athlete37
Here is the decade before Stoops, tell me Stoops has made Oklahoma DAY AND NIGHT better:
Gibbs-Schnellenberger-Blake era (1990–1998)
Succeeding Switzer was his defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs. Gibbs went 44–23–2 in six years, and largely succeeded in cleaning up the program's image. He found it hard to please boosters and administrators with an 8-3 year. Ultimately, it was his record against Oklahoma's rivals that did him in. Gibbs went 2-15-1 against Texas, Nebraska and Colorado. In addition to his record, many feel Gibbs was not comfortable around alumni, the media, or with being a head coach in general.[29]
To replace Gibbs, Oklahoma looked towards the seasoned Howard Schnellenberger, then 61 years old. Schnellenberger had won a national championship at Miami and turned around a once-moribund Louisville program. In the end, he was almost too sure of himself. He was quoted as saying, "They will write books and make movies about my time here."[29] Ultimately, his 1995 team went 5–5–1 and he was done. Despite some perception that Schnellenberger had been fired for his team's on-field performance, the end of his tenure as Oklahoma's head coach was brought on after several off-field incidents brought into question his management of the team. Once such incident included the purported purposeful deprivation of water to athletes during hot weather practices, resulting in the hospitalization of at least one student-athlete due to heat-related illness. The incident, combined with numerous anecdotal incidents involving alleged public intoxication, drew new, negative attention to the program, and as a result, university president David Boren fired Schnellenberger. Many feel he was doomed from the beginning because of his lack of interest in the history of Oklahoma football, neither its coaches or its players, a fact he was not shy about. He ordered numerous old files to be thrown out; instead, they were archived without his knowledge.[29]
The Sooners enter the field to take on their opponent on 2007-09-15.For the 1996 season, Oklahoma hired former player John Blake. Blake was the favorite to succeed Schnellenberger and was backed by Barry Switzer, Steve Owens, and former Oklahoma president George Lynn Cross.[29] However, many were skeptical of Oklahoma's choice for the new coach. His coaching experience was very limited, especially compared to his predecessor. Blake was an assistant coach for three years in the NFL, a wide receivers coach for one year at Tulsa, and a defensive assistant at Oklahoma for four years. The skeptics were proven right. In Blake's first season, he went 3–8. It was the worst record, percentage wise, Oklahoma had experienced since 1895 and is tied for the most losses in one year (along with Blake's 1997 squad) to this very day. In his three years at Oklahoma, Blake went 3–8, 4–8, and 5–6. It was the first time since 1922–1924 that Oklahoma had three consecutive losing seasons. Blake's largest contribution to the team was his recruiting. He set the stage by recruiting several players that would excel under the next coach, including J.T. Thatcher, Josh Norman, Roy Williams and Rocky Calmus.