The bottom line

[Jacie]

The coaching staffs of OUr next 11 opponents having read for themselves the preseason talk about Oklahoma being one of the top contenders to make the BCS Championship game or at least heard about it are no doubt looking at their schedules and mentally changing the "L" they had marked beside OU to either a "W" or "T" (for toss up) based on the way the Sooners looked vs. BYU.

In one game Oklahoma has gone from a nightmare of an opponent to a REALLY GREAT OPPORTUNITY for them, on par with playing the 2005 team after Stoops suspended the starting quarterback a week before the season started.

Even the Idaho State Bengals might be thinking there's more than a paycheck for them to play Oklahoma now (btw, they got thrashed by Arizona State to the tune of 50-3 last week).

Who wouldn't want a shot at knocking off the Sooners now?

I am not talking John Blake-like futility but certainly the 2005 season might be a model for what we'll see this year.

For teams that are usually easy wins for OU, if they beat Oklahoma it doesn't matter if it is a down year or who played.

There isn't an asterisk in the record books next to the 2005 TCU/OU game in the box score, nor do the hated whorns temper their enthusiasm over beating that team 45-12 knowing it was with Vince Young quarterbacking them.

After all that transpired with the 2005 squad, the 8-4 finish is argument that it was Stoops best coaching ever.

I hope he has some good coaching left in him because OUr team needs it more than ever.

[stoopified]

Is this another thread about the o-line? :)

[wishbonesooner]

Even with Sam Bradford, teams don't shake in their boots at the thought of playing Oklahoma. Like it or not, our futility in big games of late has given a lot of teams the idea they can play with the Sooners. We will indeed see what we are made of the rest of the season. Bob has gotten uber conservative in the last 3 or 4 years. I think we will need to see a bit more of the old Riverboat Gambler Bob Stoops.

[possumfat]

I would settle for him just doing his job at a $4 million dollar level and have the team prepared for a change...................asking to much????

[goingoneight]

Just like Pete Carroll rallied and beat Oregon and Stanford in 2007 when his "greatest team ever" went through a "change," right?

[Jdog]

Heard from a friend that a player told him that the coaches hadn't prepared them enough for BYU. guy said the player was concerned.

[sooner518]

Heard from a friend that a player told him that the coaches hadn't prepared them enough for BYU. guy said the player was concerned.

Was there a Baskin Robbins involved in this story? :D

[StoopTroup]

I would settle for him just doing his job at a $4 million dollar level and have the team prepared for a change...................asking to much????

Yeah like how could he let Gresham hurt himself the week of the first game? Why didn't he wrap Sam up in bubble wrap before the game? Soon as we had 2 false starts he should have benched that sorry excuse for an O-line. How could he even recruit that bunch of losers.

Inexcuseable. FIRE THAT SUM BUCK ! ! ! :rolleyes:

:pop:

[Crucifax Autumn]

I would settle for him just doing his job at a $4 million dollar level and have the team prepared for a change...................asking to much????

Hmmm...That post wouldn't be so stupid if you made some suggestion as to just HOW he should do that. There are plenty of posters here slamming the coaches and giving specific changes they'd like to see. That is constructive. Your post? Not so much.

[mikeelikee]

Even with Sam Bradford, teams don't shake in their boots at the thought of playing Oklahoma. Like it or not, our futility in big games of late has given a lot of teams the idea they can play with the Sooners. We will indeed see what we are made of the rest of the season. Bob has gotten uber conservative in the last 3 or 4 years. I think we will need to see a bit more of the old Riverboat Gambler Bob Stoops.

Good luck finding Riverboat Gambler Bob--I think that character has been moth-balled. Seems lately our coaches seem content and minimally motivated, and it is being reflected in the team's play.

[westcoast_sooner]

Riverboat Gambler Bob seems a distant memory. But as much as most Sooner fans look back on 2005 with disdain, we can't, IMO, realize that the 2007 and 2008 Sooner teams, and 3 consecutive Big XII championships were borne from that "disastrous" season. It was then that we had a young OL, a new QB and inexperienced WRs. The Defense was sound and grew into some really good players that led the way. The same OL that struggled and had guys quit before the season, led to the same OL that protected Sam enough to set the kind of offensive records the team did last year.

I'm not suggesting we're starting over again, ala 2005, I think we have more talent in 2009. But I do think that the young guys have to develop quickly to support the stars we have. I do see tough times, but overall long term success for the Sooners.

[BoulderSooner79]

Hmmm...That post wouldn't be so stupid if you made some suggestion as to just HOW he should do that. There are plenty of posters here slamming the coaches and giving specific changes they'd like to see. That is constructive. Your post? Not so much.

