OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL: The Past, The Present, and The Future

[ClintA.Adams]

** NOTICE 1 **: Due to time constraints, I had to greatly shorten this message board post by approximately 87%.

** NOTICE 2 **: Due to time constraints, no proof reading or proper formatting was done.

** NOTICE 3 **: I have issues.

___________________________________________________________________

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL: THE PAST (The Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley era)
___________________________________________________________________

Oklahoma is a great football program. A football program that has been a proven winner across multiple decades and across multiple head coaches with several national titles,
several conference titles, several Heisman Trophy winners, and several all-Americans.

However, while Oklahoma is a national championship football program, the Oklahoma football teams have been failing the program for many years now.
Oklahoma hasn't won a national title since 2000 and last played for a national title in 2008. Of course, Oklahoma put themselves in a position to
compete for the national title in the 2003 national title game as well and then in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 by simply appearing in the college football
playoffs, which puts Oklahoma in 4th place in most playoff appearances behind Ohio St. (5), Clemson (6), and Alabama (7).

To put the Oklahoma teams failings in perspective over the past several years, here are the college football national champions since the 2001 season and beyond:

2001 Miami (Fla.)
2002 Ohio State
2003 LSU
2004 Southern California
2005 Texas
2006 Florida
2007 LSU (despite 2 losses)
2008 Florida
2009 Alabama
2010 Auburn
2011 Alabama
2012 Alabama
2013 Florida State
2014 Ohio State
2015 Alabama
2016 Clemson
2017 Alabama
2018 Clemson
2019 LSU
2020 Alabama
2021 Georgia
2022 Georgia

11 different programs have won national titles since Oklahoma last won a national title. To make matters worse, 6 programs have won 2 or more national titles and
2 programs have won back to back national titles in both Alabama and Georgia since Oklahoma last won a national title.

Multiple college football national champions since Oklahoma last won a national title:

Alabama: 6
LSU: 3
Ohio St.: 2
Clemson: 2
Georgia: 2
Florida: 2


Based on the above statistics, it is quite clear that the Oklahoma football teams for the past several years have been failing the Oklahoma football program.
Below is a brief summmary of the Oklahoma team failures in both national title games and playoff games since Oklahoma last won a national title:

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2003 national title game:

LSU: 21
Oklahoma: 14

Summary:

A close game where the score differential was based a Jason White pass returned for a touchdown by LSU. Also, LSU's first score in the game came on a Jason White
interception where LSU unfortunately got the ball on the Oklahoma 32 yard line for a relatively easy starting position score.

Late in the game with the score being 21-14 LSU, Oklahoma running back Kejuan Jones was having success running the ball on the ground that got Oklahoma to the LSU
19 yard line, which followed by a LSU penalty, got Oklahoma to the LSU 13 yard line. Then Oklahoma's offensive coordinator, Chuck Long, with 3+ minutes left
in the game mysteriously decided to start passing the football 4 times in a row, which ended with a failure to score. Both teams played well defensively based
on the points scored and LSU only had 312 yards of total offense while Oklahoma only had 154 yards of total offense.

A big difference maker though was LSU had 159 rushing yards while Oklahoma only had 52 rushing yards. Oklahoma also had the misfortune of starting QB, Jason White,
having a broken hand on his throwing arm, which was broken in the first half of the Big 12 championship game loss to Kansas St. This was clearly a huge impact in the national
title game because even in the instances where Jason White had plenty of time to pass, his accuracy was greatly off when releasing the football. What were normally tight
spirals were fluttering passes.

We would also later learn several years later that LSU's football coach, Nick Saban, would turn out to be the undisputed by most if not all, greatest college football coach in history,
so this was hardly a shameful loss while also playing the national title game in LSU's own backyard. Oklahoma's defense did its job this game, but the offense failed miserably.


2004 national title game:

USC: 55
Oklahoma: 19

Summary:

There isn't much to say about this game as it was an absolute disaster. If you have 5 turnovers against USCs best team ever, it's not going to be a competitive game. Why do I
say the 2004 USC team is better than the 2005 USC team? After a near miss in the 2003 season, USC was a very hungry team in the 2004 season compared to the 2005 season. While USC
had larger scoring differentials in the 2005 season, the 2004 USC team played much better defense and didn't give up 42 points to Fresno St. as they did in the 2005 season. USC's
2004 defense was noticeably better and far more consistent. Beyond the offensive failure of 5 turnovers and only 19 points, Oklahoma's defense was already greatly exposed in the
regular season against Oklahoma St. and Texas A&M.


