85Sooner
1/4/2008, 08:55 AM
Stoops still tops in Big 12
String of bowl losses shouldn't diminish OU coach's stature
Listen to this article or download audio file.Click-2-Listen
By Kirk Bohls
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, January 04, 2008
Let's get one thing absolutely straight. If any of the 119 Division I-A football schools needed a head coach right this minute, here's betting at least 115 of them would sprain a finger trying to dial up Bob Stoops and hire him immediately, no questions asked. Even bowl-related questions.
Southern California is probably fairly content with that Pete Carroll guy, a loss to 41-point underdog Stanford aside. Florida won the last national title with Urban Meyer and appears willing to stick by him, even if he can't beat Lloyd Carr in a bowl game.
Bob Stoops Team was big flop in loss to West Virginia.
Jim Tressel has won three of his four BCS games and isn't in much danger of losing his job at Ohio State. And Texas seems satisfied with the direction Mack Brown has taken the Longhorns, assuming he makes the right hire for a new defensive coordinator by luring Auburn's Will Muschamp or someone of similar caliber.
Other than those four schools, Stoops would probably top every one else's wish list. Except, of course, SMU, which is looking to hire Vince Lombardi very soon.
That said, Stoops did an absolutely pitiful job of coaching Oklahoma to yet another loss in a BCS bowl, this time to a team that basically didn't have its head coach or its Heisman-quality running back. West Virginia just had reasons to play and play well.
The best coach in America outside of L.A.'s city limits obviously didn't have his team ready to play and admitted as much. His defenses continue to leave much to be desired. Imagine if Mack's bunch was lit up for 48 points in a bowl game. He'd be tarred and feathered. Then tarred again.
Here's what has transpired since OU's national championship season in 2000.
Stoops has never been as good without his brother, Mike, the heart and soul of OU defenses and one of the fiercest defensive coordinators ever. Brent Venables has never had the same feel for a game as Mike Stoops, and Bobby Jack Wright may be wearing out his welcome as secondary coach after the past four OU pass defenses have ranked 41st, 56th, 48th and then 67th this year. (Wright worked with the defensive ends in 2004.) In fairness, though, two starters were missing from the OU secondary Wednesday night.
Of those four consecutive BCS losses, two were to clearly superior teams in Louisiana State (when OU quarterback Jason White was hampered by injury) and USC. A third resulted from one of the most miraculous, dazzling displays in college football history. And Wednesday's Fiesta Bowl debacle came against a would-be national champion in West Virginia, which if it hadn't stumbled against a mediocre Pittsburgh team in its finale, would be playing Ohio State in the BCS title game.
The defeats have come against pretty good coaches — Carroll, Nick Saban, rising star Chris Petersen and some West Virginia guy who was the first one off the bus and got handed the clipboard.
Oddly enough, the Sooners' lackluster performance followed one of their most intense, well-played games in ages. OU played with passion in the Big 12 championship game, dominating a really good Missouri team that destroyed an Arkansas team that beat possible national champion LSU.
Stoops' magic is gone. Or dissipating. All those trick plays that worked previously — the fake field goal for a touchdown against Missouri, the fake punt vs. Alabama, everything against Texas — are now blowing up in his face.
Those aggressive, gambling coaching decisions don't look so smart these days. I mean, who tries an onside kick in the first half?
That's nothing new, however. Stoops' Sooners blew a 17-point lead at Colorado this year when they couldn't find a way to get the ball in the hands of their best receiver, Malcolm Kelly. Stoops and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson completely botched the Texas Tech game when they insisted upon throwing 45 times with backup quarterback Joey Halzle after Sam Bradford went down with a concussion. Apparently Bradford wasn't the only one not thinking straight that day.
Discipline appears to be sorely lacking, on and off the field, and yes, we do know about off-field problems here in Austin. As many as five OU starters, some of them part-timers, missed the Fiesta Bowl because of injuries, suspensions or academic shortcomings, and it showed.
The bet is the Sooners will be back with a fury. Absent early departures for the NFL, Stoops will return nine offensive and eight defensive starters to a probable preseason top-five team that has TCU, Cincinnati, Washington and an undisclosed nonconference opponent on the schedule.
Yes, Stoops has a lot of egg on his face, but Texas shouldn't take too much consolation in his misery. As badly as OU has slipped in the postseason, it has still beaten Texas in six of the past eight meetings.
But Mack Brown can resolve all that fairly simply. Just schedule OU in a bowl game.
String of bowl losses shouldn't diminish OU coach's stature
Listen to this article or download audio file.Click-2-Listen
By Kirk Bohls
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, January 04, 2008
Let's get one thing absolutely straight. If any of the 119 Division I-A football schools needed a head coach right this minute, here's betting at least 115 of them would sprain a finger trying to dial up Bob Stoops and hire him immediately, no questions asked. Even bowl-related questions.
Southern California is probably fairly content with that Pete Carroll guy, a loss to 41-point underdog Stanford aside. Florida won the last national title with Urban Meyer and appears willing to stick by him, even if he can't beat Lloyd Carr in a bowl game.
Bob Stoops Team was big flop in loss to West Virginia.
Jim Tressel has won three of his four BCS games and isn't in much danger of losing his job at Ohio State. And Texas seems satisfied with the direction Mack Brown has taken the Longhorns, assuming he makes the right hire for a new defensive coordinator by luring Auburn's Will Muschamp or someone of similar caliber.
Other than those four schools, Stoops would probably top every one else's wish list. Except, of course, SMU, which is looking to hire Vince Lombardi very soon.
That said, Stoops did an absolutely pitiful job of coaching Oklahoma to yet another loss in a BCS bowl, this time to a team that basically didn't have its head coach or its Heisman-quality running back. West Virginia just had reasons to play and play well.
The best coach in America outside of L.A.'s city limits obviously didn't have his team ready to play and admitted as much. His defenses continue to leave much to be desired. Imagine if Mack's bunch was lit up for 48 points in a bowl game. He'd be tarred and feathered. Then tarred again.
Here's what has transpired since OU's national championship season in 2000.
Stoops has never been as good without his brother, Mike, the heart and soul of OU defenses and one of the fiercest defensive coordinators ever. Brent Venables has never had the same feel for a game as Mike Stoops, and Bobby Jack Wright may be wearing out his welcome as secondary coach after the past four OU pass defenses have ranked 41st, 56th, 48th and then 67th this year. (Wright worked with the defensive ends in 2004.) In fairness, though, two starters were missing from the OU secondary Wednesday night.
Of those four consecutive BCS losses, two were to clearly superior teams in Louisiana State (when OU quarterback Jason White was hampered by injury) and USC. A third resulted from one of the most miraculous, dazzling displays in college football history. And Wednesday's Fiesta Bowl debacle came against a would-be national champion in West Virginia, which if it hadn't stumbled against a mediocre Pittsburgh team in its finale, would be playing Ohio State in the BCS title game.
The defeats have come against pretty good coaches — Carroll, Nick Saban, rising star Chris Petersen and some West Virginia guy who was the first one off the bus and got handed the clipboard.
Oddly enough, the Sooners' lackluster performance followed one of their most intense, well-played games in ages. OU played with passion in the Big 12 championship game, dominating a really good Missouri team that destroyed an Arkansas team that beat possible national champion LSU.
Stoops' magic is gone. Or dissipating. All those trick plays that worked previously — the fake field goal for a touchdown against Missouri, the fake punt vs. Alabama, everything against Texas — are now blowing up in his face.
Those aggressive, gambling coaching decisions don't look so smart these days. I mean, who tries an onside kick in the first half?
That's nothing new, however. Stoops' Sooners blew a 17-point lead at Colorado this year when they couldn't find a way to get the ball in the hands of their best receiver, Malcolm Kelly. Stoops and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson completely botched the Texas Tech game when they insisted upon throwing 45 times with backup quarterback Joey Halzle after Sam Bradford went down with a concussion. Apparently Bradford wasn't the only one not thinking straight that day.
Discipline appears to be sorely lacking, on and off the field, and yes, we do know about off-field problems here in Austin. As many as five OU starters, some of them part-timers, missed the Fiesta Bowl because of injuries, suspensions or academic shortcomings, and it showed.
The bet is the Sooners will be back with a fury. Absent early departures for the NFL, Stoops will return nine offensive and eight defensive starters to a probable preseason top-five team that has TCU, Cincinnati, Washington and an undisclosed nonconference opponent on the schedule.
Yes, Stoops has a lot of egg on his face, but Texas shouldn't take too much consolation in his misery. As badly as OU has slipped in the postseason, it has still beaten Texas in six of the past eight meetings.
But Mack Brown can resolve all that fairly simply. Just schedule OU in a bowl game.