Horning: Venables unlikely to match Switzer’s, Stoops’ sophomore seasons, but maybe Gary Gibbs’?

For The TranscriptYou know who doesn’t get enough credit as a Sooner football coach?
Like, you’ve probably never heard of the guy, but a case can be made — kind of, sort of — he’s the one who started the whole thing, who set in motion the monster Barry Switzer always said Bud Wilkinson built and he had to feed.
Ready?
Tom Stidham.
Never heard of him, right?
Bennie Owen gets all the credit as Oklahoma’s first great coach and he was, going 122-54-16 from 1905 to ’26.
But Owen went just 21-21-6 his last six seasons and the three men who followed him — Adrian Lindsey, Lewis Hardage, Lawrence Jones — went a combined 39-37-6 from 1927 to ’36.
Then came Stidham, who in four seasons went 27-8, never had a losing season, winning a conference title and contending for a national championship along the way.
Of course, there have been dips over the decades, the most recent coming last season, but the upward trajectory Sooner football’s enjoyed the vast majority of the past 85 years began with him.
Others took it to new levels, but Stidham built the floor and, for that reason, he’s the starting point of today’s exercise, examining other Sooner coaches’ sophomore seasons as we wait for Brent Venables’ second-year effort to commence.
Mostly, it’s a story of success, which is just what Venables and the program needs in its final Big 12 Conference season before heading off the the SEC.
Beginning with Stidham, of the 11 skippers to coach a second Sooner season prior to Venables, though three suffered losing campaigns, six claimed conference crowns and two won national championships.
You can probably put names to some of those numbers, but let’s go through it anyway.
Many believe the coming season to be OU’s easiest conference schedule since leaving the Big Eight for the Big 12. Some wonder if it might be the Sooners’ easiest schedule ever.
Well, if Venables’ second Sooner squad can turn that slate into a conference championship, it will have matched the feats of squads tutored by Stidham in 1938, Wilkinson in ’48, Chuck Fairbanks in ’68, Switzer in ’74, Bob Stoops in ’00 and Lincoln Riley in ’18.
Sooner Nation would surely take Switzer’s and Stoops’ results above the rest, each coaching undefeated national championship teams their second time around.
Yet, if Venables could choose how his Sooners attained that kind of success, he might very well choose Stidham’s 1938 blueprint.
In the Big Six that year, OU shut out Kansas 19-0, Nebraska 14-0, Kansas State 26-0, Missouri 21-0 and Iowa State 10-0. Out of conference, the Sooners also shut out Texas 13-0, Oklahoma State 19-0 and Washington State 28-0.
Eight shutouts.
Insanity.
Stidham also took OU to its first bowl game that season, a 17-0 Sugar Bowl loss to Tennessee.
The sophomore campaigns Venables cannot repeat belong to John Blake, who went 4-8 in 1997, winning just two Big 12 contests; Gomer Jones, Bud Wilkinson’s top assistant for 17 seasons before being handed the head coaching reins, only to go 6-4-1 in 1964 and 3-7, four of the losses shutouts, in ’65; and Dewey “Snorter” Luster, who also had two stints as Norman High coach — who knew? — who went 6-3 in 1941, but 3-5-2 in ’42.
For the record, Luster turned things around his third season, going 7-2 and 5-0 in the Big Six.
What Venables absolutely must do is produce a better team. Nine wins may not make everybody happy, but three more than last year would still be substantial.
Like Stidham in ’38, whose team erupted after going 5-2-2 his inaugural season.
Like Wilkinson, who went 7-2-1 in 1947, but 10-1 in ’48, including a Sugar Bowl victory over No. 3 North Carolina.
Like Gary Gibbs, who went 7-4 in 1989, but 8-3 in ’90, including a season-ending 45-10 trouncing of No. 10 Nebraska.
Looking back, it’s amazing what Switzer and Stoops did, even beyond their perfect sophomore seasons.
Switzer didn’t lose a game until his third season, 1975, but won the national championship that season, too.
Though a third national championship eluded him until 1985, he still claimed Big Eight crowns his first eight seasons.
Stoops’ first 10 seasons brought a national championship, three more national championship games, six conference crowns, a 13-win season, four 12-win seasons and three more 11-win seasons.
Where OU’s headed, nobody expects that out of Venables. All anybody’s expecting right now is his team be a whole lot better 6-7.
In the same position, most who came before him have done well enough.
He must at least do that.