Tag: Barry Switzer

Oklahoma enjoyed a Christmas Fiesta 45 years ago, beating Wyoming 41-7

On Christmas 45 years ago, quarterback Thomas Lott was named most outstanding offensive player and OU beat Wyoming 41-7 in the Fiesta Bowl.

In a game that was billed as a battle of wishbone offenses, Oklahoma and head coach Barry Switzer left looking like the masters of it in the Sooners’ only Christmas Day bowl game in program history.

Oklahoma entered the 1976 Fiesta Bowl as co-Big 8 champions after an 8-2-1 regular season. The Sooners were heavy favorites against a Wyoming team that was making its first postseason appearance in eight seasons after winning the Western Athletic Conference.

OU was a three-touchdown favorite against the Cowboys. Wyoming was led by head coach Fred Akers who would leave after the game’s conclusion to become the head coach at Texas from the 1977-86 seasons.

Oklahoma topped Wyoming 41-7 on that Christmas Day in 1976, racking up 438 yards of total offense. Quarterback Thomas Lott was one of the stars, capturing the most outstanding offensive player award after guiding OU’s wishbone attack and rushing for 79 yards on 13 carries.

“We wanted to win big so we could play a lot of young people and show the nation just what kind of players we have,” Lott said afterwards.

His coach said Lott was the deserving choice for offensive player of the game.

“Thomas did a very good job executing the option and he deserves the outstanding offensive player trophy,” Switzer remarked after OU’s blowout win.

Oklahoma took the game’s opening kickoff and marched 80 yards in 14 plays. OU halfback Elvis Peacock capped that opening scoring drive with a 3-yard touchdown plunge.

On OU’s second offensive series, Oklahoma halfback Horace Ivory ended a 10-play, 53-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to increase the Sooners’ lead to 14-0 with 3:31 remaining in the first quarter.

Oklahoma’s Uwe Von Schamann added a pair of field goals in the second quarter of 32 and 50 yards.

Wyoming opened the second half with a big kickoff return, but the Cowboys’ drive came to an abrupt halt when OU cornerback Terry Peters intercepted Wyoming quarterback Don Clayton. That was Peters’ first interception of two on the day to help him earn the game’s most outstanding defensive player award.

That set the stage for Peacock to shine again. Peacock had a 29-yard run before he finished off the Sooners’ 82-yard drive with a 15-yard touchdown scamper. OU fullback George Cumby added a 4-yard touchdown run and then halfback Woody Shepard had Oklahoma’s final points on an 8-yard rush.

Shepard finished with 85 rushing yards on seven carries, while Peacock had 77 yards on eight rushes.

Oklahoma suffocated Wyoming early. The Cowboys had just 22 yards of total offense in the first half. OU intercepted Wyoming five times in the game and forced and recovered another Cowboys’ fumble.

Oklahoma’s 41-7 win over Wyoming represents the first of the Sooners’ five all-time appearances in the Fiesta Bowl.

OU also won the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day of 2011, routing Connecticut 48-20 to end the 2010 season. Quarterback Landry Jones threw for an OU bowl game record 429 passing yards and three touchdowns.

OU wide receiver Ryan Broyles had a big day in that game as well with 13 receptions for 170 yards and a touchdown grab.

Oklahoma has played Wyoming one other time in its history. The Sooners also beat the Cowboys 37-20 in Norman to open up the 1981 season.

Of course, Oklahoma is looking to add to its overall collection of bowl championships in its 55th bowl game appearance. The Sooners could capture their 31st bowl game championship in program history when they play the Oregon Ducks on Dec. 29 in the Valero Alamo Bowl at 8:15 p.m. on ESPN.

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Sooners legend Bob Stoops inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame

Oklahoma Sooners’ legend Bob Stoops was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame Tuesday night.

It’s been a wild nine days for Oklahoma Sooners legend Bob Stoops. Last Sunday, he was called into work from the golf course to take the reigns as interim head coach after Lincoln Riley’s sudden departure.

Stoops was introduced the next day as the interim head coach and, that afternoon, hit the road to get face time with Oklahoma’s 2022 recruits. As the week drug on, he remained committed to his Fox Big Noon Kickoff duties, covering the Big 10 title game. And on Tuesday night, he was finally was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

To say it’s been a whirlwind of a week is an understatement, but as he has done his whole career, Stoops handled it with strength and class.

