Oklahoma football: Notable numbers from a celebrated Alamo Bowl win
By Chip Rouse
To borrow from the great English writer Charles Dickens, this was neither the best of years nor worst of years in the long, accomplished history of Oklahoma football.
The Sooners did manage to win 11 games, but somehow it didn’t feel like it. Perhaps that’s because six of their 11 wins and five of their first six were by seven or fewer points.
Oklahoma’s 11th win of the 2021 season was by 15 points, but the Sooners led by as many as 27 and were never in any real danger of losing to 14th-ranked Oregon.
The bowl win was OU’s 31st all-time, tied for the fourth most in college football history. It also was Bob Stoops’ 10th bowl victory in 19 bowl appearances with the Sooners.
Playing off Oklahoma’s 11-win season, here are 11 numbers that help tell the story of the Sooners’ season-ending Alamo Bowl win:
.778 — Caleb Williams’ pass completion percentage (21 of 27) in OU’s Alamo Bowl win. His 21 completions included three touchdown passes, tied for the second most in Sooner bowl history.
1 — Gabe Brkic missed his extra-point attempt after Oklahoma’s opening touchdown. It was his first point-after miss in 160 career attempts.
6 of 13 — Oregon’s third-down conversion ratio vs. Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl. The Ducks came into the game with the nation’s fourth-best third-down conversion percentage.
7 — Oklahoma has now won seven of eight games against Oregon and are 3-1 under Bob Stoops against the Ducks.
8 — Oklahoma scored on eight consecutive possessions after going three-and-out and punting on its opening possession.
24 — The Sooners scored 24 unanswered points in the second quarter to break open a close game and widen their lead to 30-3. OU outscored its opponents by 110 points (153-43) in the second quarter this season.
47 — The 47 points scored by Oklahoma were the sixth most by an OU team in a bowl game. They have scored a combined 102 points in their last two bowl appearances (55 last season in a Cotton Bowl win over Florida).
55 — Yards on a touchdown pass caught by Marvin Mims in the second quarter. It was his fifth TD catch of the season, the 14th of his career and his sixth of 50 or more yards in his two seasons at OU.
142 — Rushing yards by Kennedy Brooks, the 14th time in his OU career he has rushed for 100 or more yards in a game. He averaged 10.1 yards per carry in the Alamo Bowl win.
191 — The win gave Bob Stoops 191 in his OU career against 48 losses. He retired after the 2016 season with 190 career wins, the most by a Sooner head coach in program history.
564 — Oklahoma’s 564 yards of total offense vs. Oregon were its sixth-most ever in a bowl game.