2008 national title game:

Florida: 24
Oklahoma: 14

Summary:

Like the 2003 national title game against LSU, this was a missed opportunity for Oklahoma. The difference in this game was Florida was fortunate enough to get their versatile
player back from injury in Percy Harvin and Oklahoma was not with Demarco Murray. Oklahoma was also in a terrible situation at the middle linebacker position, the most important
position on defense when facing a big and strong QB like Tim Tebow. Oklahoma was down to a 3rd string linebacker with very little experience in Mike Balogun after losing
starting middle linebacker for the season in Ryan Reynolds followed by backup middle linebacker Austin Box not being available for the game due to injury. Due to this scenario,
this was an area Florida was able to exploit and was also a huge key to the game.

Oklahoma also ran into the situation where this was Florida's best team in history, so in turn, one of the best teams in college football history. While Oklahoma had one of their
best offenses in history, Oklahoma was lacking on defense (7 games of giving up 26 points or more and not all due to Oklahoma offense scoring quickly) and kick coverage was terrible
all season and were limited by a kicker in Jimmy Stevens where field goals beyond 40 yards were very achievable. This was quite simply nowhere near a complete Oklahoma football team.
Oklahoma finished with 107 rushing yards while Florida finished with 248 rushing yards with Harvin having 121 of those followed by Tebow with 107 rushing yards.


2015 1st round playoff game:

Clemson: 37
Oklahoma: 17

Summary:

Oklahoma led this game 17-16 at half-time, so all was well. Then Joe Mixon is out for the game with a concussion and both Baker Mayfield and Samaje Perine suffer ankle injuries
they have to play on and the game falls apart from there. Oklahoma doesn't score again. Oklahoma only ended up with 67 rushing yards in this game while Clemson finished with
312 rushing yards.


2017 1st round playoff game:

Georgia: 54
Oklahoma: 48

Summary:

Oklahoma led this game 31-17 at half-time, but as usual under Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma failed to score in the 3rd quarter, before then scoring 14 points in the 4th quarter.
Unfortunately, due to Oklahoma's porous defense, Georgia was also able to continue to score in the 2nd half sending the game into overtime where Oklahoma would come up
short. Oklahoma proved though that they could score a lot of points against an "SEC" defense as Georgia was ranked 6th in the country in defense. Oklahoma had
242 rushing yards in this game, but unfortunately, they were still outgained on the ground by Georgia's 317 rushing yards.


2018 1st round playoff game:

Alabama: 45
Oklahoma: 34

Summary:

Alabama jumped out to an early 28-0 lead, so both Oklahoma's offense and defense failed miserably before making an admirable comeback attempt. This wasn't a scenario of
Alabama going conservative after the 28-0 lead as Nick Saban doesn't work that way as he's a "no mercy" coach and you simply don't play nice when it comes to a playoff game;
you keep scoring if you can. This was a Sooner offense that had Kyler Murray, Kennedy Brooks, Trey Sermon, and Ceedee Lamb who would start for any team in the country.
Oklahoma had a surprising 163 rushing yards in this game, however, was still outgained in this game by Alabama's 200 rushing yards.


2019 1st round playoff game:

LSU: 63
Oklahoma: 28

Summary:

So what happens when Oklahoma is without their best pass rusher in Ronnie Perkins and their second best back in Rhamondre Stevenson against LSU's best team ever and arguably
the greatest college football team of all-time? Forget about it, they wouldn't have mattered in this game. Much like the national title game against USC, the game was just
an absolutely disaster. Oklahoma only ended up with 97 rushing yards and while LSU had 160 rushing yards, they didn't much need it as they had over 500 passing yards.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


So that was the past of the past couple of decades as it comes to Oklahoma's performances in playoff games and national title games. Oklahoma had misfortunes of just plain bad
luck due to key injuries and/or playing an opposing program with one of their best if not the best team of all-time. In the 7 national title and playoff games, Oklahoma bombed badly
in 4 games and had their chances in the 3 other games. Big picture wise, the two biggest failures of the games that Oklahoma bombed in was offensive line performance and/or the
defensive performance. The talents of the skill position players were rarely an issue.

In the 2003 national title game loss against LSU, personnel wise. a Quentin Griffin as opposed to the very average Kejuan Jones/Renaldo Works combo could have been the difference.

