Tag: Chuck Fairbanks

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.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @AaronGelvin.

1974 Oklahoma one of ESPN’s top 15 most influential teams of all time

The 1974 Oklahoma Sooners were ranked as the 13th most influential college football team ever, according to ESPN’s Bill Connelly.

According to ESPN’s Bill Connelly (ESPN+), the 1974 Oklahoma Sooners are the 13th most influential college football team of all time.

Connelly released the second half of his list of the 30 most influential college football teams on Thursday, unveiling teams ranked 1-15. The 1974 Sooners landed at No. 13.

Of course, this team was coached by [autotag]Barry Switzer[/autotag], and was perhaps “The King’s” best team. The Sooners went 11-0 (7-0 in the Big Eight) and won the national championship. It was the first of two straight titles in the mid-1970s for Switzer.

Oklahoma was on probation from 1973 to 1975. However, 1974 was the only year out of that stretch that OU didn’t appear on television or in a bowl game. In those three seasons, the Sooners lost just one game and were tied just once.

The Sooners boasted a dominant roster on both sides of the ball in 1974. Only one opponent played the Sooners within two touchdowns and four foes failed to find the endzone at all. Meanwhile, Oklahoma led the country in scoring offense with an average of 43 points per game, led by [autotag]Joe Washington[/autotag] at running back

A few years before 1974, with Oklahoma having won just 20 games in three seasons, embattled head coach [autotag]Chuck Fairbanks[/autotag] sent his bright, young offensive coordinator Barry Switzer to Austin to learn the Wishbone from its inventor, Texas coordinator Emory Bellard. (That Texas head coach Darrell Royal allowed this speaks to an almost foolish level of generosity on his part.)…With both the secrets of this revolutionary offense and Oklahoma’s limitless speed in tow, OU proceeded to destroy Texas with its own invention. – Connelly, ESPN

The Sooners were named national champions by the Associated Press after the season. Oklahoma was not named the consensus national champion, however, as the Coaches Poll named USC as its national champion after the Trojans won the Rose Bowl.

Despite the probation and not being seen on television, the ’74 Sooners rolled through their entire regular season and didn’t need a bowl game to convince AP voters they were college football’s best team.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @AaronGelvin.

How first-year Oklahoma head coaches performed since 1947

With Brent Venables taking the reigns for the Oklahoma Sooners, let’s take a look back to see how former OU coaches performed in year 1.

Though initially it came as a shock to see Lincoln Riley leave for USC, it feels like the Sooners might have ended up in a better situation with Brent Venables as the newest head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. While there’s a lot of excitement about the future, there’s no guarantee it leads to the same amount of wins or more in Venables’ first year on the job.

The pieces are certainly in place and aside from the guys along the defensive front, the Sooners look to be in great shape to rebound in 2022 and get back to the Big 12 title game and contend for a spot in the College Football Playoff. It’s a tall task in year one, but Venables and the Sooners are in better shape than many first-year head coaches were when they took over at Oklahoma.

Let’s take a look at how former Oklahoma Sooners head coaches performed in their first season on the job.

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.  

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.

Ravens’ rushing attack has set franchise record — on pace for NFL record in 2019

The 2019 Ravens have broken the franchise record for rushing yards in a single season and are on pace for an NFL record in a passing league

The modern NFL is a passing league, we are constantly reminded. Running the ball is inefficient and the forward pass is the only way to move the football effectively in 2019. No point even bothering trying to run the ball. Throw, throw and then throw some more.

This is something of an exaggeration of course. But the idea that you can set rushing records in 2019 AND be one of the best offenses in football would have seemed fanciful in August. Yet, with two games still remaining this season, the Baltimore Ravens sit atop the AFC North (and many pundits’ power rankings too) on the back of a historic ground attack.

After 14 games, the Ravens have amassed 2,830 rushing yards at an average of 5.53 yards per attempt and an astonishing 202.1 yards per game. The next most run-happy team is the San Francisco 49ers. Most years San Francisco’s 149.1 yards per game would easily be the most. But not this year.

The Ravens still have two games left to play, but this is still the most rushing yards they have amassed in a single season in team history. They already have 156 yards more than they managed in 2003, the previous best when thanks to 2,066 yards from Jamal Lewis they powered their way to 2,674.

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

To put Baltimore’s achievement into historical context, you have to go back to the 1978 New England Patriots for the last time a team had this many rushing yards after 14 games. The Chuck Fairbanks-led Patriots had 2,839 after 14 games and finished with 3,165.

That Patriots team is one of only two teams to finish a season with more than 3,000 rushing yards. The 1973 Buffalo Bills were the other and like the 2003 Baltimore team, they got there on the back off a historic season by a running back. Hall of Fame runner O.J. Simpson rushed for 2,003 yards in a 14 game season for the Bills.

It is possible that if results go Baltimore’s way in Week 16, the team may be able to clinch the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, making the final somewhat meaningless. You would suspect that it would make the Ravens reaching their per game rushing average in the next two contests difficult, especially if starters are rested. But if they are able to maintain their pace, then the 2019 Ravens would finish with 3,234 rushing yards. This would be good enough to set an all-time NFL record . . . in a passing league.

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