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The Oklahoma Sooners have enjoyed a lot of success and a lot of great moments over the last 26 seasons.
It was December 1, 1998 when Florida defensive coordinator Bob Stoops was hired by athletic director Joe Castiglione to take over the OU Football program. It was Castiglione’s first head coaching hire for football and it was a pivotal one.
Stoops replaced John Blake, who’d had three years at the helm in Norman. He was fired after a 5-6 season in 1998, marking the third straight year of losing records and no bowl games under Blake’s leadership. In fact, the Sooners had been down in the dumps from 1989 to 1998, ever since the legendary Barry Switzer resigned after the 1988 season.
Blake, Howard Schnellenberger before him, and Gary Gibbs before him couldn’t live up to the championship standard set by Switzer and Bud Wilkinson at OU. The team hadn’t played in a bowl game, had a winning record since 1994, and hadn’t won 10 or more games or a conference title since 1987, Switzer’s second-to-last year.
But Stoops was able to live up to the lofty standard established by Switzer, Bud Wilkinson, and Bennie Owen. He had the Sooners on top of the college football world in Year 2 as the 2000 national champs and kept Oklahoma in the title chase for most of his time in charge.
Lincoln Riley and Brent Venables followed Stoops since his retirement, with the former riding on Stoops’ success before bolting for Southern California and the latter still needing to prove himself after two losing seasons in three years. It’s why Venables is facing so much pressure in 2025, as he’s given fans a glimpse back into the 1990s and a very dark time for OU Football with his performance.
USA TODAY Sports and College Sports Wire staff writer Patrick Conn went back over the past 25 years of the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, taking a composite look at…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/where-does-oklahoma-rank-over-203241187.html
Author : Sooners Wire
Publish date : 2025-02-19 20:32:00
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