Tag: Bennie Owen

Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in ESPN’s top 25 stadiums

Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is one of the most iconic settings in all of sports.

College football is all about the pride, passion, and pageantry of the sport, which is unmatched by anything else. The fans, the atmospheres, and the moments can’t be topped by any other sport, college, or professional.

ESPN took the time this week to rank their Top 25 college football stadiums as the 2024 season approaches in a month and a half.

We asked 14 of our college football writers to rank the best stadiums in the sport. No parameters, no criteria. Writers were asked to submit their top 20 stadiums in order. We then awarded points: 20 for first-place votes, 19 for second and all the way down to 1 point for a stadium voted No. 20. – ESPN

The Oklahoma Sooners play in one of the best stadiums in college football, and ESPN agreed, putting them in the Top 25. [autotag]Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium[/autotag] ranked No. 24 on their list.

Here’s what ESPN’s Dave Wilson had to say about the iconic stadium:

Also known as the “Palace on the Prairie,” the Sooners’ stadium is surrounded by reminders of Oklahoma’s football glory. Outside the south end zone, there are statues of coaching legends [autotag]Bennie Owen[/autotag], [autotag]Bud Wilkinson[/autotag], [autotag]Barry Switzer[/autotag] and [autotag]Bob Stoops[/autotag]. On the east side, Heisman Park is packed with seven of the Sooners’ [autotag]Heisman Trophy[/autotag] winners: [autotag]Billy Vessels[/autotag] (1952), [autotag]Steve Owens[/autotag] (1969), [autotag]Billy Sims[/autotag] (1978), [autotag]Jason White[/autotag] (2003), [autotag]Sam Bradford[/autotag] (2008), [autotag]Baker Mayfield[/autotag] (2017) and [autotag]Kyler Murray[/autotag] (2018). Amid the Gothic architecture of the surrounding campus, “BOOMER” and “SOONER” ring out, as the Sooner Schooner glides across the field, forming one of the most quintessentially college settings in the country. – Wilson, ESPN

ESPN also gave their ranking criteria for the list, as Oklahoma finished with 40 points, two ahead of Texas‘ Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

In addition, Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium turns 100 years old this season, and the university has a number of different themes and promotions planned out for its centennial season.

The Sooners will begin the season in their home stadium on Friday, August 30th, when they take on the Temple Owls.

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Sooners have the best back seven in the SEC per Phil Steele

College football expert Phil Steele thinks OU’s back seven can match up with anybody in the SEC.

Defense was long a strength for the Oklahoma Sooners. The [autotag]Bennie Owen[/autotag], [autotag]Bud Wilkinson[/autotag], [autotag]Chuck Fairbanks[/autotag] and [autotag]Barry Switzer[/autotag] days produced hard-nosed, hard-hitting defensive units that, along with explosive offenses, helped the Sooners win six national championships. Wilkinson and Switzer each took home three titles in the 20th century.

After the dreadful 1990s, [autotag]Bob Stoops[/autotag]’ arrival meant OU was back to being a contender on the national stage. “Big Game Bob” added Oklahoma’s seventh national title in 2000 and kept the Sooners in the title picture quite often in his time as the head coach.

Defense was Stoops’ calling card. He was the defensive coordinator for coaching legends Bill Snyder and Steve Spurrier. Oklahoma enjoyed stifling defenses for most of Stoops’ tenure as the head coach.

But, in the mid-to-late 2010’s, OU’s defense slipped below the standard in Norman. Stoops’ final season and the [autotag]Lincoln Riley[/autotag] era at Oklahoma saw the offense being required to carry too much of the load to keep the Sooners in the title hunt. [autotag]Baker Mayfield[/autotag], [autotag]Kyler Murray[/autotag] and [autotag]Jalen Hurts[/autotag] were able to do so, but as the decade changed, the Sooners had fallen out of the [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag].

After Riley’s departure to Southern California, [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] was hired to bring back the defensive standard. It has taken a couple of years, but Venables may finally have the pieces in the right place to do the things he wants to do on defense.

