Even if you totally ignore losing your starting center, cornerback, and safety, and having your All-American tight end clearly limited, I don't really see how this is true.
Plenty of blame to go around, but our players brought their C game, and I put much of the blame for that on them and not the coaches. Stupid penalties, stupid turnovers, awful tackling, shit execution, Jaylon Ford looking like he was drunk as a skunk, AD Mitchell doing whatever the fuck it was AD Mitchell was doing, Jerrin Thompson dropping gifted interceptions, Gbenda blowing coverages, etc. Someone check the security footage at the strip clubs in Dallas, because something was up. If you want to blame all of that on the coaches because the buck stops there, sure, I get that.
And were there questionable decisions end of game? Sure. The running play on 3rd and 9 was somewhat similar to the 3rd and 7 running play on the last Bama drive. It works and everyone loves how tough you are, how you are out-Bama-ing-Bama, the culture has changed, blah blah blah. It doesn't work and you are a fucking turtling pussy who can't manage the clock (and yes, I realize they aren't perfectly comparable). The goal line shit show is much more egregious to me.
I've always been anti-Sark, for a lot of the reasons stated in the OP. And maybe deep down I still am. But his talent accumulation and the way this team looked the first 5 games won me over to some degree. OU brought their A game, we brought our C game and had a few bad breaks, and lost on basically a last second touchdown. It fucking sucks, but if we meet OU again I am willing to bet we win by >7.