His Tuesday night induction makes him the 27th Oklahoma Sooner to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Stoops joins Barry Switzer, Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Steve Owens, Billy Sims, and Tony Casillas as members of the Hall of Fame.

With 190 wins, Bob Stoops is the all-time winningest coach in Oklahoma Sooners history. Stoops won a national championship and 10 Big 12 titles with seven top-five finishes in his 18 seasons as the head coach.

Now all eyes turn to Bob Stoops’ return to the sideline as Oklahoma prepares for the Alamo Bowl where they’ll face Oregon.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.

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How does every Oklahoma Sooners head coach stack up by win totals?

As the Oklahoma Sooners search for their next head coach, let’s take a look at how each of their former head coaches stacks up by win totals.

Lincoln Riley’s tenure as Oklahoma Sooners head coach ended in an auspicious manner as he bailed on the Sooners for USC Trojans. His tenure will go down as a blip in the big scheme of things. His 55 wins rank fifth all-time in wins behind legends of Norman. But those 55 wins are 67 wins behind fourth-place Bennie Owen.

He’ll be remembered for some of the individual awards his players achieved, but Riley will also be remembered for the underachievement of his teams and the way he departed the program.

Unlike the coaches that have more than twice as many wins as he does, Riley won’t be remembered fondly around Norman and won’t have a statue built anytime soon.

But as Oklahoma looks for their next head coach, let’s take a look at how each of the 22 head coaches in Oklahoma’s history ranks in total wins from worst to first.

Note: SoonerSports.com lists no coach for the 1896 season.  

Social Media reacts to Caleb Williams first start in OU’s 52-31 win over TCU

How did Social Media react to Caleb Williams’ first start and the Oklahoma Sooners win over the TCU Horned Frogs 52-31?

The internet was abuzz 30 minutes before kickoff as reports were coming in during warm-ups that Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams were both getting time with the first-team offense in different team sessions. As Lincoln Riley attempted to maintain some semblance of a competitive advantage, no one really had a handle on which quarterback would start for the Oklahoma Sooners against the TCU Horned Frogs.

When it was finally announced just before kickoff, it seemed like a new energy hit social media as the excitement about Caleb Williams grew to a fever pitch. What he and the Oklahoma Sooners offense would do over the next few hours would do little to quell the excitement over the Oklahoma Sooners new QB1.

As we do after each win, let’s take a look at some of the best social media reactions to the Oklahoma Sooners 52-31 win over the TCU Horned Frogs.

ESPN Analyst loosely suggests USC call Lincoln Riley, but here’s why it doesn’t make sense

As it does every time a top coaching job comes available, Lincoln Riley’s name has been loosely suggested for USC’s head coaching job by this ESPN Analyst.

It’s the song that never ends. It goes on and on, my friend.

Every time a head coaching vacancy comes open at a premiere program or with an NFL team, the Oklahoma Sooners head coach will get mentioned in concert.

It’s a story as old as… Well, as old as Lincoln, Riley’s been with the Sooners. At some point, the NFL or the other blue blood college football teams will come to grips with the reality that Lincoln Riley may not have been Sooner born or Sooner bred, but he’s a Sooner, and he’s a Sooner for the long-haul.

Of course, there’s a reason for other schools and NFL teams to want Riley. He developed three quarterbacks that started week one in the NFL, his top-notch recruiting classes, and his ability to maintain one of the best offenses in college football while turning over the most important position on offense four seasons in a row from Baker Mayfield’s last year to Spencer Rattler’s first.

Despite a seemingly down year in 2020, one where they lost two conference games and had to streak through conference play and get some help to win a sixth straight Big 12 championship, Riley remains one of the hot coaching commodities in all of football.

ESPN College Football analyst Joel Klatt put Lincoln Riley at the top of the list of head coaches that USC should call to gauge interest.

I mean, it’s a who’s who of college football coaches, and sure, USC would be wise to call every one of them to see if they’d be interested in a Jimbo Fisher powerhouse to powerhouse type move. But the reality is Lincoln Riley isn’t going anywhere.