In the 2008 national title game loss against Florida, if you swap scenarios where Oklahoma has Demarco Murray and Florida doesn't have Percy Harvin, could have been the difference.
I am very confident that was the difference, but those are the breaks.

In the 2017 playoff game against Georgia, Oklahoma just simply needed an average defense as opposed to one of Oklahoma's worst defenses in history.

In the scenario that Oklahoma won those two national title games in 2003 and 2008, Oklahoma's place in history would look very different right now.

I have always said that football isn't a game of inches, it's a game of injuries and Oklahoma has had bad luck on that front. It's never just a mere starter, it's always
an unreplaceable starter.

Oklahoma had a great run under Bob Stoops, but there is no doubt that he became stagnant and promoted coaches from within way too often. That philosophy worked great early on
in his head coaching career, but later started to no longer work and then he started doing puzzling hires such as Bruce Kittle and Willie Martinez. To me in some ways, Bob Stoops
was the Billy Tubbs (R.I.P) of Oklahoma college football. He was a great program builder and maintainer, but hit a certain peak and could never go beyond that. I think he stayed
too long and because of that, Oklahoma missed an opportunity to potentially elevate the program with fresh blood and potentially start winning national titles again with the right
head coaching hire. He further hurt the program by his insistence on retaining Mike Stoops despite clear statistical evidence that Mike Stoops should be fired.

With that said, I can't ignore Bob Stoops successes either with turning Oklahoma around after the worst run of teams in Oklahoma football history, a national championship win in 2000,
10 Big 12 Conference Titles and 5 Heisman Trophy winners in Jason White, Sam Bradford, Baker Murray, Kyler Murray, and Todd Smith and racking up a bunch of wins in the process. My
second favorite action Bob Stoops did beyond winning a national title at Oklahoma was when he came back for the bowl game a couple of years ago when Lincoln Riley blind-sided Oklahoma by departing to USC. Bob Stoops calmed the Sooner seas and handled everything "in a really great way" and guided the Sooners to a bowl win.

After the 2016 season, Bob Stoops retires and Oklahoma names Lincoln Riley as head coach. Things started off well enough with Riley beginning with two 12-2 seasons and two
playoff appearances, so it looked like Oklahoma was not only going to be in great shape with a young head coach for many years to come, but also getting the benefit of that
very same head coach also being the offensive coordinator. However, cracks started to show as time passed and getting further away from the Bob Stoops coached players. Lincoln
Riley's teams lost to both Iowa St. and Kansas St. twice in his 5 years and he consistently showed the inability to make in game offensive adjustments and his offenses
failed to score many times in the 3rd quarter and in the 2nd half in general which led to opposing teams coming back and winning those games.

Lincoln Riley was going to be a huge problem for Oklahoma going forward when Oklahoma entered the SEC due to limits of his head coaching ability and emphasis on offense where he
does have glaring faults and he places very little emphasis on defense. So far in his stint at USC, he has displayed the very same attributes that he did at Oklahoma regarding poor
defense and scoring failures in the 3rd quarter of ganes. He put an exclamation point on his first season at USC with an epic loss to Tulane in the bowl game.

Oklahoma dodged a huge bullet by Lincoln Riley departing for USC.

Overall, Oklahoma's offenses has not been the problem over the years except in a number of post-season games where the offensive lines utterly failed, but defense has certainly been
a problem in the regular season and some post-season games.

Below is the "team defense" rankings (per Sports Reference) starting with Brent Venables first year at Oklahoma in 2004:

2004: #11
2005: #37
2006: #19
2007: #19
2008: #59
2009: #7
2010: #33
2011: #32

Brent Venables last season at Oklahoma was in 2011 and while there were certainly issues (i.e. 2004 against Oklahoma St. and Texas A&M, 2008 (middle linebacker situation, but injuries
didn't help), 2010 (Missouri, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma St.), and 2011 (Texas Tech, Baylor, which was OU's first loss ever to Baylor), and Oklahoma St.), it was a far cry from how
terrible Oklahoma's defenses would eventually become after his departure. Also, the Brent Venables era could have been improved by better recruiting efforts from Bobby Jacky Wright and Jackie Shipp and near the end, Willie Martinez was not an asset for the defensive backfield either.

