Missing Virtues: How Bob Stoops and Oklahoma Can Mend a Broken Tradition

Some would argue that our loss to Kansas State was not that KSU was better, but because it was cold that night—or even better, because Mike Stoops, the best defensive guru in OU history, had already left.  Whatever excuse people wish to make, the fact remains that Oklahoma has not been the same since this night.

In our defense, OU has won three conference championships since this night and has three 11-plus win seasons, which are achievements that most teams in the country would like to claim.  Unfortunately, in the eyes of writers who report on OU football this year, these successes are negated by our failure to bring home a BCS victory in four attempts.

The swagger of Sooner football has not been tarnished despite these shortcomings, but the intimidation level that OU once exhibited over opponents is almost dormant.  I would rather take the appearance of invincibility instead of over-estimated self-perception any day of the week.

It seems as though when OU walks onto a field looking and thinking that they are better than everyone else, that over-confidence causes them to look past their opponent—and OU ends up getting embarrassed.

When Oklahoma shut down USC’s potent offense in their first drive of the 2004 Orange Bowl and then scored on their first, the Sooners had a celebratory ‘this won’t be that hard’ swagger that was shut down quickly, as the Trojans went on to outscore OU 38-10 in the first half.

Similar experiences have taken place in the last four years.  OU just does not seem ready to handle teams that show up, not only to put up a challenge to OU, but to beat the Sooners.

This was probably never more pertinent than at the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, when OU players probably bought way too much into the media’s consistent David vs. Goliath analogy.  Obviously the players forgot how that story ended—but they were reminded by Boise State in dramatic fashion.

So what has been missing from Oklahoma football the last four seasons?

Aside from learning to go into each game psychologically knowing that you are good—but never, ever underestimating your opponent—OU has got to find a way to reignite a forgotten virtue of Oklahoma’s rich football tradition that used to be the rallying motto that sustained consistent success, especially during the Switzer era: “Sooner Magic.”

We have had moments in the last several years that made us think it was still alive.  One instance was the 2005 Texas Tech game, where the Sooners came from behind to take the lead, only to allow the Red Raiders to score in the final seconds to win the game.

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