Bob Stoops is trying to sell a false narrative about Oklahoma’s win over Tennessee
The Oklahoma Sooners beat the Tennessee Vols 33-27 last weekend in Knoxville.
The Oklahoma Sooners upset the Tennessee Vols last weekend in Knoxville, winning 33-27 in front of a rowdy crowd at Neyland Stadium.
Statistically, Tennessee dominated the game, out-gaining the Sooners by 105 yards while also converting more third downs than Oklahoma.
The Vols, however, made too many self-inflicted mistakes to come out on the right side of the scoreboard.
“Tennessee just blew this game,” said former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray. “I’ve never seen a box score that was so lopsided at halftime…and Oklahoma was winning at halftime. And you’re like, ‘How in the world?’ after it felt like Tennessee was moving the ball up and down the field.”
Unsurprisingly, former Sooners head coach Bob Stoops had a different take on the way the game played out.
Former Sooners head coach Bob Stoops is trying to sell a false narrative about Oklahoma’s win over Tennessee
Stoops said on his YouTube Channel this week that Tennessee had the game against Oklahoma “circled.” He also suggested that the Vols were at “max strength,” while the Sooners were dealing with multiple injuries.
“They had the game circled,” said Stoops. “They had a blackout, a different uniform. Everyone in black. Night game — as loud as it can be. And we go in and win. That says a lot about the character of the team, the toughness, the mental toughness of the team, and the quality of play, the talent, the coaching, all of it together. That was a heck of a game. And not to ever go negative, but there are some things we could have done better. We didn’t play our best game, and we still won, and won convincingly.
“They’re at maybe max strength, and we certainly weren’t,” added Stoops. “But still, [Oklahoma] played to that level of football to win the game. And at the end, to do it soundly, was really pleasing.”
Maybe Stoops thinks the Vols went “dark mode” last weekend just because Oklahoma was coming to town, but this is a new tradition that Tennessee breaks out every year under Josh Heupel around Halloween (if there’s a conference home game scheduled).
The Vols didn’t go “dark mode” because they had this game “circled.” Stoops’ suggestion that Tennessee wore black uniforms and had their annual “dark mode” game because Oklahoma was coming to town seems rather pretentious.
As for the injuries, there’s no doubt that Oklahoma was banged up coming into the game against Tennessee — and the Sooners lost their best defensive player in pass rusher R Mason Thomas early in the game.
The Vols, however, weren’t anywhere close to “maybe max strength” as Stoops suggested.
Cornerback Jermod McCoy (a projected first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft), cornerback Rickey Gibson, and wide receiver Travis Smith Jr were all out for the Vols.
Additionally, defensive lineman Tyre West was injured in the second quarter and missed the rest of the game, plus pass rusher Joshua Josephs was banged up and had to be checked out on the sideline a couple of times.
And let’s not forget that cornerback Colton Hood, who was dealing with a calf injury that he suffered against Kentucky the previous week, and linebacker Arion Carter, who has turf toe in both toes. Both of them gutted it out against the Sooners despite not being anywhere close to 100 percent. Those are far from the only banged-up players for the Vols, but those were the most notable.
So yeah, not quite “max strength”, Bob.
It’s not a surprise, though, that Stoops is trying to diminish Tennessee’s program passive-aggressively. This is the same guy, after all, who fired Heupel as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator a decade ago despite the Sooners finishing the season with the No. 21 scoring offense in the nation.
Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops, Bob’s brother, is the one who deserved to be fired. Still, Heupel, the starting quarterback for Bob’s only national championship-winning team at OU, is the coach who got canned instead (along with co-offensive coordinator Jay Norvell).
I don’t think I’d expect the icy relationship between Stoops and Heupel to thaw anytime soon.
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