In defensive failings in the post-season against USC, Boise St., and West Virginia, it must be taken into account that Oklahoma's offense had 5 turnovers in both the USC and Boise St.
games and in the West Virginia game, half of Oklahoma's starting defense was out due to either injury or suspensions. Now while that is part of the game, it's quite clear why the
defense was so negatively impacted in those games. In all of the other regular season games and post-season games, Brent Venables largely did the job, especially the impressive
performance agaisnt Florida's best team ever despite very little help by the Sooner offense in that game.

The Mike Stoops era began in the 2012 season and it didn't get off to a good start as shown below, not to mention West Virginia's Tavon Austin having over 400 yards of total offense
against Oklahoma's defense that year:

2012: #50
2013: #22
2014: #55
2015: #29
2016: #69
2017: #68
2018: #101
2019: #64
2020: #28
2021: #60
2022: #99


To put things into perspective on how bad things have been for Oklahoma defensively over the past decade, Oklahoma hasn't had a national award winner on defense since Brent Venables
left. So the above was a brief overview of the past couple of decades for the Oklahoma football program and now we head into the present, with then hopefully what will be a very exciting future.

______________________________________________________

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL: THE PRESENT (The Brent Venables Era)
______________________________________________________

I'm a big believer in both history and in destiny. I believe that Bob Stoops hiring Lincoln Riley as offensive coordinator, Lincoln Riley taking over as head coach, Lincoln Riley leaving
Oklahoma for USC 5 years later, and Brent Venables patience over the years, all led to this moment of Brent Venables being hired as Oklahoma's head football coach to bring Oklahoma into a new era of success and prosperity.

After Lincoln Riley's departure, Oklahoma's recruiting class dropped from a Top 10 or better recruiting class to a disastrous 40+ and things weren't looking good due to this happening.
so late in the regular season. When it was all said and done with though, Brent Venables and co. in a matter of weeks were able to salvage the recruiting and land the #10 ranked recruiting class in the nation depending on the recruiting publication. Oklahoma would then follow up that recruiting class with the #6th ranked recruiting class in the nation despite OU's worst season in 25 years with a 6-7 record. And now, Oklahoma is sitting with the #11th ranked recruiting class with plenty of time to go still and getting a verbal commitment from their first 5 star defensive tackle prospect in ages.

Now just imagine how well Oklahoma will be able to recruit under Brent Venables when Oklahoma is in the SEC (this is a huge factor) and not going 6-7; assuming that Brent Venables proves to be as capable of a head coach as he was a defensive coordinator. That is something we simply do not know yet, but this year should make this question far more clear. Let's take a look back at last season's results:

Oklahoma versus UTEP: 45-13(win)
Oklahoma versus Kent St.: 33-3 (win)
Oklahoma versus Nebraska: 49-14 (win)
Oklahoma versus Kansas St.: 41-34 (loss)
Oklahoma versus TCU: 55-24 (loss)
Oklahoma versus Texas: 49-0 (loss)
Oklahoma versus Kansas: 52-42 (win)
Oklahoma versus Iowa St.: 27-13 (win)
Oklahoma versus Baylor: 38-35 (loss)
Oklahoma versus West Virginia: 23-20 (loss)
Oklahoma versus Oklahoma St.: 28-13 (win)
Oklahoma versus Texas Tech: 51-48 OT (loss)
Oklahoma versys Florida St.: 35-32 (loss)

5 of Oklahoma's 7 losses were by a touchdown or less. Sans the West Virginia game where Oklahoma missed 2 field goals in a 38-35 loss, Oklahoma's defense was the biggest factor in 6 of the 7 losses followed by poor clock management by the Oklahoma offense in the 4th quarter in some instances. The Oklahoma versus Baylor game was ultimately decided by Dillon Gabriel's 3 interceptions. In the game against Florida St., Oklahoma missed a 45 yard field goal in a 35-32 loss.

The big question for now about last season's results is whether it was just bad luck, lacking personnel, and poor coaching decisions or is Brent Venables the next Scott Frost where he's
going to have a number of close losses, but never get over the hump.


