Here's reality, we are 5-4...

[Soonerus]

...it is not Stoops fault, the players fault, Landry's fault, it is primarily because of an unprecedented string of bad luck regarding injuries to key players...deal with it...It is a fine line between winning and losing we should all fully understand this based upon the experiences of this year...

[CatfishSooner]

Nope...it's all Landry's fault...

[Soonerus]

Nope...it's all Landry's fault...

Knock it off, Landry is least at fault...

[TXBOOMER]

Obviously, the injuries are the primary reason. But, there is no excuse for not being able to kick a field goal.

[Soonerus]

Obviously, the injuries are the primary reason. But, there is no excuse for not being able to kick a field goal.

I am looking at the primary reason not just randomly looking to blame somebody ,i.e. kicking the dog....

[TXBOOMER]

I am an old Marine if you run out of bullets, you gotta stab em with your bayonet. No excuses. Blood makes the grass grow. Marines makes the blood flow. Kill Kill Kill Happy Birthday Devil Dogs!

[Soonerus]

I am an old Marine if you run out of bullets, you gotta stab em with your bayonet. No excuses. Blood makes the grass grow. Marines makes the blood flow. Kill Kill Kill Happy Birthday Devi Dogs!

I salute the Marines and love them but if you get the guts of your unit down with polio and they can no longer walk, you will fight like hell but probably not fair very well....

[TXBOOMER]

I hear ya. But even with the injuries, we should be able to beat Nebraska. We failed to execute repeatedly on the offensive side of the ball and on the field goal attempts. In past years we have been able to see improvement with green O lines. This year not the case. I was thrilled to hear Bob say they are searching the JUCO ranks for O line help that can make an immediate impact (I know they do that every year but it sounded especially good to hear him say that). But with Sam and Gresh this team could be undefeated we will never know.

[Soonerus]

I hear ya. But even with the injuries, we should be able to beat Nebraska. We failed to execute repeatedly on the offensive side of the ball and on the field goal attempts. In past years we have been able to see improvement with green O lines. This year not the case. I was thrilled to hear Bob say they are searching the JUCO ranks for O line help that can make an immediate impact (I know they do that every year but it sounded especially good to hear him say that). But with Sam and Gresh this team could be undefeated we will never know.

I agree...

[Seamus]

Nope...it's all Landry's fault...

I'll tell you whose fault it is -- that arse-hat who stole your bike.





I had to put new tires on it, by the way ...

[soonermix]

...it is not Stoops fault, the players fault, Landry's fault, it is primarily because of an unprecedented string of bad luck regarding injuries to key players...deal with it...It is a fine line between winning and losing we should all fully understand this based upon the experiences of this year...

i'm going to assign fault
loss 1 = o line
loss 2 = wilson
loss 3 = me (no corndog at the fair) sorry my bad
loss 4 = kickers/landry

[Soonerus]

i'm going to assign fault
loss 1 = o line
loss 2 = wilson
loss 3 = me (no corndog at the fair) sorry my bad
loss 4 = kickers/landry

The injuries have to fall in there somewhere...get serious...

[westcoast_sooner]

I listened to Stoops' and KW's pressers today and have a couple of thoughts about what I heard. As frustrated as the fans are, it sounded like Stoops is WAY WAY more frustrated than we ever could be. He is well aware that we're 5-4 and even with all the injuries, the Sooners are just a few points and a few plays away from being unbeaten.

When I listened to KW's presser, what I got was the fact that this guy is really positive about the last three games. I liked his attitude, and how he felt like he's got to step up and do a better job.

In the past when we had young guys, we saw improvement over the course of the season with the same group of guys playing together. The injuries this season have prevented much of the continuity of the group, so guys have to stop, think about the position that's new, learn how to compete, make a contested catch, chip a tackler to make some space or pick up a blitz - all in the matter of a week.

Yet still through all that, OU is just a few plays, a couple of field goals, fewer penalties, and some goal line runs away. I think we're going to see improvement in the last 3 games. There is going to be frustration and inconsistency by the fans, and the coaching staff. For the future, we'll have guys that the coaches know can play, and we'll have a bunch of guys that get to see game action that they might not otherwise have seen.

2010, might not be where we want it either. There will be more youth, more inconsistent play, and more growing to do. But, we'll see a team come together the rest of this year and we'll know who can make those plays.

[Sooner70]

SOONERUS.....Yeah, I kinda buy that, but not all the way. When you're a HC making over $4MM/year, you gotta have more in your back pocket. It's called contigency planning in the business world. I'm a Bob Stoops fan & probably always will be, but this situation does partly fall back on him and his staff. How? First of all, there's absolutely no reason OU fans should have to cringe and grit their teeth every time OU attempts a failed FG outside the 20 YD line. Its unexcusable that OU doesn't have a big time, top performing kicker.....OU's staff & recriuiting has fallen woefully short in this area. My gosh, Div 5A HS teams in TX have more reliable kickers that OU. That's totally unacceptable. What would OU's record be now if they had a decent FG kicker?

Secondly, lack of team discipline. That falls back on coaching, staff and players. You could see it in the very first BYU game.....too many dumb penalites, and it's been a common thread pretty much all season. Certainly, with all the injuries, Sooners don't need to exacerbate the situation with this kind of mindless activity.....but it has happened. How many promising drives or good ball positions have been killed by this stupidity? Reminds me of the Blake days when getting a series of 4 offensive plays without a penalty was a milestone.

Bottom line....I expect more of a coach that makes over $4MM/year, and his staff. I'd imagine Stoops would agree.

