Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football: Where does OU rank among best college teams of every decade?

By Chip Rouse

Jan 1, 1981; Miami, FL, USA; FILE PHOTO; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Barry Switzer gets a victory ride following their win over the Florida State Seminoles in the 1980 Orange Bowl 18-17. Mandatory Credit: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 1, 1981; Miami, FL, USA; FILE PHOTO; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Barry Switzer gets a victory ride following their win over the Florida State Seminoles in the 1980 Orange Bowl 18-17. Mandatory Credit: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 1, 2016; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops and quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) and offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley celebrate during the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 1, 2016; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops and quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) and offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley celebrate during the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports /

Stoops and Lincoln Riley keep the OU engine humming in Part II of 2000s

OU football sputtered a bit in the early part of the 2010 decade but caught fire and was an offensive juggernaut after Lincoln Riley arrived in 2015 as offensive coordinator under Stoops.

The year prior to Riley’s hiring (2014), the Sooners were 8-5. From 2015 (the year Baker Mayfield became the OU starting quarterback) through the 2019 season, OU’s combined won-lost record was 58-10.

Between 2017 and 2019, Riley’s first three seasons as the Sooners head coach, the Sooners finished No. 1 in the country in total offense in 2017 and ’18 and No. 3 in 2019. Riley may be the most despised man in the state of Oklahoma after his sudden departure in 2021 to take the head job at USC, but there is no mistaking that OU had the nation’s most dangerous offensive teams in the five seasons he was in Norman.

Connelly ranked Oklahoma as the No. 4 team over the full decade (behind Alabama, Ohio State and LSU) and the 2018 Sooner team (quarterbacked by Heisman winner Kyler Murray) as the second-best offensive team of the decade.

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