Stoop-ified Over Oklahoma's Big Game Struggles

Let’s get this out of the way: I’m not a fan of OU. I don’t dislike them I’m just indifferent. That indifference extends throughout the Big 12, so I feel like I’m a pretty objective observer of Big 12 football.

As far as fanaticism, I expel most of my unreasonable reactions while watching the Red Sox. So even though I pull for Florida State, I feel like I see things pretty clearly within college football.

With that being said, I’m at the end of my rope. I’m not mad. I’m not raising my voice; I didn’t lose any money or anything like that. I feel like most people felt at the end of Cloverfield: I just want some answers. It’s more like an X-Files thing as this point. Why do Sooners refuse to show up in big games?

Under Stoops, the Oklahoma Sooners have established themselves as a member of the NCAA elite. I would venture to say that Stoops would make most everyone’s top-10 coaching lists, but yet his teams have this really off-putting habit of crapping the bed in big circumstances.

Here’s all I know about Bob Stoops:
1.    By all accounts, he runs a family-friendly program.
2.    He parlayed his defensive success at Florida and K-State to the OU coaching job.
3.    He’s in the middle ground between overweight and kind of chubby.
4.    He rocks the visor and is completely underrated in doing so.

But why have his teams failed so diligently in big situations? It isn’t his competence. He clearly is an elite coach who runs a successful program. He’s surrounded himself with a solid coaching staff and his coaching tree boasts Mike Leach, Mark Mangino, and Mike Stoops.

It isn’t the recruiting. He routinely pulls in top recruiting classes and the list of OU players in the NFL continues to grow each year. Adrian Peterson, Tommie Harris, Mark Clayton, and Jammal Brown are just a few to experience NFL success after leaving Norman.

Is he head coach material? Absolutely. Stoops is one of the few coaches that seem to belong in the class of iconic program coaches. Pete Carroll, Bob Stoops, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban are all coaches that, regardless of allegiance, everyone can agree are the best of the best. If college football was the Ivy League, these guys would be Skull & Bones material.

When I look at Stoops, I feel like he has slept very little and that his life is inundated with film sessions, recruiting, and game planning. He doesn’t appear to have sketched out his offensive game plan on a dinner napkin at the Golden Corral (I’m looking at you Mr. Fulmer). Stoops looks and acts the part.

But the thing I keep coming back to are the big game meltdowns which are imminently confusing when examined against his first national title run. Had he never won a title or big game, I could easily write him off as a poor clutch game coach. But during his first (and only) national title run, he won all his big games and completely dominated a formidable FSU team in an unwatchable 13-2 upset win.

But from that point forward, the Sooners seemed to play with the burden of a jinxed program, not one that has been validated with a recent national title. This past weekend’s loss to Texas only creates more confusion. Most would agree that Oklahoma was the better team top to bottom, but yet they could not put the Longhorns away.

Some would argue that the officiating applied a helpful hand to the Longhorns but (let me say this in the most non-sarcastic way possible) isn’t it always something? That doesn’t mean to be antagonistic, but the trend of late has been for the Sooners to live within a Groundhog Day universe of underachievement. The only problem is I can’t figure out why this is, or what can they do to stop it.