Sugar Bowl

83rd Annual
Allstate Sugar Bowl
January 2, 2017

---

#7 Oklahoma 35 (Final: 11-2)
#14 Auburn 19 (Final: 8-5)

---

---

---

Official Statbook – PDF
Final Game Notes
Allstate Sugar Bowl Quote Central 2016-17

---

Oklahoma Caps Impressive Season with 35-19 Win Over Auburn in Allstate Sugar Bowl

Sometimes, Bob Stoops observed, there comes a point in a football game when a coach knows that there’s no way the opposing team can mount a comeback, and so he and his staff don’t have to worry so much about “coaching it to the end,” and can take a few minutes to reflect on the satisfaction of a job well done.

Stoops certainly enjoyed that feeling more times than not during his 18 seasons at Oklahoma, a .798 winning percentage (190-48) including a 183-43 mark since 2000 that made the Sooners the most successful Power 5 program of the 21st century.

And whether or not at the end of Oklahoma’s 35-19 victory against Auburn in the 83rd Allstate Sugar Bowl Stoops had any idea that it may have been the last game of his coaching career, watching the final minutes tick away that night in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome carried some special meaning.

“It’s doesn’t get talked about a lot,” Stoops, who remained at OU as a special assistant to the athletic director, said of his late-game emotions during the Sugar Bowl victory. “And I’ve certainly been on the other side. But when you have a chance to let your seniors enjoy things on the sideline and maybe get a few backups into the game, it’s always a good feeling, especially if it’s the last game of the season. I even looked forward to having the bucket of Gatorade thrown on me.”

Certainly it was a good ending for Oklahoma, which as almost always, began the season with national championship aspirations (the Sooners were No. 3 in the preseason rankings) but saw them eliminated by mid-September after losses to Houston and Ohio State.

However, instead of playing indifferently the rest of the way, OU cranked it up in the Big 12, becoming the first school in league history to go 9-0 in league play. Keyed by the dynamic passing and receiving duo of Baker Mayfield and Dede Westbrook the Sooners averaged 44.7 points and 557.3 yards, both No. 3 in the nation.

The first Heisman finalists from the same team since 2004, Mayfield and Westbrook gave the Sooners an almost-unstoppable 1-2 punch. In a wild 66-59 shootout victory against Texas Tech, Mayfield, who began his career as a walk-on with the Red Raiders threw for 545 yards and seven touchdowns, with Westbrook having 202 yards on nine catches with two TDs.

Oklahoma wasn’t one dimensional either. Running back Joe Mixon wound up leading the nation in all-purpose yards with 195.6 per game and junior Samaje Perine, despite finishing second to Mixon in rushing yards, became the school’s career rushing leader in the Sugar Bowl. Considering he did it in just three seasons, not to mention the Sooners’ rich history of running backs, that’s an impressive feat.

However, given the Big 12’s lackluster defensive reputation, including the Sooners’ finishing 75th nationally in scoring defense, 89th in total defense and 119th in passing defense, it was no surprise that OU finished seventh in the final CFP standings. Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt, chairman of the CFP selection committee, who had front-row seat for the shootout against his school, even rubbed salt in the wound by saying that the defense was the reason Oklahoma received scant playoff consideration.

The Big 12 championship, OU’s 10th under Stoops, did merit the Sooners their Sugar Bowl berth, a record eighth for a non-SEC school. in the second year of the agreement between the two leagues to send their top-ranked non-playoff teams to New Orleans in years when the Sugar Bowl is not a CFP semifinal.

In what was generically called “The Champions Bowl,” before the Sugar Bowl won the rights to play host to the game, OU was the first true conference champion to actually fit that description.

In contrast, Auburn’s route to the game was much less certain. Like Oklahoma, the Tigers lost two of their first three games, and Coach Gus Malzahn’s job status was considered extremely shaky. But a freakish 18-13 victory against LSU in which a last-second touchdown pass by LSU was overruled on replay which showed the clock had expired, instead started Auburn on a six-game winning streak (and cost LSU Coach Les Miles his job in the process).

However, injuries caught up with the Tigers late in the year and they lost their final two conference games, against Georgia and archrival Alabama.

Still, though, late-season losses by LSU, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Georgia and, finally, Florida to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game left 14th-ranked Auburn as the top non-playoff team from the SEC and thus the league’s representative in the Sugar Bowl.

Auburn, whose last previous Sugar Bowl appearance had been in the 2005 when the Tigers capped off an undefeated season with a victory against Virginia Tech, was the first four-loss SEC team in Sugar Bowl history and naturally a decided underdog.
None of that diminished Auburn’s enthusiasm about being in the Sugar Bowl one year after the Tigers had gone 7-6 and finished the season in the Birmingham Bowl.

But it came from a different perspective than Oklahoma’s.

“An upset here would be great,” said Auburn defensive back Joshua Holsey. “Just to end our year in the Sugar Bowl is a big kudo to what we did in the offseason and the commitment we made to each other to be better.
“To be here now is just a blessing for each and every one of us, especially the seniors. We plan to end with a bang.”

The first period of the game itself was surprising.

Using misdirection and other previously-unseen alignments, Auburn marched 75 yards on 14 plays on the opening series with Chandler Cox scoring from three yards out. Meanwhile, the Auburn defense, ranked second in the SEC, was keeping Oklahoma scoreless in the first quarter for the first time all season.