USC has the makings to be a fantastic job. I mean, who wouldn’t want the chance to meet Snoop Dog. Despite the astronomical cost of living, the school has fantastic facilities, a rich tradition, some of the best uniforms in college football. It is the top program in one of the top recruiting hotbeds in the country.

It’s a big-time job in a big-time media market.

Oklahoma may not provide the same media market, but it has everything else that USC could offer including celebrities like Good Ole J.R. Jim Ross.

He has a chance to establish himself as one of the great Oklahoma Sooner head coaches, following in the line of Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, and Bob Stoops.

Speaking of Stoops. If a Sooners connected coach was going to head to Los Angeles, it would be the one who’s already working there as part of Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff Show; Bob Stoops. It’s not likely, but it’s certainly within the realm of possibilities.

That said, Lincoln Riley’s had a shot at moving on to the NFL, and other big-time college jobs have come open, and he’s stayed. Lincoln Riley’s said it repeatedly that he wants to be in Norman and wants to coach the Oklahoma Sooners.

Could he leave one day? Absolutely. He’s a young head coach that’s had a ton of success and might one day decide that he’s ready for another challenge. Of course, with a move to the SEC on the horizon, the challenges will be plenty for Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners.

So, with one of the best teams in college football in 2021, one of the best recruiting classes coming in 2022, and currently the top recruiting class in 2023 coming down the road. All the incentives are there for Riley to stay put in Norman.

If USC were to give Riley a ring to gauge his interest in the job, expect him to politely decline and then head back to the lab to come up with more ways to torment defensive coordinators.

Up next in his diabolical plans; the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Pair of Sooners legends make ‘ESPN’s Top 100 Coaches of past 50 years’

OU’s been fortunate to have some of the greatest head coaches in the history of football. 2 of them rank in the top 100 of ESPN’s list of best college coaches of the last 50 years.

Oklahoma has been fortunate to have long tenures of great head coaching throughout its history. It’s one of the reasons the Sooners are one of college football’s “blue bloods.” Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, and Bob Stoops.

Over the last 50 years, the Sooners have won four national championships and 30 conference championships. 22 of those conference championships were won by two guys that ranked inside the top 30 of ESPN analyst Bill Connelly’s “top 100 coaches of the past 50 years (ESPN+).”

26. Bob Stoops: 1999-2016

OU was at its lowest-ever ebb when Stoops took over in 1999 … and he won a national title in his second year. He couldn’t replicate that feat, but he turned the Sooners back into both an offensive innovator and the Big 12’s premier program. – Connely

Stoops took over a program that had gone 13 seasons without a conference championship and 15 years without a national championship. “Big Game Bob” took the Sooners from a 5-6 record to an undefeated season and a national championship in just two seasons.

He’s a living legend for Oklahoma, who, despite not winning another national championship for the Sooners during his tenure, built a winning tradition and legacy that has carried on into the Lincoln Riley era.

9. Barry Switzer: 1973-1988

Switzer rode the Wishbone and otherworldly recruiting to spectacular success in the 1970s, and after a brief identity crisis in the early 1980s, he returned to the Bone and went 33-3 from 1985 to ’87. Over half his seasons ended with the Sooners in the AP top three. – Connely

First of all, how? How is Barry Switzer ranked behind Bill Snyder?

Sure, Snyder took over a crap Kansas State program and turned into a respectable team, but the guy only had two conference titles in his run with the Wildcats. Switzer has more national championships than Snyder has conference titles.

Switzer won 12 conference titles and three national championships. He’s still a larger-than-life presence for the Sooners.

The “last 50 years” cutoff leaves the legendary Bud Wilkinson off the list despite coaching the Sooners till 1963. His last national championship was in 1956, which wouldn’t have made the timeframe. Go back another 10 years, and you have to put Wilkinson in your top 10.

Wilkinson’s 47 game win streak is a feat of dominance that would be incredibly difficult for any modern program to come close to. As great as the six straight conference titles under Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley have, Wilkinson, won 13 straight from 1947 to 1959. That’s more than twice as many.

Also notable is that Lincoln Riley was left off the list. Of course, Riley has just four seasons under his belt as a college head coach, but he’s accomplished far more in those four seasons than Mike Leach. Despite Leach’s offensive innovation, he has zero conference championships at three different stops. Leach comes in at number 41 on this list.

