Late in the fourth quarter Saturday, Texas quarterback Tyrone Swoopes lined up behind center on third down and goal from the two-yard line. The play before, Oklahoma successfully stopped a Swoopes run from the same formation.
The next play, Swoopes faked the run, popped up and completed a touchdown pass to Caleb Bluiett.
After the game, OU defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said he saw the play-action pass coming.
“They weren't going to run it again,” Stoops said. “We had them outnumbered. Just didn't have our guys prepared, ready for the play.
“I knew it, but our players didn't know it. And that's unfortunate. I talked about it before in pregame today. When they got in that set, I knew it was coming,” he said.
During the offseason, the decision was made to move Stoops to the press box during games rather than continue him coaching from the sideline. However, because he was removed from the field Saturday, Stoops was unable to communicate to his players what Texas was about to do.
His brother, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, disputes the claim that his position Saturday had anything to do with Texas scoring.
“Mike couldn't have stopped it from the field, because Mike isn't playing. And the guy's 50 yards away, and there's all kind of screaming going on,” Bob Stoops said. “For him to say ... he could have ... that's fine. I can't say what Mike said, but bottom line is, Mike isn't playing.”
On two separate occasions Saturday, Oklahoma was also forced to burn timeouts coming out of breaks in the action because of extra players on the field.
The second time, safety Hatari Byrd jogged onto the field with 11 other members of the defense, unaware he was supposed to stay on the sideline.
“When (the opponent comes) off the sideline, you're unsure what (formation) they're coming out in,” Bob Stoops said. “We prepared our guys for two different ones. One individual turns around and starts to get lined up to the formation, and it was the wrong one.
“He was supposed to be off. That simple. Everyone else had it. He's the only guy that didn't have it,” he said.
A similar gaff occurred earlier in the game, only this time the Sooners had 13 men on the field.
Yet Bob Stoops remained adamant that communication amongst the defense hasn’t been affected by his brother coaching from the box.
“We didn't have one missed call Saturday,” he said. “We have had hardly any all year. One individual, when we came out of a timeout, didn't look back to see us, because they came off the timeout with a different set of people than were out there first. And he turned and didn't look at it. He needs to look at us longer."
“It's the one issue we had the whole game. The rest of it, we didn't have any issues. To say we are, you're wrong. We've been better than we've ever been in 17 years,” he said.
