As beloved as some coaches are in Oklahoma football lore, fans have the same level of emotion toward others but in the opposite way.
As part of "Coaching Week" at Stormin' In Norman and across all FanSided college sites, we took the time to list coaches that OU fans love to hate and likely always will.
Lincoln Riley
This isn't a ranking, but if it was, Lincoln Riley would still be at the top. After five seasons leading the Sooners, a move from the Big 12 to the SEC for loomed for OU, which caused Riley to pee down his khakis and run scared to USC in the middle of the night in 2021. He took quarterback Caleb Williams with him and left Brent Venables with a depleted roster and a program in shambles during the most changing time of college football.
Read more: Brent Venables just exposed how broken Oklahoma football really was under Lincoln Riley
Howard Schnellenberger
The Lincoln Riley before Lincoln Riley, but without the success. Howard Schnellenberger arrogantly promised in 1995 to turn Oklahoma around and even deemed his new players unworthy shortly after getting hired.
"They'll write books and make movies about my time here," he proclaimed.
Then, after going 5–5–1 that included OU's first losing conference record in 31 years and first Bedlam loss in 20 years, Schnellenberger abruptly resigned after just one season in Norman and got out of coaching completely for a few years.
Steve Sarkisian
The Sooners are 2-3 with back-to-back embarrassing losses in the Red River Rivalry against Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian. That alone will get OU fans' blood boiling.
An arrogant Sark then just became even more unlikable during SEC Media Days, especially while taking shots at new OU wide receiver Parker Livingstone, who Sarkisian admitted Texas ran out of Austin but still complains he crossed the Red River and ended up in Norman.
"I mean, I hope we kick his ass," Sarkisian said. "It's the Red River Rivalry, you know what I mean? He chose to go there. He's on the other side."
That feeling is mutual from OU fans for Sark.
Mack Brown
Similar to Steve Sarkisian, the longer a coach is in Austin, the more they're despised in Norman. Brown had a lot of success leading the Longhorns, including a national title, but was 7–9 in the Red River Rivalry as Bob Stoops had his number. But those were still intense times in the rivalry and it's still hard for OU fans not to root against Brown after seeing him in burnt orange for so long.
Tom Osborne
Tom Osborne is another coach that might be respected by fans but still hated as a rival between 25 years leading the Nebraska Cornhuskers during the peak of the OU-Nebraska rivalry. It made it even worse that as the Sooners struggled in the mid-1990s, the Cornhuskers won three national titles in four years under Osborne.
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