Arkansas St. | 2022 record: 3-9 | N/A
SMU | 2022 record: 7-6 | N/A
Tulsa | 2022 record: 5-9 | 9 returning starters (N/A)
Cincinnati | 2022 record: 9-4 | 9 returning starters (3 offense, 6 defense)
Iowa St. | 2022 record: 4-8 | 15 returning starters (9 offense, 6 defense)
Texas | 2022 record: 8-5 | 16 returning starters (10 offense, 6 defense)
UCF | 2022 record: 9-5 | 15 returning starters (8 offense, 7 defense)
Kansas | 2022 record: 6-7 | 17 returning starters (10 offense, 7 defense)
Oklahoma St. | 2022 record: 7-6 | 13 returning starters (7 offense, 6 defense)
West Virginia | 2022 record: 5-7 | 13 returning starters (6 offense, 7 defense)
BYU | 2022 record: 8-5 | 15 returning starters (8 offense, 7 defense)
TCU | 2022 record: 13-2 | 10 returning starters (3 offense, 7 defense)


Brent Venables first season at Oklahoma was a huge transition year not only from a mental standpoint, but from a physical standpoint. From a mental standpoint, Brent Venables had to
take a Lincoln Riley culture where mandatory workouts were treated as optional by undisciplined and uncaring players. That kind of culture creates major division in a team where you
have some players doing things the right way and other players doing things the wrong way. That is something Brent Venables and co. had to weed out last season an he fairly gave every
player the opportunity to do so. From a physical standpoint, the previous staff had Richard Simmons as their strength and conditioning coach and their primary workout regime was aerobics while listening to "Sweatin' to the Oldies" and playing "Pat-a-Cake".

Brent Venables second year should be much more smooth as there were definitely things to learn from in regards to last season in terms of mistakes made and now he has a year under his
belt as a head coach. My expectation for this year is at least 9 wins. That would put Oklahoma under the right trajectory with a 3 game improvement, although I feel Oklahoma will do
better than that. I just put 9 wins as the baseline because anything less than that, I fear that Brent Venables won't be head coaching material.

I'm in the camp though that Brent Venables will be successful as the head coach of Oklahoma. His recruiting has been phenomenal so far and he has great attention to detail in terms of
relentless pursuit of improvement and is the right kind of "players coach". What I mean by the right kind is he will be a player's friend for life, but he is going to show tough love
and make sure every single player is the very best they can be.

I do have my reservations still about Bill Bedenbaugh and that's been the case for a long time as I prefer that Oklahoma offensive line units be developed well and that shouldn't take 5
or 6 games every season when you look at what other big time programs are doing in game 1 and beyond, and really don't care about how many offensive linemen are sent to the NFL.
Let's face it, sans the playoff game against Georgia, his offensive lines performed miserably against Clemson, Alabama, LSU, etc. Let's just say I would like to eradicate the last of
Texas Tech from Oklahoma's blood. We'll see what happens this year though with a second year under Jerry Schmidt again and Bob Stoops has been really talking up the offensive line, but he's always optimistic.

My other reservation is Oklahoma's defensive coordinator in name, John Mackovic (not a typo). OK, he goes by another name, but I am just not a fan, nor was I when the hire was announced. I know the publicized system is Mackovic calls the plays and Brent Venables overrides when necessary, but I am not fond of that philosophy. I think it bogs things down and I rather just see Brent Venables make the defensive play calls out of the gate despite being the head coach. John Mackovic's resume as a defensive coordinator was largely unimpressive, which was another concern. I have a feel for such things, I told Joe C. (not really), but I did say that doing a knee jerk reaction hire of Porter Moser based on largely 2 seasons was a huge mistake as Porter's overall resume was 7 losing seasons in about 17 years of coaching or whatever it was. Porter has been horrible so far and I expect this season will be no better. Oh wait, were talking about football, but I digress.

Anyway, in short, my money is on Brent Venables getting the job done and when I mean done, making Oklahoma a modern day national championship program again.


_________________________________________________________________

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL: THE FUTURE (AND STILL The Brent Venables Era)
_________________________________________________________________

This is a truly historical year for the Oklahoma football program. Oklahoma's last year in the Big 12 and a prelude to joining the Scholastically Easy Conference in the 2024 season.
On one hand, I will miss decades of tradtion of playing the teams from the plains as we all share common values (sorry arse Texasux excluded), but on the other hand, Oklahoma playing in
brand new venues on an annual basis is very exciting. I can't wait for that trip to Vanderbilt!. OK, maybe not that one.

I have frequently see comments from the outsiders that Oklahoma is going to be the next Nebraska by joining the SEC. Well, I find that interesting.

1. Is Nebraska a football program that truly recruits "nationally"?
2. Is Nebraska a football program has is recruiting Top 5 to Top 10 recruiting classes despite being in the Big 12 as is the case with Oklahoma?
3. Could Nebraska land a Top 10 or better recruiting class after a 6-7 season?
4. Is Nebraska connected to a state with a population of 29.15 million people?
5. Is Nebraska the the football program that has 5 head coaches with at least 100 wins?

I could list several things that differentiates Oklahoma situation from Nebraska's situation, but due to time constraints... While Nebraska did play in the Big 12 championship game in their
final season, their overall trajectory was downward before ever joining the B1G Conference? Did everyone forget Texas Tech blowing out Nebraska 70-10? What about Kansas blowing out
Nebraska 76-39? Nebraska lost 4 or more games while still in the Big 12 from the 2004 through 2011 seasons. Nebraska had their issues long before departing the Big 12, it just got worse
by making the conference move because they damaged their recruiting demographic.

Will the SEC be tougher than the Big 12? Of course it will be, but over time, that is going to be greatly nullified by the enhanced level of recruiting that Oklahoma will be at. Oklahoma in the past literally lost players in recruiting far more because of the "SEC factor", than they did that actual program in the SEC and that even includes Alabama for a couple of certain running backs. Of course, this success will be tantamount on Brent Venables or another head coach for Oklahoma getting the job done. Again, I believe that Venables will be that guy, but Oklahoma always finds their way with getting the right head coach as history has proven that several times now.

Both Missouri and Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012. After Missouri won 11 and 12 games in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, they have kind of cratered and been hovering around .500 in the SEC since that time. However, let's remember that the cratering started where Coach Pinkel (the very same Missouri head coach that was in the Big 12) starting having severe health issues. The reason Missouri has been a .500 team since is not because of the strength of the SEC, but quite simply because they haven't landed a good head coach again.

As far as Texas A&M, they have had 10 winning seasons out of 11 while being in the SEC. Hm, Texas A&M aka ATM (Aggie Transfer Machine due to all of their departures). And hm, let's see
here:

1999: A lowly 7-5 Oklahoma team defeats #6 ranked ATM 51-6
2001: Oklahoma 31, ATM 10
2003: Oklahoma 77, ATM 0
2007: Oklahoma 42, ATM 14
2008: Oklahoma 66, ATM 28
2009: Oklahoma 65, ATM 10

That doesn't include all of the other wins Oklahoma had against Texas A&M, but I wanted to throw out some zingers along with Oklahoma giving ATM their worst home and road beatings
in history. ATM simply hasn't been getting clobbered to those levels in the SEC. I think Oklahoma is going to be OK in the SEC if lowly ATM can have 10 winning seaosns in 11
seasons in the SEC especially when factoring in Oklahoma has always been a vastly superior program to ATM.

Oklahoma being in the next Nebraska due to entering the SEC? I think not!

Now what I do see happening in the SEC for Oklahoma is while Oklahoma will definitely win less conference titles due to the top level strength of the SEC, Brent Venables overall
strengthening of the football program through his leadership and greatly improved recruiting is, Oklahoma will be put in a much better situation to win more national titles again
after a very long drought. The way Oklahoma has currently been recruiting under Brent Venables puts them in striking distance of Alabama and Georgia and if he can prove he is a
capable head coach and starting having 10, 11, and 12 win seasons, he will start landing #1 ranked recruiting classes here and there, which while not needed exclusively to win a
national title, will certainly not hurt.

While Georgia is on a roll right now with Kirby Smart, let's not forget he didn't win a national title until he had Todd Monken as his offensive coordinator. Todd Monken was the
best offensive coordinator in college football and that was even the case going back to his 2 year stint at Oklahoma St. Georgia doesn't defeat Alabama or Ohio St. without Todd
Monken and Kirby Smart's wife would even admit that. Kirby Smart has replaced Todd Monken with Mike Bobo (LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) since Monken has departed for the NFL.

Now Georgia has been recruiting like gang busters, but Monken's offensive system and his feel for play-calling during a game is simply not replaceable. Georgia will get away with it for awhile this season due to their weak schedule, but Alabama is going to take out Georgia twice this season onces in the SEC title game and then again in the playoffs. Yes, Alabama is my
pick to win the nationa title this season. Since Nick Saban started Alabama's roll back in 2009, he has never gone more than 2 seasons without winning a national title. He's getting
old, but I bet he gets it done this season. If he doesn't he may head towards retirement regardless of the contract.

In regards to Alabama, they are indeed a challenge, however, the greatest head football coach in college football history in Nick Saban won't be around forever and once he retires,
Alabama will be firing their new head coach every 3 years for not being Nick Saban. News flash future prediction: Dabo Swinney will NOT go to Alabama despite the exception in his
contract. He's got far more Clemson Tiger blood in him now than Alabama Crimson Tide blood. Being an Alabama alum is no longer a big factor for him. He's "home" for all intents
and purposes.

LSU did a good hire in Brian Kelly. While he's strange, he's not Les Miles strange and he's been a remarkably consistent winner over his career. I've always respected his coaching.
abilities, so LSU will be a big challenge going forward, especially in their own backyard.

I know there are other good teams in the SEC and some with decent big names like Auburn, Florida, and Tennessee, but honestly, they don't really concern me assuming Brent Venables pans out. I view those as programs that will beat OU only every once in a while and only do so in their own backyard. When looking back to the past, there was the games where Oklahoma lost tough battles against Florida and LSU in national title games and then you have the games where Oklahoma got decisively beat by Alabama and LSU in 2018 and 2019. Well, you can right of the latter two games because that was indicated of where Oklahoma was at, that was indicative of Lincoln Riley sucking as a head coach and ultimately being a STROKE! I say that with all due disrespect. Nothing worse than a STROKE! Oklahoma is more in line with what happened in the national title game losses with LSU in 2003 and Florida in 2008, but those types of games will be overcome in the future with improved recruiting and improved depth.

Brent Venables will not fail. Oklahoma was, is and will always be a great football program. Even in the 90s, Oklahoma had a great football program, it was just plagued with bad teams,
but in the end, the program prevailed over those bad teams with the hiring of Bob Stoops and with history repeating itself as it always does.

Bennie Owen
Bud Wilkinson
Barry Switzer
Bob Stoops
Brent Venables

History will repeat itself and great things are soon to come for the Oklahoma football program.

Boomer Sooner!


Well, I have to go because I am hungry and I have some bacon wrapped fillets to grill!

[AllSooner]

** NOTICE 1 **: Due to time constraints, I had to greatly shorten this message board post by approximately 87%.

** NOTICE 2 **: Due to time constraints, no proof reading or proper formatting was done.

** NOTICE 3 **: I have issues.

___________________________________________________________________

OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL: THE PAST (The Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley era)
___________________________________________________________________
.......AND MORE........

What a wonderful piece of work, Clint! Your head must have been ready to bust just waiting for the opportunity to go to press!

[OU Guy]

Clint, thanks for an outstanding writeup! I can’t agree more and pounded the like button so much yet it only gave 1 like.

My saying on each post (at bottom) is “In Brent I Trust” and I truly mean that.

Reading this was akin to needing to cross a desert and its 50 mikes and I’m darn thirsty. And your article was the glass of water I needed. You hit every keypoint I could think of.

Thos reminds me if an article Espn did a year or more ago, aboit Brent and his life growing up. The one section about the guy dating his Mom and roughing her up. So he goes to the bar and beats the crap out of the guy, even though he was 17 or 18 at the time. Brent is very loyal and focused. He waited all those years for this job, not any other job. He prepared through writings what he woukd do when he became a HC. So it wasn’t that he had to figure out what to do so much as to change the culture and repair all the damage Stinkin did to the program. And it was a lot of damage.

Your note about BV saving his first class is astute. I recall him traveling all over to talk to recruits. Even Bob got in on it, I think he felt he owed BV some favors from years past. But Brent didn’t come into the job blind, he just had little to work with.

Really appreciate you taking the time to write that up. Now I can see why your keyboard caught fire!

[RussC]

I read it all and feel smarter already

[OU Chinaman]

...great post Mr. Adams, couldn't have said it better myself.

You were dead-solid right on the LSU loss. The Tiger Defense was gassed, standing around with their hands on their knees, and OKLAHOMA THROWS THE FOOTBALL 4 TIMES!

(Reminded me of the 1972 HS Conf Title game between Midwest City and Putnam City. Pirates had RB's Alan Yates, Joe Linder, Jackie Shuman; Bombers boasted Robin Ameen & David Whitehead. Anyway PC Coach Potter gets a first and goal, and has QB Tony Brantley attempt 4 throws in the end zone, 3 of them intended for Steve Largeant...fail to score and the best team in the State(IMO) loses to the Bombers on their home field 14-12.)

In the game with Tebo's Gators, all I would add is OC Kevin Wilson couldn't get a play CALLED. Wasted 2 timeouts, and his "hurry up" offense was slow as molasses in December.

The Rape and Murder by USC still haunts me to this day.
The LSU beating I fully expected. We did not belong in the Playoff. I remember posting some serious smack about that game, but it was just bravado, whistling past the graveyard. I knew what was going to happen and it did!

Overall, some hot takes, good memory & research. Fun to read.
Justified criticism and praise!

WELL DONE!

[ClintA.Adams]

I wasn't pleased with that very clear pass interference no call that happened against Manny Johnson early in the Florida game either that would have extended the drive. The fix was in at that point. It was so blatantly obvious.

[cushcreekmont]

Thanks. Nice work. I enjoyed the depth.


I will quibble with the "reason" behind the Fla NC loss and the UGA Rose Bowl loss.

Against Fla, OU had TWO first and goals in the early going and got ZERO points. Some of that was bad luck (a Fla DL made an error and ran right into the RB on 1st and goal at the 1 causing 2nd and goal at the 4), more was bad play calling as a QB sneak from the one was the better call! Later, OU tried passing and didn't work on the TE (best in football at the time).

Against UGA, OU got a defensive TD then made a stop after the kickoff. OU with the ball on their own 41 with 7 minutes and a 7 point lead. tbow calls 3 straight runs against a stacked box with the best QB in college football and a very bad defense. Two first downs ends the damn game. A field goal ends the game, but the "offensive genius" plays it safer the Bob Stoops and allows his defense to lose the game.

[ClintA.Adams]

Thanks. Nice work. I enjoyed the depth.


I will quibble with the "reason" behind the Fla NC loss and the UGA Rose Bowl loss.

Against Fla, OU had TWO first and goals in the early going and got ZERO points. Some of that was bad luck (a Fla DL made an error and ran right into the RB on 1st and goal at the 1 causing 2nd and goal at the 4), more was bad play calling as a QB sneak from the one was the better call! Later, OU tried passing and didn't work on the TE (best in football at the time).

Against UGA, OU got a defensive TD then made a stop after the kickoff. OU with the ball on their own 41 with 7 minutes and a 7 point lead. tbow calls 3 straight runs against a stacked box with the best QB in college football and a very bad defense. Two first downs ends the damn game. A field goal ends the game, but the "offensive genius" plays it safer the Bob Stoops and allows his defense to lose the game.

Good job. Both losses were extremely frustrating, of course any close loss is I guess.

[Triple Option]

Thanks Clint - good to see you back! And I even agree with most of what you said!

I've often thought that had we won the NC games against LSU & Florida, which we certainly coulda if not shoulda won, how that would have changed the narrative, not just about OU, but also about the SEC, and how that could have impacted recruiting through the years.

[BudaSooner]

Nice post, Clint, really enjoyed it. I share your optimism about BV, along with your concerns about Ted Roof. Ted appears to me to be redundant, although I guess that he has been a factor in some of our recruiting success lately. I guess we just have to let it play out, see what happens.

[RussC]

Nice post, Clint, really enjoyed it. I share your optimism about BV, along with your concerns about Ted Roof. Ted appears to me to be redundant, although I guess that he has been a factor in some of our recruiting success lately. I guess we just have to let it play out, see what happens.

Ah the mystery of Ted Roof. Literally none of us fans can fathom why he is here. I guess we don’t have all the facts

[waddy's ghost]

This thread depresses the hell outta me because all I focused on was all of what we shoulda ,woulda ,and coulda done . I got aggrevated all over again . This is exactly why I NEVER rewatch games we lose ,just opens old wounds and adds salt. It took me over 30 years to rewatch THE GAME OF THE CENTURY and I still came away po'd largely because I forgot that on OUr last drive Mildren just barely overthrew Jon Harrison on what would of been dubbed SOONER MAGIC . Thank GOD the new season starts in 17 1/2 hours .

[Fly]

Man it GREAT to hear from you again! I can see your back into your ole form. Great post my friend!

Fly

[ClintA.Adams]

Man it GREAT to hear from you again! I can see your back into your ole form. Great post my friend!

Fly

Thanks Fly! It's good to be back!

[WishBone]

Good Read Clint.........The LSU loss still HURTS !Great to see ya back Clint!