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Oklahoma football: Defensive shutouts far less prevalent than in early days

By Chip Rouse

LUBBOCK, TX - OCTOBER 22: Head coach Bob Stoops of the Oklahoma Sooners talks to his players on the bench during the first half of the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma Sooners on October 22, 2016 at AT&T Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - OCTOBER 22: Head coach Bob Stoops of the Oklahoma Sooners talks to his players on the bench during the first half of the game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma Sooners on October 22, 2016 at AT&T Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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The very first University of Oklahoma football game, in 1895, ended in a shutout.

Related Story: Oklahoma football: How perfect is an undefeated season?

A town team from Oklahoma City handed the Sooners a 34-0 loss in their inaugural college game.

In the first 25 years of Sooner football, Oklahoma held its opponent scoreless a total of 81 times in 186 games. OU failed to score in 17 of its first 186 games, with six games ending in a scoreless tie.

Bennie Owen, the first of the 100-win Oklahoma head coaches, presided over 59 of those 81 defensive shutouts in the first 25 years of Oklahoma football.

Owen coached 192 games in 22 seasons as the Sooners’ head coach, the longest tenured of the 22 head coaches in OU football history. He won 122 games outright and 75 were by shutout. Twelve times, in his 22 seasons, Oklahoma held their opponent scoreless at least four times in a season and four different times while Owen was on the Sooner sidelines they recorded four consecutive shutouts.

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It would appear that defenses were much stronger in the early days of college football, a time when most players saw action on both sides of the ball, playing both offense and defense.

Defensive shutouts are far less common in college football today than they were 100 years ago.

By contrast, in the past 25 seasons of Oklahoma football, the Sooners have held their opponent scoreless just 12 times, and 11 of those have come during Bob Stoops’ 18 seasons in Norman. Conversely, since 1993, a period during which five Oklahoma head coaches have roamed the sidelines, the Sooners have failed to put a point on the board seven times in 310 games.

Oklahoma has not been shutout in a game since Stoops took over the head coaching reins in 1999. That covers a total of 238 games. Moreover, OU failed to score a touchdown only once in those 238 games (a 10-3 loss to Nebraska in 2009).

What is the meaning of all of this? Only that the chances of not scoring a point or holding your opponent scoreless are far less probable in today’s college game, dominated by up-tempo, spread-formation football with the quarterback operating out of the shotgun, than was the case back in the early part of the previous century.

Oklahoma’s football history serves as a prime example of this transformation.

*Data obtained from the 2017 Oklahoma Football Media Guide.

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