Looking Back at Oklahoma Football Before Bob Stoops Came to Town

With kickoff of the BCS Championship Game less than 24 hours away, it’s tough to comprehend that the Oklahoma football program was mired in mediocrity just 10 years ago, before Bob Stoops rode into town.

Oklahoma was 0-4 against Nebraska, having been outscored by the Cornhuskers 179-28 in the previous three defeats. Check out these stats from today’s post at Sooners Gameday, via The Enid News and Eagle in Oklahoma:

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Just remember where the program was before Stoops’ arrival in December 1998. The Sooners had a record of 23-31-1 over the previous five seasons and had not gone to a New Year’s Day bowl since 1988.

They hadn’t gone to a bowl in four seasons, thanks to records of 5-5-1, 3-8, 4-8 and 5-6.

That’s two more losses than either Bud Wilkinson (145-29-4, 17 years) or Barry Switzer (157-29-3, 16 years) had during their long tenure as the OU head coach.

They had a 2-3 record against Oklahoma State.

A 1-3-1 record against Texas.

And were 0-4 against Nebraska, having been outscored 179-28 over the last three games and 0-4 against Texas A&M.

Check the stands and there was roughly an average of 10,000 empty seats per game. Do the math and figure out how much money that was costing OU. This was before the latest stadium expansion.

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