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OU DAILY STOOPS IS OUT PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CAITLYN EPES AND JORDAN MILLER/THE DAILY
OU defensive coordinator Mike Stoops walks on the field before the Red River Showdown at the Cotton Bowl Oct. 6. The Sooners gave up 48 points and 501 yards against Texas.
Mike Stoops no longer defensive coordinator after disastrous performance, years of defensive problems
M
ike Stoops is out as Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator after the team’s 48-45 loss to Texas, according to The Daily’s sources. After Saturday’s game, Stoops had an answer for every question except, once again, how to stop an OU opponent. The Oklahoma defensive coordinator spoke for more than 15 minutes to the media after thenNo. 7 Oklahoma’s 48-45 loss to then-No. 19 Texas. He owned the performance the Sooner Nation is blaming him for. “I’m extremely disappointed in my inability to get this team to play at a higher level,” Stoops said. “It takes everybody pulling the same way, and I certainly take a lot of that responsibility.” This has been a recurring theme the past four years — the defense plays poorly, the offense bails them out and Stoops takes the blame. But this time the offense’s late heroics weren’t enough to bail them out, and it may have just cost the Sooners their season, just like it did last
GEORGE STOIA • @GEORGESTOIA year … and the two years before that. And that’s why something had to change — assistant coaches, players, schemes, mentality — if Oklahoma wants to once again reach the pinnacle of college football. A n d j u s t s o i t ’ s c l e a r, Saturday’s rock bottom result is not the reason something needed to change. It’s just another step back in the disaster that has been the Sooner defense the past few years. S i n c e St o o p s re t u r n e d t o Norman in 2012, Oklahoma has finished in the top 30 in total defense just twice. Here’s where the Sooners ranked in total defense the past six years: 67th (2017), 69th (2016), 29th (2015), 55th (2014), 29th (2013) and 51st (2012). Heading into the Red River Showdown, the Sooners ranked 89th — it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse. Texas came into Saturday’s game averaging 28 points and 390 yards a game. The Sooners
gave up 48 points and 501 yards Saturday. Oklahoma looked confused the majority of the game, lining up wrong and constantly looking to the sideline as if to be asking for answers on how to slow down the Longhorns. And rarely did the Sooners match Texas’ physicality.
“I’m extremely disappointed in my inability to get this team to play at a higher level. It takes everybody pulling the same way, and I certainly take a lot of that responsibility.” MIKE STOOPS, OU DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
“We didn’t tackle well … I didn’t think we covered well … And the glaring deal was the
third-and-longs,” coach Lincoln R i l e y s a i d . “ We d i d n ’ t g e t enough stops.” And that right there has been the ending of too many stories for the Sooners since Riley arrived at Oklahoma and turned the Sooners into the offensive powerhouse they are. Oklahoma has finished in the top five for total offense each of the last three years and are on pace to do so again this year. In 2015, a Texas team that finished 5-7 and fielded two receivers as quarterbacks put up 24 on the Sooners, which then was followed by Clemson ending the Sooners’ season in a 37-point performance. In 2016, Oklahoma allowed 78 combined points by Houston and Ohio State to derail their season just as it started. In 2017, Iowa State bullied its way to 38 points and a win in Norman while Georgia ended the Sooners’ season with 54 points. And in 2018, after a disastrous performance against Texas, it looks to be trending in the same
direction. In their last two losses, the Sooners have been outscored 102-93. For a program that once prided itself on defense, how is that acceptable? Fans automatically want to point to Stoops when things go wrong, and rightfully so, as he is in command of the defense at the end of the day. But at some point every defensive player, coach and staff member needs to take a good look in the mirror too, because it’s not one man’s fault. “It’s all frustrating,” Stoops said after the game Saturday. “It hurts. But it is what it is.” But Sunday night, Riley did something that his predecessor never did to get his team to the next level: he let Mike Stoops go. George Stoia
georgestoia@ou.edu
Murray grapples with first loss as OU starter Last-minute heroics by quarterback not enough to save team ABBY BITTERMAN @abby_bitterman
DALLAS — Kyler Murray’s face said it all in the postgame press conference at the Cotton Bowl. “Obviously, I’m not used to losing,” the redshirt junior quarterback said of his performance. “It hurts. I’m disappointed.” Then Murray went silent. For 13 seconds, the Sooners’ starting quarterback fought back tears as he sat in a stunned silence, searching for what to say next. Coach Lincoln Riley sat next to him and patted him on the back for support. “It’s just tough because I feel
— I turned the ball over, they didn’t,” Murray said. “I feel like that’s just giving them the advantage when you turn the ball over. I feel like if I didn’t turn the ball over, we would have had a better shot of winning that game ... We knew coming into this game it was going to be a four-quarter game, and we’ve got to do better. We’re better than that. “It’s just tough.” Then-No. 7 Oklahoma lost to then-No. 19 Texas 48-45 on a last-second field goal that closed another classic Red River Showdown. Things started to fall apart for Murray and the Sooners (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) early. After Texas (5-1, 3-0 Big 12) tied it at 7-all in the first quarter, Murray tried to hit redshirt senior wide receiver Myles Tease with a deep pass, but Texas’ junior defensive back Brandon Jones jumped out in front of the
ball and intercepted it. “Knowing the coverage, knowing the situation, I shouldn’t have tried to fit it in there,” Murray said. Four plays later, the Longhorns scored to take their first lead of the game — a lead they kept until Oklahoma tied it again with 2:38 left in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma was up and down offensively throughout the game, as it struggled to find a rhythm and relied more on the run game — recording 222 yards on the ground — than it had since the season opener against Florida Atlantic. Murray doesn’t lose often — he was 42-0 as a starter in high school, and though he suffered defeat at Texas A&M, this was his first loss starting for an Oklahoma team – it’s seemed like he’s willed to win at times. The empty sadness on Murray’s face
showed that he wasn’t taking the loss easily. The Texas high school legend possibly saw his chances at a national championship and the Heisman drop slightly Saturday afternoon. In what will probably be his last season of college football, Murray doesn’t have much room for error if he wants to accomplish his goals before he leaves the gridiron for a baseball diamond. “G o i ng i nt o t h i s s e a s o n ,” Murray began after another long pause, “knowing that it could be possibly my last season, every game is my last shot at every team that I play against.” With 8:29 left in the third quarter, the Sooners started a drive down 31-24. On the first play, Murray scrambled, trying to create something. But, as he tried to pivot to escape the Texas defense, he tripped. He fell to the
ground, trying to stop himself with his hand holding the ball. Instead, Murray dropped the ball on the ground and fell away from it, allowing the Texas defense to fall on top of it and setting up a short 23-yard touchdown drive for the Longhorns. “Coach Riley preaches it all the time — ball security in the pocket,” Murray said. “I don’t know how many times he’s told me that, so that one definitely hurts.” Murray’s play hurt the Sooners, who needed every point they could get on the offensive side of the ball, but his play-making ability and talent almost saved the Sooners in the end — almost. In the closing minutes of the game, Murray did everything he could to bring Oklahoma back from the hole he’d helped put them in. With 5:22 left, down 14, Murray See KYLER page 2