College Football Elites, Part 1: What makes a ‘blue blood’?
By Dante Pryor
- Conference championships: 49 (last in 2019)
- 10-plus win seasons: 39
- Consensus All-Americans: 80
- Heisman Trophy winners: 7
- NFL players: 412
The Oklahoma Sooners have some of the iconic coaches in the history of college football and that doesn’t count they had a coach named Snorter in the 1940s. When you think of the Sooners from the “back in the day” you think Wilkinson, Switzer and the Wishbone offense. More recently, Stoops, Riley, and the spread offense comes to mind.
No matter the era, the Sooners are one of the most consistent programs in college football since World War II; they are one of seven programs with 900 wins.
Bud Wilkinson gets the credit — and he should — for beginning the Sooners’ dynasty. He was also one of the pioneers of the modern game. Wilkinson was known for being extremely organized and systematic. Similar to modern coaches like Nick Saban and Ryan Day, Wilkinson believed if you go through the process of preparing for game day correctly, the game and winning will take care of itself.
Some of the philosophies Wilkinson brought to the modern game was what we would know as strength and conditioning and practicing game situations based on opponents’ tendencies — something he picked up from legendary basketball coach Hank Iba. His system paid off to the tune of 145 career wins in 17 seasons, 14 conference titles and three national titles. Wilkinson also went 6-2 in bowl games.
After Wilkinson’s retirement in 1963, the Sooners had moderate success with Chuck Fairbanks taking over for Jim Mackenzie who died of a sudden heart attack in 1966. Fairbanks won 10 games three times in six seasons winning two Sugar Bowls and an Orange Bowl before leaving for the NFL and the New England Patriots.
When Fairbanks left, it was Barry Switzer who brought the Sooners back to national prominence. In Switzer’s 16 years at Oklahoma, the Sooners won three national championships, 12 conference championships and went 8-5 in bowl games. Switzer would also coach some of the legendary players in both Oklahoma and college football history. Joe Washington, the Selmon brothers, Billy Sims, Brian Bosworth, Keith Jackson and Jamelle Holieway all made names for themselves in Norman under Switzer.
Eleven years of mediocrity cast a shadow over Norman. It was Oklahoma’s fourth year in the new Big 12 — a conference formed from the old Big 8 and Southwest Conference — and the Sooners selected Bob Stoops as their 21st head coach.
Stoops did for the program exactly what Switzer did 26 years before; he brought the Sooners back into the national spotlight. You cannot argue with Stoops’ success — they owned the Big 12 while he was coach — but the one asterisk on his record is he only won one national title. In 18 seasons in Norman, Stoops won 10 conference titles and the Sooners’ last national championship
The Sooners saw a smooth transition from Stoops to their current head coach Lincoln Riley. He has won 12 games his first three seasons winning three consecutive conference titles and has continued the Sooners’ dominance in the Big 12 (Oklahoma has won 13 conference titles in 24 years of Big 12 football).
Riley coached two consecutive Heisman Trophy winners (Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray) and three consecutive Heisman finalists (Mayfield, Murray and Jalen Hurts). He has also coached the Sooners to three consecutive College Football Playoff appearances.