Your Favorite OU Football Seasons

[stoopified]

I'm will say upfront that is a cop-out to say all of them ,recall the '90's ?

For me my favorite seasons are:

1971-Explosion of the Wishbone.Among the highlights- 48-27 beatdown of UT in THE BATTLE of the Bones,averaging 472 yards a game RUSHING for the season.This is still an NCAA record and nobody else is close.

1973-Barry Switzer takes over and HOW.Before the season OU was put on probation because HS coaches altered the transcripts of QB Kerry Jackson,DE Mike Phillips.OU is picked in the middle of the Big 8 pack BUT QB Steve Davis has other ideas leading the Sooners to 10-0-1 season.Perfection was marred by 7-7 tie with defending NC Trojans.OU finished game with 339 yards offense(330 rushing,9 passing) while holding USC to 159(102 passing 57 rushing).Missed FGs cost us.

1978- OU beat everyone we played that year and Billy won the Heisman.IF(fnot for SIX lost fumbles (including Sims fumble at the Husker TWO yardline)OU wins the NC instead of leaving Lincoln down 14-17.Rematch in the OB is not even close ,OU leads 31-17 entering the Fourth,Huskers two late PRIDE tds.

!987-OU rolls through the regular season,faces Miami for all the marbles.I really thought after 2 straight losses running pure 'Bone at UM that Barry was going to open up the playbook(ala Nebraska),after all we had SIX WEEKS to get ready.Oddly enough years later Barry says that looking ahead to spring 1989 he was thinking of a Husker style option& passing attack.

2000-From the basement to the penthouse 13-0 and NATIONAL CHAMPS.I was hoping to MAYBE win the South and have a chance at the Big 12 title.proably has to be my second all-time favorite OU season.

My favorite season?It is laways the season that is just about to start.

[OUmillenium]

1. 2000 - Just got better as the year went on.
2. 2003 - Season tix (4), JW had a great start in the rain v North Tejas then a Heisman season.
3. 2004 - tix again and an undefeated reg season with lots of AD
4. 1985 - Boz + Casillas + Jamelle + KJ
5. 1987 - Jamelle, then CT + Stafford n Collins, great win at NU

Really enjoyed 88-90 as well. Had the subscription to Sooners Illustrated going. Could not get enough OU football and hoops.

All other 2000s are highly ranked except 2005. 2007 was really fun and 2008 was awesome with Sammy getting the Heisman

[bixby28]

Since I am only 29, i'll pick two from my era of sooner football.

2000: Miracle team that took on murderers row in October and couldn't be beat.

2008: Very talented team that had all of the tools to go all the way. Very exciting offense.

[bstuff1979]

I'm a MAN, I'M 30...so I don't have all that many great years to pick from (not counting anything pre-'90. Yes, I went to the games...but had no clue what was going on aside from screaming when everyone else did). That being said, here are my three favorite seasons:

'93: This was probably the first year that I had a rough idea as to x's and o's. I'd been going to the games since I was toddler, so arguably I could throw in '85 or '87. But, that would be a stretch. Hard to say it's my favorite when I vaguely remember it. This was a good, but not great team. In any event, the defense was solid and the offense was sporting thunder-n-lightning. Also, texas State Champs.

'96: Not so much for the season, but just for the OU-texas game that year. It was a rough year for the fam, my aunt (unexpectedly) and grandmother passed away within a month of each other. Both were HUGE OU fans. In fact, prior to that season I don't think my grandmother had missed a home game since the late '50s. Her funeral took place during the OU texas game(something that was both very fitting and something that likely would have ticked her off). If ya'll remember, OU was a 27 point 'dog and texas was a pre-season top ten team with James Brown at qb. The funeral had ended at halftime and the whole 'fam watched the second half at my parents house. Needless to say, with the funeral, my grandmother and aunt's obsessive preoccupation with OU football, and the miracle come-back win, it was a bit emotional.

'00: Was in Ohio for this season, but thank the Lord I broke down and purchased a cable box and ESPN gameplan for my dorm room that year. I still remember the one weekend I went off campus with a group of friends. We went to some ski-lodge in Pennsylvania. That was the A&M game. They did not have gameplan. That was torture, waiting on the ABC ticker and absolutely freaking out.

[TXBOOMER]

2000 Bar None for me. It was a rough go for many years and for that to happen it was awesome. I've certainly enjoyed all the season since. It is nice to be a national powerhouse year in and year out.

[JLEW1818]

2005

[OUstud]

2000, no question

[Sooner24]

1974 & 2000

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

2004. My freshman year at OU, first year in the Pride, and AD just went NUTS...especially in all the right games. Also had a reigning Heisman winner. Undefeated regular season, then had a blast in Miami. I can't quite remember why I was in Miami in January to begin with, but I know I had fun.

