Drake Stoops describes Oklahoma's mindset in final drive vs. Texas 

The Oklahoma Sooners survived a wild Red River Rivalry showdown against the Texas Longhorns in Week 6. The Sooners staged a final-minute late-game drive to take a 34-30 lead over the Longhorns, which would ultimately be the deciding score. 

One of the players who came up big on the final drive for Oklahoma was wide receiver Drake Stoops. During a guest appearance on his father and former legendary Sooners head coach Bob Stoops‘s podcast, the wide receiver went over that game-winning drive and the team’s mindset while in the midst of it. 

“It’s funny because we go every Wednesday at the end of practice, the last period of practice, 2-minute drill,” said Stoops. “And this week’s situation was actually from the 25; I think maybe 1:20 left, no timeouts, need a touchdown to win. And then it comes up Saturday, the exact same situation we just went over that week. It was great. Dillion made a lot of good plays.”  

The Longhorns’ defense had practically no answer for Dillon Gabriel’s dual-threat ability from the pocket. One could make the case that he outdueled Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers as he completed 23 of his 38 pass attempts for 285 yards, one touchdown, and did not throw a single interception compared to the Longhorns signal-caller, who threw two in the game. Gabriel was also Oklahoma’s leading rusher in the game, with 14 carries for 113 yards and one touchdown. 

Still, Oklahoma needed a final drive to get the victory against Texas. The biggest play of that drive was Gabriel finding wide receiver Nic Anderson in the back of the end zone for the touchdown, which Stoops broke down in his own words. 

“We ran Nic Anderson in motion, and it’s crazy you see our left tackles blocking two guys; Walter’s blocking two guys, and Dillon steps up in the pocket, and he just throws it to the back corner to Nic Anderson, and that’s all she wrote,” Drake Stoops recalled. 

“I mean, I don’t know; it’s hard to be nervous in that moment when you’re out there. It’s just you get lost in that moment.” 

Undoubtedly, it will be hard to put into words all that gold into a high-stakes situation as a game-winning drive. Still, Stoops was able to provide his own unique perspective.  

In the end, Stoops and the rest of the Oklahoma offense, led by Gabriel, were poised and successfully answered the call. And in doing so, they were able to exact revenge on last season’s loss at the hands of the Longhorns and place themselves in the drivers seat for a birth in the Big 12 championship game and possibly the college football playoffs.