Shutouts, both for and against, were much more prevalent in the first half-century of Oklahoma football than in the last 75 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, the Sooners were shut out in their first varsity game, 34-0 by an Oklahoma City town team in 1895. From that time until Bud Wilkinson became head coach in 1947, Oklahoma shut out its opponents 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 in an Oklahoma football game were held scoreless.
That number has gone down considerably in the 78 years since. Since Wilkinson’s first season in 1947 through the 2024 season, the Sooners have shut out 94 opponents and been held scoreless themselves a total of 16 times.
Oklahoma held scoreless just once in last 25 years
Since the 2000 season, OU has held 15 teams scoreless, but has failed just one time to score itself. It was bad enough that the Sooners suffered an embarrassing 49-0 whitewash in Brent Venables' first season as head coach in 2022, but the fact that it came against OU's chief rival Texas made it even more painful.
The last time the Oklahoma defense pitched a shutout was two seasons ago in the 2023 season opener, a 73-0 shellacking of Arkansas State.
Prior to being shut out by Texas, the last time an Oklahoma team failed to score in a game was 27 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.
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 one ended in a shutout. Oklahoma won four of those contests 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 lone season as Oklahoma 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.
Shutouts have been few and far between in games involving Oklahoma over the past 10 seasons. There have been just five games over that time ending in a shutout, and four of them have been rendered by the Sooners.
The Oklahoma defense recorded three shutouts in the 2009 season, including holding back-to-back opponents scoreless early in the season in 64-0 and 45-0 wins over Idaho State and Tulsa, respectively. The Sooners shut out Oklahoma State 27-0 later that season.
Shutouts are a mark of excellence by a defensive unit, but to be perfectly candid, they aren’t terribly exciting from a fan perspective.
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