By John Shinn

Transcript Sports Writer

SAN DIEGO — Oklahoma went to the Holiday Bowl looking for redemption. The 2005 regular season was filled with disappointments for a program and a fan base accustomed to winning Big 12 Conference championships and spending the holidays at BCS bowls.

The Sooners’ 17-14 victory over No. 6 Oregon in Thursday night’s Holiday Bowl might not be enough to bail out a down year by OU’s lofty standards, but it did give a clear indication they came a long way from their 2-3 start to the season.

“ I just like the fact that we improved as we went,” OU coach Bob Stoops said Friday morning before returning to Norman. “A lot of players didn’t have a whole lot of experience or none when we started. They’ve shown marked improvement throughout the year.”

The Holiday Bowl victory allowed OU to finish the 2005 season by winning six of their last seven games. Only a disputed call in a 23-21 loss at Texas Tech prevented a seven-game winning streak.

For a team that started the year playing a plethora of inexperienced players, there was a feeling of accomplishment.

“We could have gone downhill after we started 2-3. Everybody was down,” quarterback Rhett Bomar said after throwing for 229 yards Thursday and being named the Holiday Bowl’s offensive MVP. “We kept our confidence in each other and came back.”

Stoops recalled the feeling after a 45-13 loss to Texas on Oct. 8, dropped them to 2-3. From players to coaches, everything was being called into question.

“I told the players I felt a little sense of them pressing or wanting to jump in with everybody else that the sky is falling,” Stoops said. “I said, ‘Wait a second, you guys are not far off. Relax and have a little fun with it.’ I felt because it was so unusual for us to be in that situation, they felt too much pressure about it.

“I said, ‘You need to relax and have confidence in what you’re doing and keep improving and have a little fun. You can’t sit here and press. It doesn’t do you any good. You have to enjoy what you’re doing.’ I said the same thing to the staff.”

In the end, it worked,

OU had 22 players made their first career starts this season and that group included 12 freshmen. It clearly wasn’t a team made up of veteran stars like other Sooner teams.

It took this group a while to come together. They viewed the Holiday Bowl as a chance to show that off.

“When they started putting together bowl lineups, we were targeting the Holiday Bowl,” Stoops said. “We felt in playing such a good football team in Oregon, what an opportunity.

“Some people looked at it as an opportunity to lose, too. But we wanted it for that reason. It was a huge challenge and we felt the upside was great. If we come out and played well against the No. 5 team (in the BCS rankings) the way we can, this can be special.”

The Sooners did that by making the plays it had to make in the second half. Senior linebacker Clint Ingram sealed the win when he intercepted a pass from Oregon’s Brady Leaf inside the Sooner 10-yard line with 33 seconds left in the game.

Although, Stoops believed OU had an opportunity to put the game away early in fourth quarter. Adrian Peterson’s fumble at the Oregon 1 pumped some life into the Ducks.

“That’s what I look at from this year,” he said. “We can play smarter and not put ourselves in those situations.”

Those are all lessons the Sooners can take away from 2005 and use the experience in 2006.

Several players did make their final appearances in Sooner uniforms at Qualcomm Stadium. Among the group were offensive linemen Davin Joseph, Chris Bush, Kelvin Chiasson and Chris Chester, along with defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek, fullback J.D. Runnels and Ingram.

“All really good players,” Stoops said, “but we’ve got guys that are ready to fill those positions — more than ready.”

So does that mean OU is ready to reclaim its throne atop the Big 12 Conference and jump into the 2006 national title race?

Stoops wouldn’t make any boastful predictions, but there’s clearly a sense of confidence because of how things ended in San Diego.

“I feel great about what the future looks like,” Stoops said. “You beat the No. 5 team in the country and it says a lot.”

John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com