Perhaps more inexplicable is that Mike Gundy comes in at number 65 while Lincoln Riley’s left off the list. Gundy’s a good coach, but again, he’s won just one Big 12 title in his 16 seasons with Oklahoma State. Riley’s won four in four years. Longevity seems to have weighed heavily in the rankings.

One name that certainly deserves some consideration is Chuck Fairbanks.

In the wake of the Wilkinson era, Chuck Fairbanks had a decent run but could never finish atop the polls for a national championship. He had two seasons of 11 wins and one of 10 wins and finished inside the top three of the AP Poll three times.

His tenure set the stage for the dominance of Barry Switzer. Still, Fairbanks took over a team that had gone 15-15-1 in the previous three seasons and immediately turned them into an 11-1 team and a national title contender.

Though a scandalous end to his tenure ensued, the ESPN list allows for other head coaches with questionable careers; Joe Paterno, Urban Meyer, and many more. So why not include Fairbanks?

Certainly, he’s not the giant of the sport that other head coaches have been. However, Fairbanks had a successful run that fell short of the national title but won three conference championships. That’s as many as Mike Gundy, Mike Leach, and Bill Snyder combined.

Oklahoma Sooners’ top 12 moments in football from the Big 12 era

With migration to the SEC on the horizon, take a stroll down memory lane with the top 12 moments from the Oklahoma Sooners time in the Big 12.

One of the best things about sports, and college football, in particular, are the memories it creates for the fan that last a lifetime. In the Oklahoma Sooner’s dominance of the Big 12 since its inception, they’ve created quite a few memories.

With migration to the Southeastern Conference on the horizon, the Sooners’ reign at the top of the Big 12 will be concluding. Collecting 14 Big 12 Championships, the Oklahoma Sooners have created quite a few memorable moments along the way.

And as their future is headed to the SEC, let’s take a look back at the top 12 moments from the Oklahoma Sooners time in the Big 12 Conference.

Barry Switzer considers Oklahoma, Texas having interest in joining the SEC as misinformation

Barry Switzer considers Oklahoma and Texas having interest in joining the SEC as misinformation.

The Houston Chronicle published a story on Wednesday mentioning Oklahoma and Texas have reached out to the Southeastern Conference in regards of becoming a member.

The news took place on the third day of Southeastern Conference media days in Hoover, Alabama.

Following news from the Houston Chronicle about Oklahoma and Texas allegedly having interest in joining the SEC, former Sooners’ head coach Barry Switzer discussed the matter with Vols Wire.

Switzer told Vols Wire the news of Oklahoma having interest in joining the SEC is considered as misinformation.

Switzer served as Oklahoma’s head coach from 1973-88. He was 157–29–4 and won three national championships (1974, 1975, 1985).

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Emotional Jerry Jones opens Cowboys camp with stunning admission about Jimmy Johnson

“I should have had deference to something that was working,” Jones said of the 1994 episode that saw coach Jimmy Johnson leave the team.

The circus has come back to town. And the ringmaster was visibly emotional as the show got underway once again.

The Cowboys have re-assembled in Oxnard for training camp, with Wednesday’s opening press conference kicking off the proceedings before the first scheduled practice on Thursday morning. After 2020’s California trip was canceled by COVID-19, team owner Jerry Jones admitted that simply having the gang back together again for its 15th year at the River Ridge Playing Fields was enough to put him in a sentimental mood.

Over the course of the hourlong press conference in which he answered questions on everything from vaccination rates to his famously volatile relationship with the coach who brought him his first two trophies, the 78-year-old got noticeably choked up multiple times.

“Seriously, what you’re seeing is just how good it feels to be here,” Jones told reporters. “Doggone, just as much as I enjoy this stuff, I get to thinking, ‘Well, are you ever going to see that again? Are you ever going to be sitting up there talking to everybody again at the same time?’ I’m not going to apologize, but I am sensitive today and emotional about the whole show.”

It was a time for Jones to soak in some of the nostalgia surrounding the start of yet another football season and dust off a few of the memories that have come with having owned the Cowboys for over three decades, taking them from the league’s laughing stock to the most valuable sports franchise on the planet.

Winning three Super Bowls in four years shortly after taking the reins certainly helped create more than a few moments worth remembering. Jones recalled his first California training camp- then slightly east of Oxnard- shortly after purchasing the team.

