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Oklahoma football: Six signature Bob Stoops wins

By Chip Rouse

Dec 31, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops reacts during the third quarter of the 2015 CFP semifinal at the Orange Bowl against the Clemson Tigers at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 31, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops reacts during the third quarter of the 2015 CFP semifinal at the Orange Bowl against the Clemson Tigers at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports /
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Dec 3, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; The Oklahoma Sooners celebrate winning the Big 12 Conference Championship after defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 3, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; The Oklahoma Sooners celebrate winning the Big 12 Conference Championship after defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /

#4 – Dec. 1, 2007 – Oklahoma 38, Missouri 17

Oklahoma had beaten Missouri earlier in the regular season, defeating the then-No. 11 Tigers 43-31 in front of a sellout crowd at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. But the Missouri team the Sooners would play in the Big 12 Championship game was a different team than OU had played earlier.

For one thing, the only MU regular-season loss had come against Oklahoma. The week before the Big 12 Championship rematch between the Sooners and the Tigers, Missouri had defeated No. 2-ranked Kansas for the Big 12 North Division championship, which advanced them into the conference title game against the Sooners.

As a result of the Border War win on neutral ground at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium (home of the NFL Kansas City Chiefs) over the team from neighboring Kansas, Missouri had leap-frogged into the top spot in the land.

When OU and MU had played earlier in the season, Oklahoma was the higher-ranked team, holding down the No. 5 spot in the national rankings. In the Big 12 Championship, the order was reversed, with No. 9 Oklahoma going up against the top-ranked team in the country.

The ranking disparity turned out to be added incentive for the Big 12 South champion Sooners, who refused to believe that the Tigers were the better team coming into the Big 12 Championship game, based on what had happened when the two schools had met earlier that season.

Missouri put up a good fight early in the conference championship game as the two teams went to the locker room at halftime deadlocked at 14-14. In the third quarter, however, the Sooners exerted their will against the No. 1 Tigers, pounding out two unanswered touchdowns to go up by two scores heading into the fourth quarter.

Both teams were loaded with offensive firepower, but it was the OU defense that proved to be the difference in the game.

Missouri managed just a lone field goal in the second half. Meanwhile, OU added another touchdown and a field goal in the final period to win by three touchdowns, 38-17, and win its second consecutive Big 12 championship.

While Missouri’s stay at No. 1 lasted just one week, OU head coach Bob Stoops lobbied after his team’s impressive win over the nation’s top-ranked team on a neutral field, and second win over the Tigers that season, that the Sooners should be considered to play for the national championship.

Stoops lost that argument, and it was just as well because Oklahoma was soundly defeated in the BCS Fiesta Bowl that season by a more motivated team in West Virginia, then the Big East champion and in late November the No. 3-ranked team in the country. The Mountaineers completely throttled Stoops and the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl to the tune of 48-28, easily OU’s worst beating of the season.

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