In 2022, Venables’ first season, the Sooners were horrid defensively, leading to a 6-7 season. They allowed 30 points per game, finishing 99th in the nation in scoring defense. Last season, however, Oklahoma went 10-3 and the defense took a major step forward, improving its scoring defense 50 spots to 23.5 points per game.

Now, going into Year 3 under Venables, one college football analyst thinks OU has two of the best position units in the [autotag]SEC[/autotag].

Phil Steele released his position rankings for every SEC team heading into the 2024 season. Oklahoma had two units ranked No. 1 in the conference.

OU’s linebackers are the SEC’s best, according to Steele. [autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag] leads the way on the inside, but [autotag]Kip Lewis[/autotag], [autotag]Kobie McKinzie[/autotag] and [autotag]Jaren Kanak[/autotag] join him to make the Sooners at least two deep at both spots. [autotag]Lewis Carter[/autotag] will also see more snaps in 2024 as well.

At the cheetah position, [autotag]Kendel Dolby[/autotag] and [autotag]Dasan McCullough[/autotag] will see the majority of the snaps, but [autotag]Samuel Omosigho[/autotag] and [autotag]Michael Boganowski[/autotag] are younger options who will be on the field quite a bit as well.

Steele also thinks OU’s secondary is the best in the conference. [autotag]Billy Bowman[/autotag] headlines the safety position, with [autotag]Peyton Bowen[/autotag] and [autotag]Robert Spears-Jennings[/autotag] in line for more playing time after graduation, NFL and portal losses.

At cornerback, veteran [autotag]Woodi Washington[/autotag] returns for his fifth season, but he will be playing a little bit of everything this year. [autotag]Gentry Williams[/autotag], [autotag]Kani Walker[/autotag] and [autotag]Dez Malone[/autotag] will all be experienced options on the outside, but there’s youth at corner as well. [autotag]Jacobe Johnson[/autotag] and [autotag]Makari Vickers[/autotag] both saw time last year due to injuries.

More: 5 Sooners who could see an increased workload in 2024

Of course, Oklahoma needs to keep improving to get back to the way things are supposed to be for the Sooners.

Competing for and winning championships are the expectations. Quarterback, offensive line and defensive line all ranked outside of the SEC’s top five in Steele’s estimation. While the QB ranking is due to [autotag]Jackson Arnold[/autotag]’s inexperience, the Sooners have to get better in the trenches to be where they want to be.

However, it’s been a long time since the defense has been as loaded in Norman as it is right now. Combine that with an offense that certainly isn’t lacking in talent, and the Brent Venables vision is starting to become clearer for the Sooners. Venables has the makings of a complementary, holistic program from top to bottom.

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How do Big 12 stadiums rank in capacity heading into 2023?

A look at how each Big 12 stadium stacks up in capacity heading into the 2023 season.

The 2023 college football season is nearly upon us. Week zero opens next Saturday. Schools in the Big 12 will begin their season in two weeks.

The league is welcoming four new teams, and four new venues into the Big 12 footprint for the season. BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF join the league adding new venues.

Here’s a look at how the 14 Big 12 stadiums rank in capacity heading into 2023.

Oklahoma is the second winningest Power Five program this century

Since Oklahoma won the 2000 national championship, they’ve been one of the most successful programs in the nation.

It is no secret, the Univesity of Oklahoma is a true blue blood in the college football landscape.

They’ve been that way since Bennie Owen led them to its first 10-win season in 1915. It was then followed by Bud Wilkinson, who took it to another level, including winning three national championships and having an NCAA record 47-game winning streak.

Barry Switzer then created the “monster” that is Oklahoma football in the 1970s and 1980s, winning three more national championships.

Then at the turn of the century, Bob Stoops, in his second season in Norman, reminded the college football world that Oklahoma is back and here to stay after a pedestrian 1990s decade.

Since Oklahoma won the 2000 national championship, they’ve been one of the most successful programs in the nation.

They’ve dominated the conference, winning 14 Big 12 championships. Whether it was Stoops or Lincoln Riley leading the way, Oklahoma has been a perennial powerhouse this century.

They’ve been so dominant that only one other program has a higher winning percentage than the Sooners, Ohio State.