“I remember coming out to Thousand Oaks, smelling that grass, being out where the great tradition that the Cowboys were for training camp, and it just… I just had to pinch myself to think that I got to be a part of that.”

Those were Jimmy Johnson’s earliest days as head coach in Dallas. Johnson will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in a few short weeks. Jones and the Cowboys will be present once again, as the team revisits its long rivalry with the Steelers in the accompanying exhibition game. The induction and the game were supposed to have happened last summer, before the pandemic and travel restrictions forced the league to postpone.

That it’s all come after so long a wait and so uncertain a time perhaps only adds to the emotion for Jones, who rolled unprompted into a remembrance about the shocking way their relationship ended when Johnson departed after the team’s second world title.

“Barry Switzer came in the office. And Jimmy had just left,” Jones shared, referring to the 1994 offseason. “Barry came down from Norman, Oklahoma, to talk about getting the job. And he comes in, and he said, ‘Where’s Jimmy?’ Now, Barry had coached us both. He said, ‘Where’s Jimmy?’ I said, ‘Jimmy’s gone.’ He said, ‘Well, that’s not right. Get him. Get him in here. Where’s Jimmy?’ I said, ‘Barry, Jimmy’s gone. We’re sitting here talking about you being the coach.’ I said, ‘What in the world are you so anxious to talk to Jimmy about?’ He said, ‘I just wanted to get both you little [expletive] on this couch and ask you both how could you [expletive] this up.’ That was Switzer.”

It’s a question most fans many around the football world asked at the time and in the years since. Switzer went on to win a Super Bowl of his own, but Johnson’s exit was the beginning of a long, slow, painful fade for the dynasty.

Jones knows it. And on Wednesday, he admitted his negligence in allowing it all to fall apart.

“I just think of those great times. And Jimmy’s a great coach. Great coach. Ridiculous that–,” Jones said before stopping himself and restarting. “My role here, it was my job to keep it together. It was my job. I should have had deference to something that was working good. So those are the things that come to my mind. We had a great run of it. He’s a great coach, and I’m proud to have him as a friend, and proud to have had the times that we had. We just had a great experience.”

That last sentence was a struggle for Jones to get out, choking up audibly as he did. Twenty-seven years after Switzer’s question, though, Jones still has no answer.

“I’ve never been able to know why I [expletive] it up,” Jones said. “Not just that, but anything else. No, I can’t answer those questions.”

Jones and Johnson still haven’t publicly made up, although Jones has softened in recent comments about his former coach and onetime college teammate. One of the most-anticipated storylines of the upcoming Hall of Fame ceremonies will be a possible reconciliation between the two.

And then talk will turn, as it always does, to Johnson’s inclusion in the Cowboys Ring of Honor. It’s an honor that Jones has not yet bestowed on Johnson, with many seeing the coach’s enshrinement in Canton as the final obstacle.

But Jones, ever the showman, is more than happy to prolong the drama and the leave that question unanswered, too, for the moment.

“You know, I don’t want to do anything that takes away from this year,” Jones said of Johnson. “He’ll have a year- provided everything goes good- he’ll have a year that we also honor his Hall of Fame, and it will be this year.”

Call it a cliffhanger of sorts, something perhaps for the assembled media to hound Jones about when they all reconvene in Oxnard in July 2022.

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Jerry Jones gets emotional, takes blame for Jimmy Johnson’s exit from Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones got emotional discussing Jimmy Johnson’s exit

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones showed a highly emotional side on Wednesday when meeting the media. The feelings came about big-time when Jones discussed Jimmy Johnson leaving his role as coach years ago and how the owner feels he “bleeped” up the situation up.

Jones remembered telling Barry Switzer how Johnson was gone and they were about to talk about the college football legend at Oklahoma becoming head coach of America’s team.

Switzer, as Jones tells the story, wanted nothing but to put the owner and his coach on the couch to figure things out.

Some salty language was used by Jones:

Johnson was head coach of the Cowboys from 1989-93. He is one of six in NFL history to coach consecutive Super Bowl winners, winning Super Bowl XXVII in 1992 and Super Bowl XXVIII in 1993.

Jones hired Switzer and the Cowboys won Super Bowl XXX two seasons after Johnson’s departure.