What went wrong this season.

[8timechamps]

By the way, this is also where we should be chiming in on the "where is the TE threat" to make the defense honest.

I love Blake Bell, but...in the end, he wasn't a tight end that defensive coordinators were all that worried about. OSU wasn't in the least bit concerned that we might waggle Bell out for 6-12 yard pattern and catching them with too many committed to the run.

Good point.

I think we all love Bell and appreciate all he did as a Sooner, but he was learning on the job. We need a guy that knows the position and has at least played it in high school. The one long pass play to Bell was indicative of what a TE is supposed to be able to do in the passing game, but we just didn't include it much for most of the season.

I thought Taylor McNamara was going to be the guy to get us back to playing with a solid TE, but apparently he was overrated by the services. He could always come out next year and light it up, but he'll have to make some major leaps in the offseason.

Dalton Wood, the kid that we got from McAlester is a very promising prospect, as are current freshmen Mark Andrews and Jeffery Mead. I really the recent emphasis on recruiting TEs means that we'll see them a lot more. We saw a little this year, but not as much as we probably should have.

[EatLeadCommie]

They did try to bootleg Thomas during one of those final possessions and he got smothered. But, you can't bootleg with eight in the box. With eight in, you have have your OL whipping their assignments and getting you three to four a pop.

Our OL wasn't dominating. We were getting one or two per pop.

The cameraman totally screwed the pooch on that play, so I couldn't tell what was going on. It didn't look like a bootleg to me though. It looked like a keeper option. I seem to recall that being on 2nd and long too, not 3rd and manageable.

[Tear Down This Wall]

The cameraman totally screwed the pooch on that play, so I couldn't tell what was going on. It didn't look like a bootleg to me though. It looked like a keeper option. I seem to recall that being on 2nd and long too, not 3rd and manageable.

But, we are still getting at the same point: what to do against the stacked line. Okie State was sending guys in from the edge, so QB run was not going to work outside the tackles, and you don't generally run the QB up the middle expcet with draws.

You do, however, when you have the fullback talent, have the ability to go 3-5 yards a pop against eight fronts. With Ripkowski and a very experienced OL, we should have been able to push Oklahoma State off the ball that late in the game. There was no reason to have Ross and Ford just getting on or two yards per rush. That isn't good.

And, again, with no tight end threat, you aren't throwing the ball.

Crazy.

[SouthFortySooner]

As I watch the games again throughout the offseason, I will see if my original feelings are confirmed. The feeling of having seen Ahmad Thomas walking up to a tackled receiver, from deeper on the field, over and over and over again.

[OkieThunderLion]

In short, I think we got too big defensively thru position charges...

Wilson from nickel/Sam to corner
Striker from WOLB to SOLB
Grissom from DE to WOLB

All guys played liked misfits for their new positions

[birddog]

In short, I think we got too big defensively thru position charges...

Wilson from nickel/Sam to corner
Striker from WOLB to SOLB
Grissom from DE to WOLB

All guys played liked misfits for their new positions

Totally agree. I was shocked by how much we looked like men playing boys early in the season. Then those big guys that stood out went unmentioned almost every game, that includes striker who is actually undersized but quick off the edge. Opposing qbs got rid of the ball so quickly that it didn't matter how big and physical they were.

[hawaii 5-0]

Lots of good points made.

I think we had talent.

The players were poorly coached. Including play calling and defensive alignments.

5-0

[8timechamps]

In short, I think we got too big defensively thru position charges...

Wilson from nickel/Sam to corner
Striker from WOLB to SOLB
Grissom from DE to WOLB

All guys played liked misfits for their new positions

Definitely a lot to change in one off season. Still, I thought the front 7 played pretty good most of the year. It was the secondary that really hurt us, and Wilson's move was right in the middle of that.

[OkieThunderLion]

I thought Grissom and Striker were a large part of the reason the secondary looked so bad.

Obviously Wilson got roasted. And Parker/Thomas had busts. But using Striker as a nickel is insane. He's does ONE thing well - rush the passer.

[OkieThunderLion]

Lots of good points made.

I think we had talent.

The players were poorly coached. Including play calling and defensive alignments.

5-0

A ton of talent!

Not 1st rounders but a lot of guys will play in the league off this team.

[8timechamps]

I thought Grissom and Striker were a large part of the reason the secondary looked so bad.

Obviously Wilson got roasted. And Parker/Thomas had busts. But using Striker as a nickel is insane. He's does ONE thing well - rush the passer.

Good point.

Striker and Grissom didn't do much in pass defense.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

8. What went wrong? Stoops has gone soft, he is more interested in status quo than in winning the big games. He has no fire like in 1999 and 2000. Boren fosters mediocrity, or at least non-championship performance in non-"gentleman" sports in trying to make a Harvard on the plains...

