The VIIIth
12/4/2007, 06:49 PM
Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends
December 2nd, 2007 by EyesOfTX
…we’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside.
There was a time in my life - a span of about 25 years - during which I consumed about a six-pack of Dr. Pepper each and every day. I quit the Friendly Pepper Upper habit cold turkey about 8 years ago when I went on the Atkins diet, and never took it back up. But I must say that, if I were still a Dr. Pepper drinker, I would swear off of them after being subjected to that ubiquitous, unbelievably annoying Dancing Fat Guy ad they have run during pretty much every commercial break of every college football game that’s been televised this year.
Every time that ad comes on, I just want to scream “Somebody, please, make the bad man stop!!!!”
It occurred to me this morning that that’s also pretty much how I feel about Oklahoma Head Coach Bob Stoops, and his continuing domination of Mack Brown and the Big 12 football conference. Those of you keeping score know by now that last night was Stooopsie’s 5th conference title in the last 8 years, and he’s done it with 5 different starting quarterbacks. That is an utterly amazing accomplishment, and I’d be willing to bet it’s something that no more than one or two other coaches have managed to do in the last 50 years. The only possibilities I can think of off the top of my head would be Woody Hayes, Bear Bryant or John McKay, and all of those guys have been out of the game for 25 years or more. None of them had to play a conference championship game in order to get there.
Meanwhile, back in Austin, our sleeply little football program continues to rest on the laurels of a single championship season in a decade under Mack’s familial style of ‘leadership’. That would, of course, be the only championship season in Mack’s entire career as a head coach, but then, you already knew that as well.
Things between Mack and Stoops have returned to their normal stasis this year.
Stoops has built his program on a foundation of fundamental football, discipline (on the field, anyway), speed and aggressiveness. This strategy has allowed him to win one national championship, play for two others, and play for six conference championships in eight seasons, losing only one. His team - which may well be the best team in the nation right now - will go on to play in a BCS bowl game yet again, and deservedly so.
Mack, meanwhile, has built his program on recruiting and PR. Fundamentals and discipline are secondary considerations, and leadership is nowhere to be found. He annually recruits well enough to simply out-talent 9 or 10 opponents on schedules that contain only two or three quality contests. The problem with this approach is that it’s awfully hard to out-talent Oklahoma, because Stoops is a hell of a recruiter as well. He did manage it in 2005, with Superman leading the way, and in 2006, when OU’s offensive line was decimated by injuries, poor recruiting and players leaving the program early, but those are the outliers in an 8-year span of otherwise futility against the Sooners. And his 2006 team was so fundamentally poor that it even managed to let OU back into the conference championship by losing to KSU and A&M to end the regular season. The Longhorns are today waiting to hear which PAC-10 also-ran they’ll be playing in yet another Holiday Bowl, which has become the program’s home away from home in the Mack Brown era.
This season was, more than anything else, simply a return to the normal stasis between the two programs that has existed since 2000. It was not a fluke, not something that’s likely to reverse itself next year. Many UT fans continue to point to 2008 and 2009 as seasons when our team will be able to make a run at putting some rare hardware in the trophy case. These are fans who did not notice the youth of the team that OU put on the field last night.
On the offensive side of the ball, the only Srs. who started for OU last night were RB Allen Patrick, TE Joe John Finley, and, well, that’s it. And those guys aren’t even the best players OU has at their positions. Jermaine Gresham, a sophomore, will make everyone forget about Finley very quickly, and they have two RBs better than Patrick, both coming back next year. On defense, the Sooners started three seniors - DE Alonzo Dotson, CB Marcus Walker, and S DJ Wolfe. That’s it. Their two-deep is peppered with sophomores and freshmen, including a QB who led the nation in passing efficiency this year.
So if you’re thinking our games with OU will somehow get any easier the next couple of years, think again.
Meanwhile, our program wallows in a state of uncertainty, with Mack trying to figure out how to make changes to his old, tired and complacent staff without hurting anybody’s feelings. Mack’s all about family, you see, and being buddies with his underlings, and so detests having to make the hard decisions to remedy staff weaknesses that he has created in the first place.
So maybe he’ll figure out a way to ease Akina out of the DC slot by making him a co-co-assitant DC with two other coaches. And maybe he’ll figure out a way to fit Greg Davis with a dead head set, but still let him sit in the booth thinking he’s calling the plays while someone else sends them in the from the sidelines. Anything to spare their, and his, feelings, you see.
We had a nice couple of years there when Vince was here. Treasure those memories, because they were nothing more than anomalies. This year, the relationship between Mack and Stoops returned to its normal state of affairs.