Also, I came from a HS where our football team was terrible, and no one cared. I only went to those games because I had to. That all changed in 2004...and football (OU, college, and pros) became my dirty jealous mistress.

[setem]

The next one!

[BoulderSooner79]

'74 - my freshman year at OU. 11-0 and AP #1. An honor to watch Joe Washington and that ridiculous multi-Selmon defense.

'78 - last season as a student. Billy Sims Heisman and star players at every position.

2000 - the revival and Stoops showing the turnaround in '99 was no fluke.

'87 - awesome regular season and if only Jamelle didn't get hurt before the Orange bowl. Sigh, the greatest game that never was.

[goingoneight]

Every Stoops season so far has been marked with something memorable, some more than others... but check it out...

1999 = a new era, shows tons of promise, and gets OU into the post-season for the first time in four years. Maybe not the post-season anyone cares about... but did anyone really prefer going 5-7 and WATCHING all the bowls?

2000 = Had it all. A true team effort, a defense that was night and day from the previous year. Started out ranked as low as 20 in some polls, "ranked" as the top team to be "exposed" during the historic "Red October Run." Beating #11 Texas, winning convincingly at #2 Kansas State and the furious comeback and thrashing of top-ranked Nebraska may stand as the greatest 30-day stretch in college football history. Thing is, it's not like the season was a snoozer after that... it continued to get more and more exciting with every game. OUr "lowly" JUCO-transfer QB made it to New York and won the MNC despite shattering his wrist earlier in the season. I still have my "Believe the Heup" t-shirt, and I may even frame it with my 2000 Orange Bowl game ball.

2001 = "The play." Regardless how butt-hurt the Dallas area football fans got over TRRW's declining performance in the league... the 2001 football season was forever marked by "The (Superman) Play." 10-2, Cotton Bowl champs is a season most other programs (*COUGH* OKLAHOMA STATE *COUGH*!!!) dream about. For us, it was just following up a National Championship year with a quite a bit of rebuilding to do.

2002 = Injuries to QB Jason White was the difference between 13-0 and 11-2. For all the people who love to hate on Nate, he's on the same Rose Bowl MVP list as Vince Young, Matt Leinart and Sam Bradford... oh, wait... didn't mean to spoil that one for ya. :O

2003 = The bronze trophy returns to Norman. First time the little Heisman statue had two knee braces on it. The whorn fans who claimed never again would we run up 63 points on them, sat and watched us put 65 on the board, this time resting OUr starters early in the 4th Qtr.

2004 = Another magical JW year overshadowed by the emergence of Adrian Peterson. AD may one day be known as one of the greatest of all-time at all levels of the game. I wonder how many yards he would have had if the coaching staff wasn't hesitant to throw him out there early-on as hard as they ran him after about game 5.

2005 = Not a great year, TBH... but any other coach in the country might have been watching the bowls in the post-season having started 20 freshmen and played the toughest schedule in the history of college football. No, we were one screw job away from probably playing in the Fiesta Bowl. Hindsight is 20/20, though... if Rhett Bomar won a BCS Bowl, the haters might have been even more vocal about how we were punished following his dismissal. If you're going to start 20 freshmen, play the toughest schedule in the country, and you knew ahead of time you were going to get screwed in at least one of your games... you *might* say 8-4 with a win over one-loss Oregon in San Diego wasn't too bad a "break" between championship seasons.

2006 = The Paul Thompson Story. Haters will remember Bomargate, 28-10 and the infamous Fiesta Bowl with Boise State. Will they remember that this team went 11-3, with a WR/ATH playing QB, that they'd been screwed yet again out of another game and that a once-a-generation talent, the anchor of your offense went down just before the most difficult stretch of the season? "The drive" against Nebraska in the BIG 12 Championship may be top-five, the biggest four-minute stretch in Sooner Football history. So we lost to Boise State... if not for PT's game-clincher, Nebraska would have been blown out in Arizona and we'd have been the reason Tommy Tubberville was fired long before 2008. This is FACT. Not bad for a year best described as "the **** hits the fan."

2007 = Good quarterback play means Oklahoma wins 8 or nine games. Great quarterback play means we could beat Texas and Miami. OUstanding quarterback play and the sky was the limit. Sam Bradford's phenomenal debut can NEVER be blamed for the three losses in 2007. 36 TD passes and 8 picks for anyone else this year and I bet you think they're National Champions with a fifth-year senior QB. Did we mention that this "project QB" led the NATION in pass efficiency? That after three games he had more TDs than incomplete passes? Oh, yeah... he stopped the "streak" before it started in Dallas, too. The 28-21 OU/Texas game in 2007 was the best I've ever seen for a competitive matchup, the season rides on a win... there's offense, there's defense, there's a big kick or two and one critical mistake is the difference between winnar and losar! That would be Jamaal Charles tipping the screen pass up to Reggie Smith. Thanks, Jamaal. Another reason Chase Daniel hates you... that meant he had to play us in San Antonio instead of you. :D Did I mention we throttled the #1 team in the country for OUr fifth BIG 12 title? 5 BIG 12 Championships with 5 different QBs. That's like Texas' 1 BIG 12 Championship with 1 different quarterback... times 5!!! :P Laying a turd against West Virginia was quickly forgiven when taken into account 6 very important starters were out and that we clobbered the BIG East Champ a mere 8 months later for a little vengeance.

2008 = The Bronze Statue is back where it belongs. Only thing that's missing for next year is the crystal ball. Depth was bad karma for us defensively, but a world of experience and maturity was gained through humbling, high-scoring games where Oklahoma was playing mid-major ball... team with the best offense WINS! 65-21 cemented Norman, Oklahoma as the most difficult stadium to play in bar none for the 2000s IMO. Not a home winning streak I see ending anytime soon.

[OUAlumni1990]

2000, biggest comeback in the history of college football, perfect season, smashed Texas, SI Cover

[Jdog]

1. 2000 - #1 Orange Bowl BEAT FSU -
2. 1975 - #1 Orange Bowl BEAT MICHIGAN
3. 1985 - #1 Orange Bowl BEAT PENN STATE
4. 1971 - #2 Sugar Bowl BEAT AUBURN
5. 1968 - #3 Orange Bowl BEAT TENNESSE

[E-Town]

This coming season!!!

Just got back from the future and the 2012, 2014, 2015 & 2017 seasons will be most excellent. This coming season we will go undefeated and Sam wins his 2nd stiff arm trophy while bringing home the crystal ball.

BTW - since I was in the future I took a quick peek at the Okie Lite Cowpukes season 2019 and they will "STILL" be dreaming about winning the Big Twelve Championship and will "STILL" be considering themselves as a "Team on the rise".

:D

[unbiasedtruth]

favorite season of OU football??? quite simple..... everyone since I was born win or lose....

[sooner59]

1. 2000 - Since I have been following the Sooners, this was the best, hands down.
2. 2003 - I really thought we would win the MNC, and we almost did.
3. 2004 - We were alright until the USC game and it got bad.
4. 2008 - I really thought we were going to win it last year.....damn.
5. 2002 - We won the Rose Bowl, how can I complain?
6. 2006 - Yeah we lost a BCS game but I am still proud of that team given the circumstances.

I am only 24, so I wasn't a huge Sooner fan until 1996, so my favorites are fairly recent.

[Sooner MagicJ]

2003-it was the first time I watched every game of the season I was 12

2006-I got to be at the fiesta bowl in the 2nd row...on the endzone boise won :/ still a great year and a awesome game to be at

2007-Sam Bradford became OUr qb

2008-it was just a fun year other than losing to texas and having to go to a Texas High school getting an ear full from the Texass fans -.- although the school was at least 10% sooner fans

[Since71ASooner4Life]

1978- OU beat everyone we played that year and Billy won the Heisman.IF(fnot for SIX lost fumbles (including Sims fumble at the Husker TWO yardline)OU wins the NC instead of leaving Lincoln down 14-17.Rematch in the OB is not even close ,OU leads 31-17 entering the Fourth,Huskers two late PRIDE tds.



I still think 1978 was about the most talented team ever. I cant name them all any more but recollection is that a great many of them made it to Sunday rosters. Billy Sims, Kenny King, David Overstreet, Greg Roberts, Thomas
Lott, Uwe von Schamann, George Cumby, Reggie Kinlaw, Reggie Mathis, Darrol Ray, Daryl Hunt, Paul & Phil Tabor ...... that team was loaded.

[ouwasp]

2000, of course.

But 1985 is way up there. Troy breaking his leg in the miami loss, then Jamelle becoming a phenom overnight, rolling through the rest of the season, including a noteworthy victory over Neb. All the crying from the canes over who should be #1...then they go down in flames as the Sooners beat up Penn St.....and I was there at the OB, taunting the yanks. Good stuff...

[the_ouskull]

The mid-90's.

That's right. THOSE were my favorite football seasons. Yeah, we were getting the sh*t kicked out of us, badly, by teams that I considered vastly inferior... But I tell you this much: Finding people at those games; "fans" at those games, that were treating the game like a secondary thing on a Saturday, was a lot harder to do. If you were at games during the Blake years, then you "meant" it.

It was a lot cheaper, to park, to attend, to get a soda... everything... The games were (almost) always exciting.

The most important thing...

When we lost, back then, I felt like it was because the other team was better; they usually were. NOW, when we lose, I don't usually feel like the other team was better. (Excepting Florida...) I feel like we weren't as good as we should be. I don't like feeling like that when I'm watching OU football, and I hope that this group of players realize what it means to wear Crimson and Cream in Norman. If we lose, I want to get beaten by a better team, in a game in which our players played to the full extent of their physical and mental abilities and our coaches were constantly searching for new ways to attack and to defend, rather than becoming complacent, just because something is working, or becoming TOO reactive when something isn't working yet...

Because if all of that happens, then we have a shot to win it all, again, this year. So, do we beat our bowl opponent, or lose to them?

the_ouskull

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

My Top 5:
1) 1985 We won the whole enchilada, and I was there at the game to see and feel the glory, and watch those arrogant SOB PSU fans go home PO'd.
2) 2000 Magical surprise win of title, with a new "B" coach, and renewed exuberance for Sooner football, after the most miserable OU football drought in my lifetime.
3) 1974 We mowed 'em down, like we are supposed to, and didn't even have to play a bowl game to win it all.
4)1971 most exciting offense of all time, and the best team in college football that year, although we got the absolute worst officiating shaft job AT HOME, even, in the "Game of the Century".
5)1956 Bud's crowning glory, his last of 3 undefeated seasons in a row. QB Jimmy Harris, 3-yr starter for the Sooners never lost a college game. We beat the domer that yr in a shutout 40-0 in domer's bend, up north. Dad took me to several games at OU that yrear. I was 11, and believed that year was to be the norm for Sooner football from then on.

[stoopified]

The mid-90's.

That's right. THOSE were my favorite football seasons. Yeah, we were getting the sh*t kicked out of us, badly, by teams that I considered vastly inferior... But I tell you this much: Finding people at those games; "fans" at those games, that were treating the game like a secondary thing on a Saturday, was a lot harder to do. If you were at games during the Blake years, then you "meant" it.

It was a lot cheaper, to park, to attend, to get a soda... everything... The games were (almost) always exciting.

The most important thing...

When we lost, back then, I felt like it was because the other team was better; they usually were. NOW, when we lose, I don't usually feel like the other team was better. (Excepting Florida...) I feel like we weren't as good as we should be. I don't like feeling like that when I'm watching OU football, and I hope that this group of players realize what it means to wear Crimson and Cream in Norman. If we lose, I want to get beaten by a better team, in a game in which our players played to the full extent of their physical and mental abilities and our coaches were constantly searching for new ways to attack and to defend, rather than becoming complacent, just because something is working, or becoming TOO reactive when something isn't working yet...

Because if all of that happens, then we have a shot to win it all, again, this year. So, do we beat our bowl opponent, or lose to them?

the_ouskullI have had season tickets since '88 and I was there in the Blake years but I have no mrmories at all of THAT period of football shame. You definitely march to a different drummer, brother.

[BoulderSooner79]

The mid-90's.

That's right. THOSE were my favorite football seasons. Yeah, we were getting the sh*t kicked out of us, badly, by teams that I considered vastly inferior... But I tell you this much: Finding people at those games; "fans" at those games, that were treating the game like a secondary thing on a Saturday, was a lot harder to do. If you were at games during the Blake years, then you "meant" it.

It was a lot cheaper, to park, to attend, to get a soda... everything... The games were (almost) always exciting.

The most important thing...

When we lost, back then, I felt like it was because the other team was better; they usually were. NOW, when we lose, I don't usually feel like the other team was better. (Excepting Florida...) I feel like we weren't as good as we should be. I don't like feeling like that when I'm watching OU football, and I hope that this group of players realize what it means to wear Crimson and Cream in Norman. If we lose, I want to get beaten by a better team, in a game in which our players played to the full extent of their physical and mental abilities and our coaches were constantly searching for new ways to attack and to defend, rather than becoming complacent, just because something is working, or becoming TOO reactive when something isn't working yet...

Because if all of that happens, then we have a shot to win it all, again, this year. So, do we beat our bowl opponent, or lose to them?

the_ouskull

Some very interesting observations there. A downside (if you want to call it that) of being an elite team is that losses really stick with you. They don't come often and many times feel like they shouldn't have happened. Not counting the rebuilding years of '99 and '05, I only think there were 3 games in the Stoops era where I thought the other team was just better: USC, UF & UWV. UWV only because we had 6 starters out and most of them key players. If we had DM against UF, I would have rated it a toss-up. Another element that is rare is upsetting a superior team because we don't play many of those. Just out-dueling an equal team becomes the biggest excitement. We did that against FSU, Oregon in '05, and UT multiple times. I think this is the reason the UT game is so anticipated each year (that, combined with the history).