[8timechamps]

8. What went wrong? Stoops has gone soft, he is more interested in status quo than in winning the big games. He has no fire like in 1999 and 2000. Boren fosters mediocrity, or at least non-championship performance in non-"gentleman" sports in trying to make a Harvard on the plains...

Can't speak to Boren, but I don't think Stoops has gone soft. I think it was a combination of things, but the more I look at the current condition of the program, I think a lot of what happened can be traced back to the 2011 recruiting class. That class left a big hole that was filled with a lot of inexperience and guys that probably aren't ready and shouldn't have been forced into action so soon.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

I would agree with what you say if we had seen some better coaching decisions or some innovative play schemes called, i.e. the ninja formation from way back... Other than a defensive philosophy change, I didn't see innovation elsewhere. So with the defensive personnel we had, was Mike's change good or bad? We certainly saw much of the same play calling on the O side. But I would give a little pass as we wanted to protect the one good QB. That didn't seem to work out to well...

[KantoSooner]

There was never the vaguest suggestion that the team knew what it wanted to be. We ran a 3-4 and hardly ever rushed anyone to pressure the passer. We ran a 'zone read'....without any 'read' or decision making delegated to the QB. There was little decisiveness on either side of the ball. Instead, we played to not lose and ended up getting the warmed over results that self-doubting bureaucrats tend to get in any endeavor. There was no leadership.

[OU_Sooners75]

We weren't over-hyped. We were 8 points shy of a playoff birth.

The conference was not tougher than expected. 3 of the 4 losses should have been wins.

What went wrong? Lets have the honest hard truth!

1. We have some of the most inept coaches operating the offense and defense. Josh Heupel, love what he did in 1999 and 2000, but he isn't exactly a great OC. Jay Norvell, this isn't the first time one of his star WRs been injured and the others have not been able to perform well. I praised Mike Stoops when he came back. I wanted him like the rest of you did. But his defenses have gotten soft. His linebacker coach is not very good. Also, why in the hell do you play soft when you have a young inexperienced secondary? The worst thing to do in that situation is to not bring pressure on the QB to disrupt his timing. And you damn sure don't play 10 yards off the ball when they are doing 3-5 yard short routes.

2. Game mismanagement. How many times did we see the coaches call a timeout only because they can't get their sh!t straight?

3. Players losing faith. You could see it against Baylor, and we saw it against OSU. The players, especially the defense has lost faith in their coaches to do right by them during the game.

4. Players out of position or on the field when they shouldn't be. I don't care what you think, Julian Wilson is not a corner back. He is a safety. And he damn sure shouldn't have been on the field vs. OSU. He is just the easiest target. You also have Jordan Phillips playing a Nose when he is not a nose. He is a tackle that is best suited lined up on a guard or even a tackle. Not in the middle. Which brings me to the next excuse....

5. Playing the wrong schemes for our players or no identity on offense. As mentioned with Jordan Phillips, we have players that are out of position simply because of the scheme our coaches want to play. We all applauded Mike Stoops for coming in and putting in a scheme that helped his player. He then placed his players where they naturally fit. Yet now we are exactly opposite. On offense, we have no identity. Can anyone honestly tell us what type of offense we actually operate?

6. Finally, arrogance, complacency, and contentment. The coaches of the Sooner program are so arrogant and think us fans mean nothing to them. They are also complacent and content. They are comfortable with their pay. They are comfortable with taking vacations mid season. They are complacent while hiring friends and family. They are arrogant in not caring about what the fans expect.


I think Bob Stoops is a hell of a man and coach. However, 2014 was his worst season at OU. It was a ****storm...yet so damn close to a much better season.

I think Stoops needs to make some changes. I think he needs to start with hiring a real OC that knows what he wants to do every week and that doesn't have a new offense every week.

I also think he needs some more fresh bodies in replacing Bobby Jack Wright, Jay Norvell, and Tim Kish. And if he needs to put his brother on the hot seat for next season.

[aurorasooner]

We weren't over-hyped. We were 8 points shy of a playoff birth.

The conference was not tougher than expected. 3 of the 4 losses should have been wins.

What went wrong? Lets have the honest hard truth!

1. We have some of the most inept coaches operating the offense and defense. Josh Heupel, love what he did in 1999 and 2000, but he isn't exactly a great OC. Jay Norvell, this isn't the first time one of his star WRs been injured and the others have not been able to perform well. I praised Mike Stoops when he came back. I wanted him like the rest of you did. But his defenses have gotten soft. His linebacker coach is not very good. Also, why in the hell do you play soft when you have a young inexperienced secondary? The worst thing to do in that situation is to not bring pressure on the QB to disrupt his timing. And you damn sure don't play 10 yards off the ball when they are doing 3-5 yard short routes.

