one he qualifies as the worst? And if so, is Saturday’s 24-17 defeat at the hands of a downtrodden, demoralized Texas club near the top of that list?
“They are all on it,” Stoops said Monday, still clearing the smoke from another Red River meltdown.
This one is certainly up there.
In fact, it’s the 15th time in Stoops’ 17 seasons — and fifth time in the last four years — that Oklahoma has lost a game as a double-digit favorite. That’s one-third of his total losses.
Forget Clemsoning. Stoops’ teams have invented Soonering.
Monday, Stoops essentially laid the blame for yet another catastrophe at the hands of his players. After senior captain Ty Darlington said the players came out flat, Stoops said that was on them.
“The bottom line, you talk about it, you show ’em why, you show ’em — we (coaches) did our part,” Stoops said. “We showed ’em a hundred times. We went through the last, two years ago, the Texas game (a 36-20 loss in which OU was a 14-point favorite), where they’re ranked, where we’re ranked, what’s happening. You show it to ’em, you show it to ’em, you show ’em. We even showed 10 minutes of the game, of them beating us. So you can only — they’ve got to choose to be ready to play. I can’t figure out why that would be, that a 20-year-old, a 21-year-old, when you’re only getting to play so many times and you have a rivalry game, they’re not.”
Stoops, however, stubbornly insisted that any in-game adjustments were not needed against Texas, despite the Longhorns having repeated success with what looked like a limited and frequently one-dimensional game plan.
For example, when Texas produced consistent pressure on quarterback Baker Mayfield with both a four-man rush and a blitz of five and sometimes six defenders, Stoops said no additional protection schemes with fullbacks or tight ends would be needed, and none would be coming.
“That changes everything you’re trying to do in the passing game and the spacing of everything. It’s not easy to do in the way we operate,” he said, adding that coordinator Lincoln Riley’s offense would remain set with five blockers up front and four receivers. “Yeah, that’s what we’re doing now. We’re not going to go in at halftime and all of a sudden have a whole new offense. We don’t operate that way.”
Stoops also dug his heels in on a new defensive scheme wherein two defensive linemen are supplemented by four linebackers and five defensive backs. OU ran the setup on 50 of Texas’ 70 offensive plays, and the Longhorns averaged 6.7 yards per carry against it. Against OU’s 3- and 4-man defensive line, Texas averaged just 3.3 yards per carry. (Even discounting an 81-yard run, the ‘Horns gained 4.5 yards per carry against the 2-man front).
This against a Texas offense that failed to surpass 120 passing yards in four of its first five games.
“We felt good about what we were doing in the four and for a good part of the game it worked really well,” Stoops said. “So that’s the other part that you look at, how many series where they don’t get anything.”
Still, it was curious to see a pass defense against a team that doesn’t pass. Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said Saturday that some elements of Texas’ quarterback run game caught him by surprise.
“It hurt us early and we stopped it for a good bit of the game and then it hurt us late,” Bob Stoops said. “That’s the game. We got blocked, someone doesn’t get to the space that they are supposed to — that’s just part of it.”
The Sooners play at Kansas State this week, and it’ll be a tall task. But for now, that’s secondary. Nearly two-thirds of Monday’s news conference went by without one question about the Wildcats. There are too many questions still to answer about everything that went into yet another epic loss.
“I felt we had a good week of practice,” Stoops said. “I felt like we came into the game knowing we needed to play well. Then you get in the game and you’re not, you know, they out-execute you, get charged up and then it appears that way that they’re excited and we’re not.”