Brent Venables played a big part in that success when he was a defensive coordinator under Stoops and hopes to continue that success after a poor first season in 2022. There’s no doubt it’s going to be different going to the SEC. However, it’s a move the administration is ready for, believing they have the right guy to lead them there.

Why does it matter that the Sooners are one of the most successful programs since 2000. Because they can tout it to prospects on the recruiting trail. Oklahoma is in some heated battles for several big-time recruits, including two five-star defensive linemen in David Stone and Williams Nwaneri.

With commitment dates for both coming in August, the time is now to turn up the heat on the recruiting trail.

If they’re able to land the pair of top 10 players, Stone and Nwaneri will play a big role in reminding everyone, “There’s only one Oklahoma.”

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Where do the Oklahoma Sooners rank in study of largest college football fan bases?

Where do the Oklahoma Sooners fall in a study of estimated fanbases in college football?

As a football program, few programs have had as much success or more than the Oklahoma Sooners in their history. They’ve been the powerhouse in the Big 12 for the last two decades, winning more conference championships than the rest of the programs combined.

Nestled in the heart of Oklahoma, the Sooners have built themselves into a blue blood program thanks in part to the work of Bennie Owen, Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, Bob Stoops, and yes, even Lincoln Riley. They’re a team synonymous with winning, offensive football, and Heisman trophies.

They’ve never been a flash-in-the-pan program. While the Sooners have had short-lived periods of poor play on the field, they never lasted long, and rarely did it mean a losing season. According to College Football Reference, the Oklahoma Sooners have had just 11 losing seasons in their 114-year run. That’s a remarkable run of success. By comparison, the Texas Longhorns have had 17 losing seasons in their history.

That record of success has helped them build one of the largest college football fanbases in the country despite their home state’s small population.

Strategy analyst Tony Altimore underwent a process to analyze the fan bases  of Football Bowl Subdivision teams, and the Oklahoma Sooners came in at No. 17 in the study.

Here’s what they looked at in their study:

Includes inbound conference teams only, excluding some newly promoted FCS teams lacking prior data. Source: New York Times and NYT 538 studies of fanbases in 2011 and 2014 and of Vivid Seats ticket sales data in 2014, normalized with 2020 U.S. Census data and Google trends data and multiple studies of overall national CFB fan support. Inputs from each study are averaged based on number of inputs to avoid penalizing (primarily G-3) teams not included in all three studies. – Tony Altimore

Ohio State came in at No. 1, followed by Notre Dame at No. 2. Texas, with Oklahoma heading to the SEC, had the third-biggest fanbase in the study’s estimation. Coming in ahead of Penn State at No. 4 and Michigan to round out the top five.

The new-look SEC fared very well in the study as 15 of the 16 schools made the top 40 in estimated fan base. Vanderbilt, who has struggled in football in recent seasons, was tied at No. 63 with the Big Ten’s Northwestern, who was the only school in the new-look conference outside the top 50.

While Texas has a sizeable advantage in the fanbase size, one must also consider that the state of Texas has a much larger population than Oklahoma. It’s the age-old discussion about why Oklahoma has so many players from Texas on the roster. There’s simply a larger player pool to recruit from.

The study has certain limitations, which is why it’s an estimate. The studies used are nearly a decade old. However, it’s interesting to see how the teams and leagues stack up based on the numbers involved. It’s unlikely things have changed so radically in support that teams would drop off, but that’s not to say things might look different if they were based on more recent numbers, were they available.

It’s not surprising that the SEC leads the way in average fanbase per school, followed by the Big Ten. Those two conferences are considered one and two in unofficial rankings of the Power Five. It’s also not surprising to see the Big 12 fall to fifth among the Power Five, with Texas and Oklahoma shifting to the SEC.

Because this study came out before the moves of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, it’s not been updated to reflect the recent realignment. However, when you add the former Pac-12 schools, they still lag behind the SEC.

And when you take out USC and UCLA from the Pac-12, they still rank ahead of the Big 12 in average fanbase per school by more than half a million.

The ever-changing landscape of college football has led to discussions about brand recognition and drawing power. With that, let’s take a look at the top 25 schools in estimated fan base according to this study.

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.

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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.