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Oklahoma football: Many similarities exist between 2016 and this season

By Chip Rouse

NEW ORLEANS, LA - JANUARY 02: Head coach Bob Stoops and Baker Mayfield #6 of the Oklahoma Sooners hold the winner's trophy after defeating the Auburn Tigers 35-19 during the Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 2, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LA - JANUARY 02: Head coach Bob Stoops and Baker Mayfield #6 of the Oklahoma Sooners hold the winner's trophy after defeating the Auburn Tigers 35-19 during the Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 2, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /
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There has been reference to the similarity between 2016 and this season, and the Oklahoma football team knows the only acceptable comparison is if it ends the same way.

The 2016 season was Bob Stoops’ final year as the Sooners’ head coach. OU opened their longtime head coach’s 18th and final season at the helm as the No. 3 team in the country and on the road against 15th-ranked Houston, coached by current Texas head coach Tom Herman. It was Baker Mayfield’s second season as the OU starting quarterback.

The Sooners scored first on a 54-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield to Joe Mixon and took a 10-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Cougars scored 16 second-quarter points to lead 19-17 at the half, and Oklahoma was never able to make up the difference, losing 33-23 in the season opener.

Two weeks later, the Sooners were blown out at home, 45-24, by No. 3 Ohio State for their second loss in the first three games. Sandwiched in between the two losses was a 59-17 home win over Louisiana-Monroe.

After the loss to Ohio State, Oklahoma responded with back-to-back wins away from home over TCU and in the annual Red River Showdown in Dallas, by six and five points, respectively.

The early October victories in the Lone Star State in 2016, much like in the 2020 season, provided the spark the Sooners were looking for as Oklahoma finished out the regular season with nine consecutive wins. Among those nine wins was a spectacular offensive display in a 66-59 win over Patrick Mahomes and Texas Tech that featured over 1,700 combined yards of offense, a seven-touchdown passing performance by Mayfield and 734 passing yards by Mahomes.

Over Oklahoma’s last seven regular-season wins that season, the Sooners average victory margin was 22.7 points.

The Sooners finished with a perfect 9-0 record in the Big 12 and claimed the second of what is now six consecutive Big 12 championships.

But Oklahoma wasn’t finished. The No. 7 Sooners faced No. 14 Auburn, a team many considered to be the second best team in the SEC that season in the Sugar Bowl. After a close first half, Oklahoma dominated the second 30 minutes with a 35-19 victory, capping off a season that started off 1-2 with 10 consecutive wins and a No. 5 ranking in the final Associated Press poll.

As Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma prepare for their Cotton Bowl Classic appearance on Wednesday against yet another SEC opponent in Florida — the fourth consecutive postseason opponent the Sooners have faced from that conference — it is striking how similar this season has been to what the Sooners experienced in 2016.

It won’t be a complete likeness, however, unless OU is able to prevail over Florida in the same building in which the Sooners disposed of higher-ranked Iowa State for the Big 12 title just a week ago. Florida is currently a three-point favorite, the first game all season that Oklahoma has not been favored.

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