DALLAS — You know what you’re getting with Bob Stoops.

Great coach.

Great recruiter.

Stand up guy.

Terrific helmsman.

As difficult as he can be to interview, he poses nothing but certainty. The good kind. The kind that inspires confidence. Comfortable in his own skin, he knows where he’s going.

Maybe he never thought he’d win a first national championship only two years into his head coaching career. Maybe he thought it would take three or four. So natural in his role, he’s made five conference championships look far more par-for-the-course than any kind of fantastic achievement, which it is.

So how could he lose his touch?

How could he lose it so dramatically and emphatically?

Though Stoops’ Big-Game-Bobness has been in question for some time, ever since OU made a habit of losing its last game of the season, his exposure until recently has been limited. Even if his teams have occasionally appeared less than ready, it wasn’t a matter of the coach taking an unwise course in the moment.

Until now.

It’s true, Oklahoma’s 45-35 loss to No. 5 Texas had several culprits …

Ryan Reynolds knocked out for the season with a torn ACL; Colt McCoy making more plays than Vince Young ever did against OU; the officials hitting Travis Lewis with at least one personal foul for trying to hold McCoy up and taking an interception away from Lamont Robinson; OU’s special teams ceasing to be; a Sooner running game that’s run off a cliff.

… yet for the second straight time, Stoops’ role in a loss couldn’t have been more direct.

It came down to two plays.