John Blake the Legend...

[Soonerus]

... he has been an integral part of the wholesale dismantling of two of the best Big XII/8 programs OU and NU...maybe he has a shot at Time's Man of the Year designation...

[Veritas]

Yeah, I don't blame Blake for NU. That one's on Pederhan.

[royalfan5]

To be fair to Blake, NU really didn't fall apart until he left.

[AllAboutThe'O']

To be fair to Blake, NU really didn't fall apart until he left.
North Carolina should be really worried now. Unless Butch Davis goes back home to Arkansas and takes Boo with him.

[47straight]

To be fair to Blake, NU really didn't fall apart until he left.


Sounds you've got your new head coach frontrunner.

[King Crimson]

if he had just been given more time, we might have won 7 games in 2000.

[tru2ou]

... he has been an integral part of the wholesale dismantling of two of the best Big XII/8 programs OU and NU...maybe he has a shot at Time's Man of the Year designation...

This has to be one of the dumbest posts I've ever seen on this board. Blake doesnt have anything to do with the "dismantling" of Nebraska and for you to suggest it, is idiotic. In fact, its probably helped OU that he left. He was getting some kids that OU wanted.

He hasnt been at OU for almost 10 years, let it go. Geez... :pop:

- tru

[Dan Thompson]

I though Blake was the guy that shot is wife in LA.

[cs6000]

They thought he did it, but it was really the chauffeur.

[cs6000]

Blake probably did, however, hide the gun in the restaurant bathroom before the murder.

[SoonerEmpire]

You mean, it WASN'T Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the Candlestick?? :D

Blake was a moron as OU's coach, but I can't help but feel bad for him. After all, he *DID* try his best when he was at OU. He loved his alma mater (don't know if he does now though), and it probably hurt him as much as the rest of us that he couldn't get the job done. At the end of the day, he just had absolutely no clue what needed to be done and was completely unqualified. Yeah, I know... just stating the obvious, but still...

[BigDeezy]

yeah, but they're playing with his recruits now. You mean he doesn't get credit for this?

[SoonerEmpire]

yeah, but they're playing with his recruits now. You mean he doesn't get credit for this?

With all due respect, Bob Stoops played with Blake's recruits as well when we won the NC. The only difference is that Stoops knows how to coach, and he knows where to place players by position. Blake didn't. Neither does Callafran. I don't think I'd go so far as to say that Blake had any part in the "dismantling" of NU. I place complete blame for NU's downfall on Pederson and Callahan. If they had the right coach the last few years, those Blake recruits are probably doing fairly well at Nebraska (provided that Blake would have been at Nebraska under a different coach, obviously).

[OUstud]

You mean, it WASN'T Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the Candlestick?? :D

Blake was a moron as OU's coach, but I can't help but feel bad for him. After all, he *DID* try his best when he was at OU. He loved his alma mater (don't know if he does now though), and it probably hurt him as much as the rest of us that he couldn't get the job done. At the end of the day, he just had absolutely no clue what needed to be done and was completely unqualified. Yeah, I know... just stating the obvious, but still...

I wouldn't call "sitting in your office playing video games during practice" trying his best...

[SoonerEmpire]

I wouldn't call "sitting in your office playing video games during practice" trying his best...

I'm not at all trying to defend John Blake and the job he did in Norman. As I already stated, he did a horrible job.

Maybe I missed the "Breaking News Update" regarding video games in the office 10 years ago, but may I ask what you base this accusation on? I mean, if it's true and can be confirmed, that's fine. But it does sound like something that was fabricated. Seriously... video games in the office?? How would you (or any of us, for that matter) possibly know that unless you were a player for him, on his coaching staff, or part of the athletic department? Not to mention the fact that it's hardly something that would be deemed "newsworthy" unless the person making it "News" was trying to hammer John Blake for being incompetent (which I can totally see happening). All I'm saying is that I never heard this, and it does sound a bit silly.

Even if it were true, can you honestly say that he wasn't doing the best job he knew how to do just because he may have played a video game occasionally in the office? If your answer to that is yes, then would it then be fair for someone who knows you to say that you don't do the best job that you're capable of while you're on the job just because you happen to occasionally do something that is not work-related? There's not a single working person in America that hasn't done something that wasn't quite work-related while on the job. That doesn't mean 300 million Americans don't do their job as best they can.

I honestly am not trying to defend the guy. He sucked as a head coach, and I'm glad that he's gone. But I don't think he didn't do the best job he knew how to do though. Problem is, his best wasn't even close to scratching the surface of being "good enough." And again, that all has to do with the fact that he was inexperienced - and because of that - should NEVER have gotten the job in the first place. I'm not trying to be argumentative or anything. I'm just trying to be fair and objective about him, that's all.

[aurorasooner]

I don't know anything about Blake playing video games, but back in 2001 about a month after we won the NC, there was about a 10 page thread on another board regurgitating all of Boo Blake's head coaching history. I may still have it on an old 2 gig HD somewhere, and I'm going to try and find it because it absolutely blew my mind. Things like first hand accounts of how pro scouts would come to Norman and just shake their heads at practices so disorganized that it was absolute pure comedy and cat fights on the headphones during a game between Blake and his coordinators that delayed a game so long we either had to call a timeout or got a delay of game call. You hear rumors about these types of nonprofessional shenanigans that went on during the Blake reign, but this thread was just amazing in it's clarity of the events, and after reading it was clear why the Stoops coaching staff with a no-nonsense organized approach to coaching college football came in and won immediately.

[critical_phil]

I don't know anything about Blake playing video games, but back in 2001 about a month after we won the NC, there was about a 10 page thread on another board regurgitating all of Boo Blake's head coaching history.



don't forget to add the part where he would show pr0n during film time; and, in addition to other generalized grabassery, that he had a penchant for dropping trou around the locker room.

[SoonerEmpire]

I don't know anything about Blake playing video games, but back in 2001 about a month after we won the NC, there was about a 10 page thread on another board regurgitating all of Boo Blake's head coaching history. I may still have it on an old 2 gig HD somewhere, and I'm going to try and find it because it absolutely blew my mind. Things like first hand accounts of how pro scouts would come to Norman and just shake their heads at practices so disorganized that it was absolute pure comedy and cat fights on the headphones during a game between Blake and his coordinators that delayed a game so long we either had to call a timeout or got a delay of game call. You hear rumors about these types of nonprofessional shenanigans that went on during the Blake reign, but this thread was just amazing in it's clarity of the events, and after reading it was clear why the Stoops coaching staff with a no-nonsense organized approach to coaching college football came in and won immediately.

Now, THAT is something I totally believe was going on, and you're absolutely right about it. A lot of the stuff you mentioned, I remember hearing about in all mediums of the media - tv, print, AND radio.

[soonerrodg]

AuroraSooner--I hope you find that thread, I still run into the "Bob Stoops can only win it all with another caoch's players" argument fairy regularly.

[usmc-sooner]

Just about everyone in Dallas wanted to get rid of him. Charles Haley said he wasn't qualified to coach Jr. High.

[MextheBulldog]

HEY HEY HEY!

[Rhino]

From his destoying of recruiting files to his racism accusations when he was fired, I have zero respect for Boo Blake.

AuroraSooner--I hope you find that thread, I still run into the "Bob Stoops can only win it all with another caoch's players" argument fairy regularly. I don't think this is the thread aurora is talking about, but jkm had a solid post debunking the Blake myth (http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25102) a few years ago.