[soonermix]

The injuries have to fall in there somewhere...get serious...

did injuries factor in? sure they did but since we have not lost by more than 7 points in any given game they were all winnable despite the injuries

[A-M]

...it is not Stoops fault, the players fault, Landry's fault, it is primarily because of an unprecedented string of bad luck regarding injuries to key players...deal with it...It is a fine line between winning and losing we should all fully understand this based upon the experiences of this year...

I agree, but I like being on the side of the line that is a win much better.:P

[OUAlumni1990]

Even with our injuries, we should have beat BYU, Miami, and Nebraska. All those teams blow, and we should be able to beat them with the entire second string team. I was proud of the game against Texas though, even though we lost. Realistically, we should be 8-1 right now.

[Oldnslo]

...it is not Stoops fault, the players fault, Landry's fault, it is primarily because of an unprecedented string of bad luck regarding injuries to key players...deal with it...It is a fine line between winning and losing we should all fully understand this based upon the experiences of this year...

Fault is not the word. However, all of the things you've listed are factors. There's been some issues with coaching and playcalling. I'm a huge fan of Landry, yet he's made some poor decisions--especially with, say, half a minute left in Lincoln. (It's okay. He's young and he'll learn). There have been a slew of untimely and crippling injuries, and we've had the exact opposite of Sooner Magic all year. Nobody gets a free pass.

I fully agree that the difference between winning and losing is a razor's edge, and unless you compete for a living, you don't know how close that edge is. Any trial lawyer has won AND lost cases which should have gone the other way, whichever way the verdict went.

And I don't buy the whole "Bob makes a mint, so he should always have a bazooka in his pocket" argument. Are you telling me you'd be okay with OU's results this year if Bob made minimum wage? Me neither. I'm glad the guy makes a ton--more power to him. He earns every penny. In his shoes, I'd look at it this way: the coaching is free. Dealing with fairweather fans, "feeding the monster", prima donna athletes and their families, and just in general having my entire professional fate in the hands of 18-22 year old boys and men is what the $4 gazillion dollars is for.

We're not that great this year... for a lot of reasons. Some teams, this is the way it is ALL THE TIME.

So: take a bite of the burrito, recognize that this is all about a game being played by guys who go to our alma mater, and go out and support the University and team that we love. I've spent my entire life cheering for the Saints and Mets. Trust me, there are some lean years for any fan in any sport. Treasure the good times.

[badger]

Here's reality, we are 5-4...
Are you sure? I had no idea our record was that. :(

[TUSooner]

Fault is not the word. However, all of the things you've listed are factors. There's been some issues with coaching and playcalling. I'm a huge fan of Landry, yet he's made some poor decisions--especially with, say, half a minute left in Lincoln. (It's okay. He's young and he'll learn). There have been a slew of untimely and crippling injuries, and we've had the exact opposite of Sooner Magic all year. Nobody gets a free pass.

I fully agree that the difference between winning and losing is a razor's edge, and unless you compete for a living, you don't know how close that edge is. Any trial lawyer has won AND lost cases which should have gone the other way, whichever way the verdict went.

And I don't buy the whole "Bob makes a mint, so he should always have a bazooka in his pocket" argument. Are you telling me you'd be okay with OU's results this year if Bob made minimum wage? Me neither. I'm glad the guy makes a ton--more power to him. He earns every penny. In his shoes, I'd look at it this way: the coaching is free. Dealing with fairweather fans, "feeding the monster", prima donna athletes and their families, and just in general having my entire professional fate in the hands of 18-22 year old boys and men is what the $4 gazillion dollars is for.

We're not that great this year... for a lot of reasons. Some teams, this is the way it is ALL THE TIME.

So: take a bite of the burrito, recognize that this is all about a game being played by guys who go to our alma mater, and go out and support the University and team that we love. I've spent my entire life cheering for the Saints and Mets. Trust me, there are some lean years for any fan in any sport. Treasure the good times.

Well said. And if you've been a Saints fan for all your life, as I have been for 30+ years, you KNOW some pain. And that's not even considering the Mets.
I hope this season of misfortune is teaching Stoops and the staff and the players some ggod lessons about commitment and perseverance. I expect the last 3 weeks with teach us alot about Stoops and the staff and the players.

[ndpruitt03]

...it is not Stoops fault, the players fault, Landry's fault, it is primarily because of an unprecedented string of bad luck regarding injuries to key players...deal with it...It is a fine line between winning and losing we should all fully understand this based upon the experiences of this year...

Luck has nothing to do with it. We make too many mistakes and have too many problems with out coaches and players to win more than 6 or 7 games. You could see it early in the year and nothing has changed. Injuries and bad luck are just bad excuses. We need better coaching like it or not. Not saying fire the staff and hire new guys. But we need better coaching.

[cvsooner]

John Hoover at the Tulsa World has a great story today about the problems that were long in the making and led up to this season.

Issue at depth

by: JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
11/11/2009 3:34:37 AM

NORMAN — Oklahoma has struggled to move the football this season for one reason: attrition.

Since 2005, no Big 12 South team has lost more offensive line recruits than OU. Compounded by a ridiculous run of injuries, the Sooners' startling lack of depth has played out all year, from the false start on the first play of the season opener to last week's 10-3 disaster at Nebraska.

Using the class of '05 — because members of that class could be fifth-year seniors this season, and these Sooners could use more than a few of those — Oklahoma has prematurely lost 10 out of 25 recruits on the offensive line. Whether through injury, transfers or dismissals, that 40 percent attrition is the worst among Big 12 South teams. Texas Tech has lost 38 percent (10 of 26), rival Texas has lost 23 percent (4 of 17), Oklahoma State has lost 18 percent (4 of 22) and Texas A&M has lost 12 percent (2 of 17).

Tuesday's news that yet another starter — