Bob Stoops Has Been a Big Winner, Except in One Big Category
By Chip Rouse
Bob Stoops has won more games than any head coach in the history of Oklahoma football.
He has a national championship, accomplished in his second season in Norman, nine Big 12 championships in 17 seasons, has been named the Walter Camp National Coach of the Year twice and is the only coach to win all four BCS (Bowl Championship Series) bowl games (Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta).
In his 17 seasons as the lead man for the Oklahoma football program, Stoops’ teams have won 10 or more games 13 times and have appeared in the postseason in all 17 seasons.
Stoops’ overall record at OU since 1999, his first season, is 179-46, a .796 winning percentage. The Sooners have sold out every home game since Stoops became the head coach (104 in all) and have won 96 of them and lost in front of the home folks only eight times. No team in a Power Five conference has a better home record over that time span.
In addition, the Sooners are 55-28 under Stoops against teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, again the best record in the nation since 1999.
Despite all these grand coaching accomplishments, a resume that less than a handful of active FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) coaches would give almost anything for, there is one noticeable line item on Stoops’ career accomplishments as a head coach that does not follow form.
Stoops is just 8-9 in bowl games at Oklahoma, and several of those defeats, candidly, were by embarrassing margins.
Five of the six worst losses in Oklahoma’s 49 all-time bowl appearances have occurred since 2005 and under Stoops’ watch.
2004 – USC 55, Oklahoma 19 (Orange Bowl, BCS Championship)
2014 – Clemson 40, Oklahoma 6 (Russell Athletic Bowl)
2012 – Texas A&M 41, Oklahoma 13 (Cotton Bowl Classic)
2007 – West Virginia 48, Oklahoma 28 (Fiesta Bowl)
2015 – Clemson 37, Oklahoma 17 (Orange Bowl, College Football Playoff)
On the other hand, three of the Sooners’ nine postseason losses with Stoops as head coach have been in the national championship game.
It’s ironic that a head coach with such a stellar record of winning in just about every way you can measure it has a losing record in postseason play. In seven of the eight Oklahoma bowl losses in the Stoops era, the Sooners were the lower ranked team, including in the highlight-reel overtime loss to Boise State in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl.
That speaks to the quality of the opponent in postseason play as opposed to the vast majority of opponents in the regular season.
The Sooners have lost three of their last four bowl games. Barring an unforeseen collapse, Oklahoma will have an opportunity in the 2016 postseason to get things headed back in the right direction and get their bowl record back to .500 under Bob Stoops.
To do so, however, it might mean having to go up against a team like Alabama or Clemson, teams against which the Sooners are 1-2 in their last three bowl appearances.