Barry Switzer All-Timers vs. Bob Stoops’ All-OU Team: ‘The Final Outcome’

What if you could imagine a game that would feature the best of the best that played for former OU coach Barry Switzer against a similar team of all-stars who played at Oklahoma under current head coach Bob Stoops. Which team would prevail in such a fantasy showdown?

We are about to find out.

Recapping the scoring in the opening half of our All-Time, All-OU fantasy showdown, Stoops’ all-star squad opened up the scoring with a touchdown pass from Sam Bradford to Ryan Broyles for an early 7-0 lead. Both teams added a field goal as the first quarter ended with the Stoops All-OU Team owning a 10-3 advantage over the Switzer All-Timers.

Aug 30, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Barry Switzer on the field during the game against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The Switzer team forged a 10-10 tie on a 51-yard touchdown run by Joe “Silver Shoes” Washington, but the Stoops squad took back the lead behind the running of Adrian Peterson, who capped off a scoring drive with a 5-yard burst up the middle. That took us to halftime with the score Stoops All-Stars 17, Switzer All-Timers 10 at the break.

Opening of the Second Half

Having deferred in the first half, the Stoops All-Stars are on the receiving end to start the second half. Juaquin Iglesias fields the second-half kickoff and takes off down the left sidelines, breaking free momentarily before a bone-jarring hit from Switzer special-teams player Scott Case separates the ball from Iglesias and the loose ball is recovered by Darrol Ray of the Switzer All-Timers. Ray recovers the ball at the 45-yard line of the Stoops All-Stars.

Switzer’s team takes full advantage of the turnover and goes 45 yards on 11 straight running plays behind the legs of quarterback Steve Davis, Billy Sims and Washington to tie the game at 17.

Bradford leads his team to successive first down on their ensuing possession, but the drive stalls at the 47-yard line on the Stoops All-Stars’ side of the 50 when Jermaine Gresham drops a seven yard pass on third down after setting up at the first-down marker.

Washington calls for a fair catch on the punt exchange, and the Switzer All-Timers take over at their own 10-yard line. Greg Pruitt and Sims break off 14- and 15-yard runs, respectively, and Davis surprises the Stoops defense with a 25-yard pass to a wide open Tinker Owens to set up the Switzer All-Timers just inside their opponent’s 35 yard line. But Uwe von Schamann’s 42-yard field-go try three plays later hooks just outside the left upright, and the score remains tied at 17 apiece.

The two defenses take over for the final eight minutes of the third quarter, and the game heads into the final quarter tied at 17.

In the opening two minutes of the fourth quarter, Bradford connects with Broyles on a 65-yard touchdown strike. Broyles manages to catch the ball in full stride at the 13-yard line after the ball somehow escapes the outstretched arms of cornerback Ricky Dixon and goes in untouched for the score to put the Stoops All-Stars up by seven, 24-17. with a little under 13 minutes to go in the game.

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A touchback on the ensuing kickoff brings the ball out to the 25. From there, Davis leads a methodical, grind-it-out 75-yard drive that takes nearly six and a half minutes and 16 plays and ends with a two-yard touchdown run on a keeper by Davis to knot the score at 24-all with just 5:45 remaining in the game.

In the final five minutes, the wheels come off of the Sooner Schooner for the guys on the Stoops’ team sidelines. A poor handoff exchange between Bradford and DeMarco Murray turns the ball over to the Switzer All-Timers. On the very next play from scrimmage, the speedy Sims takes a pitch from Davis and races the final 33 yards for the go-ahead score, giving the Switzer team their first lead of the game, 31-24.

On the next series of plays, Bradford misfires on two pass attempts – one targeting Broyles that hops incomplete and the other that was slightly too high for Mark Clayton to bring in – and Peterson is stopped for just a 3-yard pickup on a draw play.

The Stoops All-Stars elect not to go for it on fourth down and punt the ball away to the Switzer team with 3:25 left on the game clock.

Switzer’s offense has put the ball in the air via the forward pass just five times the entire game up to this point. With the lead and the ball, you could almost bet your last dollar that there wasn’t going to be anything but running plays from here on out.

Everybody in Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, site of this epic fantasy showdown, knew what was coming. It was up to the Stoops defense to stop it and get the ball back if they were going to have any chance of pulling off a victory.

That is not what happened, however. The Switzer Wishbone pounded away at the tired and weary Stoops front seven, slicing and dicing for 73 hard-earned and, more importantly, time-consuming yards, the final four of which were picked up by Joe Washington for a touchdown. There were 33 seconds remaining in the game when Washington scored.

With just over a half-minute left in the game, the remaining seconds uneventfully ticked off the game clock, leaving one side euphoric and jumping for joy, while the other side stood stunned, fighting back tears of disappointment.

The final score: Switzer All-Timers 38, Stoops All-Stars 34

Editor’s note: If you were to play out this game in full simulated form, my expectation would be that the offensive totals would be strikingly similar, with the Stoops All-Stars heavily dominating the passing yardage, and Switzer’s All-Time crew gaining all but maybe 50 yards on the ground and rolling up about a 200-yard edge in rushing totals.

The keys to the game, in my estimation, would be turnovers, time of possession and the amount of time that the Stoops defense would be on the field because of the number of plays run by Switzer’s ball-control Wishbone offense.

This historic matchup could come out any number of ways. That’s what makes it so much fun to contemplate and imagine the possibilities.