So cue the Dancing Fat Guy: Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends…
December 2nd, 2007 by EyesOfTX
…we’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside.
There was a time in my life - a span of about 25 years - during which I consumed about a six-pack of Dr. Pepper each and every day. I quit the Friendly Pepper Upper habit cold turkey about 8 years ago when I went on the Atkins diet, and never took it back up. But I must say that, if I were still a Dr. Pepper drinker, I would swear off of them after being subjected to that ubiquitous, unbelievably annoying Dancing Fat Guy ad they have run during pretty much every commercial break of every college football game that’s been televised this year.
Every time that ad comes on, I just want to scream “Somebody, please, make the bad man stop!!!!”
It occurred to me this morning that that’s also pretty much how I feel about Oklahoma Head Coach Bob Stoops, and his continuing domination of Mack Brown and the Big 12 football conference. Those of you keeping score know by now that last night was Stooopsie’s 5th conference title in the last 8 years, and he’s done it with 5 different starting quarterbacks. That is an utterly amazing accomplishment, and I’d be willing to bet it’s something that no more than one or two other coaches have managed to do in the last 50 years. The only possibilities I can think of off the top of my head would be Woody Hayes, Bear Bryant or John McKay, and all of those guys have been out of the game for 25 years or more. None of them had to play a conference championship game in order to get there.
Meanwhile, back in Austin, our sleeply little football program continues to rest on the laurels of a single championship season in a decade under Mack’s familial style of ‘leadership’. That would, of course, be the only championship season in Mack’s entire career as a head coach, but then, you already knew that as well.
Things between Mack and Stoops have returned to their normal stasis this year.
Stoops has built his program on a foundation of fundamental football, discipline (on the field, anyway), speed and aggressiveness. This strategy has allowed him to win one national championship, play for two others, and play for six conference championships in eight seasons, losing only one. His team - which may well be the best team in the nation right now - will go on to play in a BCS bowl game yet again, and deservedly so.
Mack, meanwhile, has built his program on recruiting and PR. Fundamentals and discipline are secondary considerations, and leadership is nowhere to be found. He annually recruits well enough to simply out-talent 9 or 10 opponents on schedules that contain only two or three quality contests. The problem with this approach is that it’s awfully hard to out-talent Oklahoma, because Stoops is a hell of a recruiter as well. He did manage it in 2005, with Superman leading the way, and in 2006, when OU’s offensive line was decimated by injuries, poor recruiting and players leaving the program early, but those are the outliers in an 8-year span of otherwise futility against the Sooners. And his 2006 team was so fundamentally poor that it even managed to let OU back into the conference championship by losing to KSU and A&M to end the regular season. The Longhorns are today waiting to hear which PAC-10 also-ran they’ll be playing in yet another Holiday Bowl, which has become the program’s home away from home in the Mack Brown era.
This season was, more than anything else, simply a return to the normal stasis between the two programs that has existed since 2000. It was not a fluke, not something that’s likely to reverse itself next year. Many UT fans continue to point to 2008 and 2009 as seasons when our team will be able to make a run at putting some rare hardware in the trophy case. These are fans who did not notice the youth of the team that OU put on the field last night.
On the offensive side of the ball, the only Srs. who started for OU last night were RB Allen Patrick, TE Joe John Finley, and, well, that’s it. And those guys aren’t even the best players OU has at their positions. Jermaine Gresham, a sophomore, will make everyone forget about Finley very quickly, and they have two RBs better than Patrick, both coming back next year. On defense, the Sooners started three seniors - DE Alonzo Dotson, CB Marcus Walker, and S DJ Wolfe. That’s it. Their two-deep is peppered with sophomores and freshmen, including a QB who led the nation in passing efficiency this year.
So if you’re thinking our games with OU will somehow get any easier the next couple of years, think again.
Meanwhile, our program wallows in a state of uncertainty, with Mack trying to figure out how to make changes to his old, tired and complacent staff without hurting anybody’s feelings. Mack’s all about family, you see, and being buddies with his underlings, and so detests having to make the hard decisions to remedy staff weaknesses that he has created in the first place.
So maybe he’ll figure out a way to ease Akina out of the DC slot by making him a co-co-assitant DC with two other coaches. And maybe he’ll figure out a way to fit Greg Davis with a dead head set, but still let him sit in the booth thinking he’s calling the plays while someone else sends them in the from the sidelines. Anything to spare their, and his, feelings, you see.
We had a nice couple of years there when Vince was here. Treasure those memories, because they were nothing more than anomalies. This year, the relationship between Mack and Stoops returned to its normal state of affairs.
So cue the Dancing Fat Guy: Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends…