Shutouts, both for and against, were much more prevalent in the first half-century of Oklahoma football than in the last 50 years.
In the early years, it was not unusual to win 50-0 one week and play to a scoreless tie the following week. In fact, from the Sooners’ first varsity game, which they lost 34-0 in 1895, to the Bud Wilkinson era, which began in 1947, Oklahoma shut out its opponent twice as many times as the Sooners were held scoreless (153-70).
That’s 223 games in 52 seasons (1895-1946) in which one or both teams were held scoreless.
That number has gone down considerably in the 71 years since. Since Wilkinson’s first season, in 1947, through the 2018 season, the Sooners have shut out 92 opponents and been held scoreless themselves a total of 15 times.
Since the 2000 season, OU has held a dozen teams scoreless, but has never failed to score itself. although the last time the Sooner defense pitched a shutout was four seasons ago in a 55-0 win at Kansas State after losing by a touchdown to Texas the week before.
The last time Oklahoma failed to score in a game was 22 years ago, in 1998. Texas A&M defeated the Sooners 29-0 in John Blake’s final of three season as the OU head coach.
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Here is how the members of the Oklahoma coaching century club fared in games ending in a shutout:
Bennie Owen (1905-1926) — 67-19-5
Bud Wilkinson (1947-1963) — 43-4
Barry Switzer (1973-1988) — 16-2
Bob Stoops (1989-2016) — 14-0
It was not uncommon in the early years to play in four or five shutouts in a season. In 1907, Bennie Owens’ Sooners played an eight-game season and all but won ended in a shutout. Oklahoma won four of them and lost three.
The largest margin of victory in an Oklahoma shutout was a 179-0 win over Kingfisher College (near Oklahoma City). The Sooners’ worst shutout loss was under Howard Schnellenberger in his only season as Oklahoma’s head coach. Nebraska blanked OU 37-0 in the regular-season finale in 1995, the last year of the Big Eight.
In both 1924 and 1931, Oklahoma was shut out five times. In the 1924 season, the Sooners lost five of their first six games without scoring a point. Oklahoma scored only 28 total points in eight 1924 games.
In Lincoln Riley’s two seasons as head coach, his high scoring offense and high-scored-upon defense, only once have the Sooners been held to fewer than 28 points (a 28-21 overtime win over Army last season), and only one time has Oklahoma held an opponent under 10 points (a 41-3 win over Kansas in 2017).
Shutouts have been few and far between in games involving Oklahoma over the past nine seasons. The Sooners have held just three teams scoreless during that time. The closest OU has come to being shut out over the same period was a 44-10 rout by Oklahoma State in 2011.
Shutouts are a mark of excellence by a defensive unit, but to be perfectly candid, they aren’t terribly exciting from a fan perspective.