I agree, should try to add something with a post, so here goes :)

I think KW has gotten stale with his play calling. It appears he has fallen in love with execution believing that if each player does their job, then the play is going to work. With the experienced offense last year and Sam at QB, it is easy to see how he could fall into this trap. But the fundamental advantage that the offense has over the defense knowing what is coming. This results in the defense hesitating for a split second until they recognize the play. And if they try to guess and guess wrong, it should result in a big play. But if the play calling become predictable, this advantage is gone. Execution alone will still win the games against inferior competition, but is not enough in the big games against other elite teams. I never see the other teams D on their heels due to an unpredictable series of plays. And if teams start blitzing a lot like BYU did, where are the screens, draws, wheel routes and other known ways of using the D's aggression against them. I keep waiting for the bubble screens and shovel passes that used to work so well and they never seem to happen any more. I believe KW has it in him to call a great game, but he just seems to be in a rut.

[IGotNoTiming]

I am amazed at how many people know more about what our team needs to do than our coaching staff... How many of you are scouting film, at the practices, and lifting weights?

Great teams lose..... great coaches make mistakes... no one is invulnerable...

The parity in college ball these days will make it harder for teams to establish dominance like the teams of old.

It is frustrating when we lose to teams that we think we should beat... but I bet each and every one of you that our coaches and players feel ten times worse about it than you... and they will do everything in their power to correct every flaw that they think can be fixed.....


BOOMER SOONER

[Collier11]

If we can take care of the next two opponents with Landry and Sam can come back and play well, this may have been the best thing that could have happened to us, seriously

[prrriiide]

Hmmm...That post wouldn't be so stupid if you made some suggestion as to just HOW he should do that. There are plenty of posters here slamming the coaches and giving specific changes they'd like to see. That is constructive. Your post? Not so much.

I'll take a stab.

First off, I miss seeing any coaches getting in a player's grill on the sidelines for JV crap like our OL pulled Saturday. Maybe I'm old skool and the PC crowd has taken over, but I think there should be a complete Memorial Stadium lap for every yard penalized. Both decks, east and west. Up one aisle and down the other. No stopping until you've run off you personal penalty yards. Discipline. Remember Knight's rant? "I'll run you until you f-ing puke!" IMO, Brandon should have been benched before the third drive.

Second, I agree with Boulder about the lack of imagination. Boise had imagination, and 2 OT and 3 trick plays later OU was the laughingstock of the BCS. We need to be running plays that make opposing DCs terrified about what they will see. Every play they need to be wondering where the point of attack will be, what kind of misdirection or odd timing or alignment they are going to see. We need to be teaching our running backs and WRs how to throw a ball 25-30 yards downfield accurately. When Stoops came to OU with Leach, the spread was fairly new in college, and mostly unseen in the BigXII. Now everyone runs it. Everyone knows what the formations are, what the routes are for a given formation, what the reads are, all of it. It's gotten stale. The same thing happened with the wishbone. After you see it enough times, you know what's coming and you recruit the athletes to counter it. Our offense needs to be completely unpredictable. Which leads me to...

THE MEERKAT OFFENSE. Just hike the dammed ball! If the defense really has no idea what is going to happen, then meerkatting at the line is just going to kill momentum. Shyt or get off the pot.

If the offense could have kept the D on the sidelines for more than a few minutes, maybe they wouldn't have been totally gassed on the 8+ minute BYU drive in the 4th. IMO, we need to tweak the no-huddle. When we are ahead and trying to run the clock, don't use it. It had the adverse effect of keeping our D on the field longer when they desperately needed a blow. Up until the 4th Q the D was stifling BYU for the most part, especially their running game.

We're going to have to do something about our middle coverage. I love RR. I love his work ethic, I love how he has overcome tremendous adversity, I love how he hits like a sledgehammer. But he's struggling in coverage. That will be exploited by every opponent we face this season, and BV better come up with an answer. I don't know what that answer is, because RR is simply the best run-stuffer we have at LB, and we need him on the field. I don't know if that means we need a Roy-type hybrid safety/LB rotating in, or if the coverages need to change to the OLBs and let RR run outside contain, or what. But the passes over the middle will kill us all season unless OU can fix the coverage.

The Search For The Riverboat Gambler is an appropriate observation. Especially against peer competition, our coaches seem to be playing to not lose instead of playing to win. We need to get that coup d'gras attitude back. We need that gut slitting, throat-stomping mentality back. To me, that's what's been missing in every big game OU has lost over the last few years. It's not swagger. It's ruthlessness.

[Crucifax Autumn]

Good job priiide.