2. Game mismanagement. How many times did we see the coaches call a timeout only because they can't get their sh!t straight?

3. Players losing faith. You could see it against Baylor, and we saw it against OSU. The players, especially the defense has lost faith in their coaches to do right by them during the game.

4. Players out of position or on the field when they shouldn't be. I don't care what you think, Julian Wilson is not a corner back. He is a safety. And he damn sure shouldn't have been on the field vs. OSU. He is just the easiest target. You also have Jordan Phillips playing a Nose when he is not a nose. He is a tackle that is best suited lined up on a guard or even a tackle. Not in the middle. Which brings me to the next excuse....

5. Playing the wrong schemes for our players or no identity on offense. As mentioned with Jordan Phillips, we have players that are out of position simply because of the scheme our coaches want to play. We all applauded Mike Stoops for coming in and putting in a scheme that helped his player. He then placed his players where they naturally fit. Yet now we are exactly opposite. On offense, we have no identity. Can anyone honestly tell us what type of offense we actually operate?

6. Finally, arrogance, complacency, and contentment. The coaches of the Sooner program are so arrogant and think us fans mean nothing to them. They are also complacent and content. They are comfortable with their pay. They are comfortable with taking vacations mid season. They are complacent while hiring friends and family. They are arrogant in not caring about what the fans expect.


I think Bob Stoops is a hell of a man and coach. However, 2014 was his worst season at OU. It was a ****storm...yet so damn close to a much better season.

I think Stoops needs to make some changes. I think he needs to start with hiring a real OC that knows what he wants to do every week and that doesn't have a new offense every week.

I also think he needs some more fresh bodies in replacing Bobby Jack Wright, Jay Norvell, and Tim Kish. And if he needs to put his brother on the hot seat for next season.

Meh, put them all on a small base salary plus a hefty commission for Ws (500 grand base for the HC and about 100 grand base for the assistants) , and we'll win plenty of games and look good while doing it.
They'll teach the "" little things in practice, the correct tackling, the DBs actually looking for the ball when it's in the air and how to catch it w/o the brick-hands, how to draw a flag from the refs in critical situations w/o appearing too blatant, how to make the correct decisions themselves while on the field w/o all this meer-kat looking to the sidelines crap, etc.
Our coaches are just living the good life on the gravy train. Either that or we've recruited quite a lot players w/o any "football sense/smarts" to put it politely.
BTW, I thought I read that M. Stoops (when he came back) was to be evaluated by someone other than HCBS, to avoid any nepotism, etc. I guess that fell through, or the evaluator is on the friends and family plan, because no-one in the right mind would extend his contract (read somewhere that it got extended thru 2017) after this unorganized %*&^-show that the defense brought onto the field this year.--- Unless the extension is just for recruiting show, and he's really on a real short leash.
Pretty much the same for Heupel, imo. His offense wasn't bad in final stats, and not nearly as bad as our defense, but, from the eye test, it was a predictable stinker, especially in critical situations, and with quality coaching/game-planning/play design could've been so much better, imo. (don't know whether he's handicapped from the top though). W/O Perine, it might have been as bad as our D.

[8timechamps]

We weren't over-hyped. We were 8 points shy of a playoff birth.

The conference was not tougher than expected. 3 of the 4 losses should have been wins.

What went wrong? Lets have the honest hard truth!

1. We have some of the most inept coaches operating the offense and defense. Josh Heupel, love what he did in 1999 and 2000, but he isn't exactly a great OC. Jay Norvell, this isn't the first time one of his star WRs been injured and the others have not been able to perform well. I praised Mike Stoops when he came back. I wanted him like the rest of you did. But his defenses have gotten soft. His linebacker coach is not very good. Also, why in the hell do you play soft when you have a young inexperienced secondary? The worst thing to do in that situation is to not bring pressure on the QB to disrupt his timing. And you damn sure don't play 10 yards off the ball when they are doing 3-5 yard short routes.

2. Game mismanagement. How many times did we see the coaches call a timeout only because they can't get their sh!t straight?

3. Players losing faith. You could see it against Baylor, and we saw it against OSU. The players, especially the defense has lost faith in their coaches to do right by them during the game.

4. Players out of position or on the field when they shouldn't be. I don't care what you think, Julian Wilson is not a corner back. He is a safety. And he damn sure shouldn't have been on the field vs. OSU. He is just the easiest target. You also have Jordan Phillips playing a Nose when he is not a nose. He is a tackle that is best suited lined up on a guard or even a tackle. Not in the middle. Which brings me to the next excuse....