Things turned around late in the period however, when on third-and-eight from the OU 12, Mayfield and Mixon connected on a sideline pass for a 28-yard gain. Then, facing third-and-22 from the 39, it was again Mayfield to Mixon this time for a 32-yard pickup.

The Sooners had to overcome a personal foul call after that, but finally Mayfield hit Mark Andrews for a 13-yard scoring pass to tie it.

Auburn would retake the lead on a 49-yard field goal by Daniel Carson on the next series, but OU put together a 9-play, 75-yard drive keyed by Mayfield going to Westbrook for 26 yards on fourth-and-four from the AU 29.

The Tigers did get back within one on another Carson field goal just before halftime, but the momentum was with the Sooners.

OU would score touchdowns on three of its first four possessions of the second half – on a Mayfield to Westbrook from seven yards out, a 4-yard run by Mixon and a two-yard run by Perine while holding the Tigers without a first down in the process.

Mayfield, winner of the Miller-Digby Trophy as the game’s outstanding player, threw for 296 yards and two TDs while using his ability to move in the pocket to add 34 rushing yards with no sacks. He finished the season with an NCAA-record for passing efficiency.

Mixon, whose presence in the game caused controversy after the release of a video showing him hitting a female student in 2014 which resulted in his suspension for the season, set the OU single-season all-purpose yards mark as he picked up 91 rushing and 89 receiving in the game while Perine’s 88 rushing yards gave him 4,122 for his career.

Auburn quarterback Sean White, who directed that opening TD drive, suffered a broken arm in the first half, and the Tigers would use four QBs trying to get something going again.

With OU up 35-13, the Tigers did finally get something going late, a 91-yard drive that ended with Kerryon Johnson’s 1-yard pass to Jalen Harris on the night’s final play.

But by then Stoops was well into victory mode as he watched his team defeat its fourth ranked opponent in as many games, those victories coming by an average of 20.8 points.

“We had really good preparation,” he recalled a few days later. “There wasn’t anybody late for curfew or meetings and never a problem with the effort in practice either with attention or execution. We had some disappointments early on and some turmoil later, but the guys really wanted to finish it out in the right way. I know there are people who say bowl games don’t mean much unless you’re in the playoffs, but believe me, this one did for us.”

Game Story by Ted Lewis.

Auburn	7	6	0	6	–	19
Oklahoma	0	14	14	7	–	35

SCORING SUMMARY
AU: Chandler Cox 3 yd rush (Kick by Daniel Carlson), 9:04 (1st)
OU: Mark Andrews 13 yd pass from Baker Mayfield (Kick by Austin Seibert), 11:24 (2nd)
AU: Carlson 49 yd FG, 7:16 (2nd)
OU: Joe Mixon 3 yd rush (Kick by Seibert), 3:37 (2nd)
AU: Carlson 39 yd FG, 0:41 (2nd)
OU: Dede Westbrook 7 yd pass from Mayfield (Kick by Seibert), 12:39 (3rd)
OU: Mixon 4 yd rush (Kick by Seibert), 2:28 (3rd)
OU: Samaje Perine 2 yd rush (Kick by Seibert), 12:40 (4th)
AU: Jalen Harris 1 yd pass from Kerryon Johnson (No PAT attempt), 0:00 (4th)

Auburn	Team Stats	Oklahoma
22	First Downs	28
46-185	Rushing	43-228
13-27-1	Comp-Att-Int	19-28-0
154	Passing Yards	296
73-339	Total Offense	71-524
51	Return Yards	19
5-49.2	Punting	3-45.7
0-0	Fumbles-Lost	2-0
6-63	Penalties-Yds	10-100
26:42	Times of Poss.	33:18

Rushing
Auburn: Kamryn Pettway 24-101; Kerryon Johnson 9-33; John Franklin 5-16; Sean White 3-15; Jeremy Johnson 1-10; Eli Stove 2-8; Chandler Cox 1-3 TD; Ryan Davis 1-(-1).
Oklahoma: Joe Mixon 19-91 2 TD; Samaje Perine 17-86 TD; Baker Mayfield 4-34; Dede Westbrook 3-17.

Passing
Auburn: Sean White 4-10-0, 35 yards, 0 TDs, 0 sacks; Jeremy Johnson 5-9-1, 93 yards, 0 TDs, 0 sacks; John Franklin 3-7-0, 25 yards, 0 TDs, 0 sacks; Kerryon Johnson 1-1-0, 1 yard, 1 TD, 0 sacks.
Oklahoma: Baker Mayfield 19-28-0, 296 yards, 2 TDs, 0 sacks.

Receiving
Auburn: Eli Stove 4-39; Tony Stephens 2-21; Darius Slayton 1-56; Kyle Davis 1-13; N. Craig-Myers 1-12; Kerryon Johnson 1-5; Stanton Truitt 1-4; Will Hastings 1-3; Jalen Harris 1-1 TD.
Oklahoma: Dede Westbrook 6-59 TD; Joe Mixon 5-89; Mark Andrews 3-68 TD; Geno Lewis 2-40; Jeffery Mead 2-27; Nick Basquine 1-13.