It’s day 5 in New Orleans for the SoonerScoop crew and earlier this morning, the media duties for Oklahoma and Auburn ended.

Bob Stoops climbed the stairs to the dais just before 8:30 a.m. for his Sugar Bowl pregame press conference. After 15 minutes of taking questions, Stoops stood with Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn for photos next to the Sugar Bowl trophy.

If Stoops walked out of the media hotel following that photo shoot, got in his car and took a huge sigh of relief, he’d be owed that.

There have been few seasons like this one for Bob Stoops.

You would almost have to combine 2005, 2006 and 2009 to produce a season like the one we just witnessed in 2016.

In 2005, Stoops had a superstar in Adrian Peterson, but he was replacing a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback in Jason White.

Oklahoma started out 1-2 and eventually fell all the way to 2-3 that season.

In 2006, scandal rocked the Oklahoma program as Rhett Bomar was kicked off the team at the start of fall camp. That team went on to win a Big 12 Championship.

2006 remains one of Stoops’ most impressive coaching jobs at OU.

In 2009, injuries ravaged the Sooners, including Heisman Trophy winning QB Sam Bradford. That team started the season 2-2.

Yet here we are in New Orleans. The Sooners sit at 10-2, a top 10 team getting ready to play Auburn in the Sugar Bowl. But it feels like this qualifies as Stoops’ most tumultuous season ever.

The tone of this season and Stoops’ demeanor changed quickly after such a hopeful preseason.

Losses in the season opener to Houston and then a home loss to Ohio State will do that.

Before OU lost to Ohio State, freshman quarterback Austin Kendall went on a university produced television show and called the Buckeyes’ defense “basic” and predicted Baker Mayfield would light them up.

OU went on to lose and Stoops went on to lock down his program.

Only veteran players were allowed to speak with the media. There were player only meetings to address the lack of improvement being made on the practice field.

And the outside world was not being kind to a team that was a preseason favorite to make it back to the College Football Playoffs.

After losing to Ohio State, some could envision OU spiraling out of control, with potential losses to TCU on the road and Texas in Dallas.

Could this team fall to 1-4 to start the season? That was a legitimate question at the time.

Eventually Dede Westbrook started to emerge offensively, OU got better on the offensive line and Baker Mayfield started playing like Baker Mayfield again.

Defensively, Jordan Parker stabilized the secondary when he emerged as the starter against Texas. The Sooners still struggled to overcome the loss of Tay Evans at linebacker, who had to give up football due to multiple concussions.

And then Charles Walker, Oklahoma’s most gifted defensive lineman, decided to quit playing college football.

And then Texas Tech happened.

The 66-59 win over Tech lifted the Sooners to 5-2 overall. But they gave up an embarrassing 854 yards of total offense.

Out of everything that has happened on the field this season, Texas Tech is the scab that won’t go away.

It was a scab that Texas Tech A.D. Kirby Hocutt picked at during the College Football Playoff selection show. Saying that OU wasn’t considered along with Washington, Michigan or Penn State because of the defensive side of the ball.

“Yeah, we heard it. We took it personal as we should,” said Ogbonnia Okoronkwo this week in New Orleans when asked about those comments. “At the same time we know where we fall short and we know what we need to work on. We don’t point any fingers. We just got back to work and just plan on taking this game.”

It took Jordan Evans picking his game up and become a playmaker on defense. It took OU winning a tough closing stretch against Baylor, West Virginia and Oklahoma State.

It took 9 straight wins after starting 1-2 for this team to get to New Orleans.

This is a team that learned how to lead, that learned how to win week-in and week-out.

And then Joe Mixon released his own video from 2 ½ years ago and an entirely new series of tumult hit the OU program. Another distraction for Bob Stoops to deal with.

Credit Bob Stoops and Joe Mixon for addressing the situation the way they did. They stepped up in front of cameras and dealt with it by falling on their own swords.

But we’re here to cover a team playing for a Sugar Bowl crown against the second best team in the SEC.

We’re here to cover a defense that seems to enrage OU fans at every turn.

That fact isn’t lost on Mike Stoops or members of this OU defense.

“Really just picking up the pieces and fixing the problems that we’ve had - that’s really been the biggest thing of the past two weeks and playing an SEC team, we get to showcase what we can do as a defense and what we were that we didn’t get to show during the regular season,” said one of OU’s bigger playmakers on defense, Steven Parker.

Watching every snap of the 2016 season and covering this team every day along the way, I still don’t know how the Sooners were able to hold this thing together and make it to New Orleans.

Or how the disappointment of losing two games in September has made it impossible for some fans to appreciate everything this team has overcome to get here.

If the Sooners can pull off a 10th straight win, and this defense can show fans some progress against an SEC opponent, the accomplishment of this season will be harder to deny.