5. Playing the wrong schemes for our players or no identity on offense. As mentioned with Jordan Phillips, we have players that are out of position simply because of the scheme our coaches want to play. We all applauded Mike Stoops for coming in and putting in a scheme that helped his player. He then placed his players where they naturally fit. Yet now we are exactly opposite. On offense, we have no identity. Can anyone honestly tell us what type of offense we actually operate?

6. Finally, arrogance, complacency, and contentment. The coaches of the Sooner program are so arrogant and think us fans mean nothing to them. They are also complacent and content. They are comfortable with their pay. They are comfortable with taking vacations mid season. They are complacent while hiring friends and family. They are arrogant in not caring about what the fans expect.


I think Bob Stoops is a hell of a man and coach. However, 2014 was his worst season at OU. It was a ****storm...yet so damn close to a much better season.

I think Stoops needs to make some changes. I think he needs to start with hiring a real OC that knows what he wants to do every week and that doesn't have a new offense every week.

I also think he needs some more fresh bodies in replacing Bobby Jack Wright, Jay Norvell, and Tim Kish. And if he needs to put his brother on the hot seat for next season.

We were over-hyped.

We were preseason #4, and just about everyone in the country had us penciled in to the playoff. We finished 8-4 and unranked. That's the definition of over-hyped.

The conference was absolutely tougher. You can keep saying "We were x points away from x", but that doesn't change reality.

I understand you have your own opinion, but you are completely wrong on those two points.

[BoulderSooner79]

The expectations from the fans and CFB media were certainly higher than the result. I just don't count hype or expectations as part of what went wrong unless it actually changed the outcome on the field. It just changed how people reacted to it.

I'm not sure the conference was tougher. TCU was certainly tougher and so was WVU. Baylor about the same. The horns a bit weaker and OSU and TT were much worse. We ended up much worse, but I assume the comment was just about the competition.

As far as being 8 points (or 5, really) from the playoffs, I'm not so sure that's true. Even if we squeak by TCU and KSU, the Baylor beat down at home was such a stain, I don't think we get in over tOSU. We might have elevated Baylor over tOSU by giving them a better win over a more respected co-champ. I don't even count the OSU loss as OUr team w/o TK, Shepard and eventually Perine was a shell of the rest of the season and had little to play for. Had we had one loss going into that game, I'm sure we would have won. I suspect we would have used Bell at QB for the last 3 games instead of CT because of so much more on the line.

[8timechamps]

The expectations from the fans and CFB media were certainly higher than the result. I just don't count hype or expectations as part of what went wrong unless it actually changed the outcome on the field. It just changed how people reacted to it.

I'm not sure the conference was tougher. TCU was certainly tougher and so was WVU. Baylor about the same. The horns a bit weaker and OSU and TT were much worse. We ended up much worse, but I assume the comment was just about the competition.

As far as being 8 points (or 5, really) from the playoffs, I'm not so sure that's true. Even if we squeak by TCU and KSU, the Baylor beat down at home was such a stain, I don't think we get in over tOSU. We might have elevated Baylor over tOSU by giving them a better win over a more respected co-champ. I don't even count the OSU loss as OUr team w/o TK, Shepard and eventually Perine was a shell of the rest of the season and had little to play for. Had we had one loss going into that game, I'm sure we would have won. I suspect we would have used Bell at QB for the last 3 games instead of CT because of so much more on the line.

I think I didn't word things well.

When I say the team was "over hyped", I am talking strictly about the fans view of the team. Had we gotten blown out in the Sugar Bowl, I think expectations would have been low going into the season. Whenever expectations are low, losses aren't taken as hard. So, losing a couple of close games wouldn't have seemed nearly as bad. I agree that the hype did nothing to affect the outcome of games. We have had teams in the past that read their own headlines, and that caused some issues, I do not that this team did that.

TCU was much better than anyone thought going into the season. West Virginia was much better than anyone thought going into the season. We all knew Baylor would be good (although it could be argued that they were better than expected). Kansas State was better than expected. I'll even say that Texas was better than expected (there was a time, after the BYU game, when a lot of folks thought they'd struggle to win two more games). OSU was weak, and Tech, KU and ISU were just bad.

In a normal year, you figure there are a few teams that just aren't good. That's what we saw this year. However, having 4 teams at the top of the league...and any of those four could beat the others, is not historically normal. Throw in Texas not being as down as expected and I think the conference, overall, was tougher than it has been in recent years. Again, that's not an "excuse" meant to take away from what happened. It's more of a statement about what we faced week in and week out. Prior to the season, most folks figured it would come down to Baylor at OU. The truth is there were more teams in the hunt than what most expected.