NORMAN, Okla. -- To reach the high of making the College Football Playoff, Oklahoma first had to endure the low of the Bob Stoops era.
Clemson capped the Sooners' late-season collapse last year by crushing them in the Russell Athletic Bowl so thoroughly it prompted Stoops to deliver wholesale changes to his program in the offseason.
Those changes have proved to be the foundation of Oklahoma's revival, fueling the Sooners to a Big 12 championship that sent them back to the Sunshine State for a New Year’s Eve rematch with Clemson in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl.