By John Shinn

Transcript Sports Writer

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Oklahoma made no effort to mask its disappointment and disgust after Wednesday night’s 48-28 loss to West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.

In every aspect, something broke down in what became OU’s worst performance of the season.

“Very disappointing to finish the season this way and after such a solid year to come out and play as we did,” OU coach Bob Stoops said.

The Sooners (11-3) loosely resembled the squad that crushed Oklahoma State and Missouri — teams that both collected convincing bowl wins — to complete the regular season, claim the Big 12 championship and turn themselves into a darkhorse candidate for a possible split national championship.

OU, which had been one of the highest-scoring teams in college football this season, struggled to get anything going until the second half. Defensively, there were too many breakdowns and missed tackles to count.

The Sooners gave up 525 total yards with an unheard of 354 coming on the ground.

West Virginia quarterback Pat White, who was the game’s Offensive Player of the Game, put himself on the short list of next season’s Heisman Trophy contenders by rushing for 150 yards and throwing for another 176 and two touchdowns.

But the breakdowns against the run were everywhere. Only one of the Mountaineers’ seven touchdowns came on a play inside the Sooners’ 20.

The rest were big plays the Sooners hadn’t really given up all season, including three touchdown runs over 30 yards and two more touchdown passes of 21 or more.

It was befuddling.

“The No. 1 thing was tackling,” OU linebacker Curtis Lofton said. “I mean, the credit goes to Pat White and Noel Devine (13 carries, 110 yards). They are great players and make a lot of guys miss. Everybody took their turn, gap off here, gap off there.”

The offense’s struggles fell in line with the way the Sooners have performed in every bowl game the last five seasons. The unit’s only first-half output was a pair of Garrett Hartley field goals.

Some of it may have had to do with wide receiver Malcolm Kelly missing all but a handful of plays due to a leg injury.

“Malcolm is a great player and huge presence on our offense,” Stoops said. “So it sure didn’t help.”

Then again, Kelly’s backup, Quentin Chaney, had four catches for 129 yards and a touchdown.

Kelly only averaged 3.7 catches per game this season. And only two of Kelly’s nine touchdown receptions came after conference play began.

There was also the absence of starting defensive backs Reggie Smith, Lendy Holmes and defensive tackle DeMarcus Granger. The reasons for them not being on the field were well-chronicled.

All were obstacles. But OU’s bowl struggles go beyond Wednesday’s problems.

In their last five bowl games, the Sooners are 1-4 and trailed all of them at halftime by an average score of 20-7.

Wednesday night they were down 20-6, leaving Stoops to wonder what needs to change in the way his team goes about preparing for bowl games.

“We need to really look at what we need to do differently,” Stoops said. “Obviously, I need to do things differently as a head coach and players. We need to have some discipline to us.”

The 13 penalties the Sooners committed for 113 yards were a major irritant. They easily cost themselves more than 100 yards on plays called back by penalties.

Despite all the first half problems, OU clawed itself back into the game early in the second half. Chris Brown’s 1-yard touchdown run cut the deficit to 20-15 a little less than halfway through the third quarter.

The Sooners had the momentum.

Then Stoops made the coaching decision that will be second-guessed at least until OU opens next season against Cincinnati Sept. 6 at Owen Field and more than likely until it wins another bowl game.

A failed onside kick attempt gave the momentum right back to West Virginia and the Fiesta Bowl turned into a rout soon after.

But unlike previous setbacks, there wasn’t the solace that came from knowing previous busts in BCS bowl games came against teams that won the national championship (LSU in 2004 and USC in 2005). Nor was there the bewilderment of playing in a game for the ages like last season’s Fiesta Bowl against Boise State.

This one is going to hurt more than the previous losses.

“It’s not very positive,” Stoops said. “You get to this position, obviously you are doing a lot of things positive and good. But you need to finish out and play well in these games.”

It’s been a while since the Sooners have figured out how to do it.



Notes of note

OU is now 24-16-1 in bowl games … OU set a school record for touchdowns in a season with 80. The 2003 team held the previous mark with 78 … Sam Bradford’s 69.5 percent season completion average and 176.53 passer ratings were the best ever by an OU quarterback … Curtis Lofton’s 15 tackles were the second most by an OU player in a bowl game. Rufus Alexander set the mark with 17 in last season’s Fiesta Bowl. Lofton also received the Fiesta Bowl’s Sportsmanship Award … Allen Patrick’s 73-yard first-quarter kickoff return was the longest in OU’s bowl history. The previous mark was set by George “Buster” Rhymes in the 1984 Orange Bowl.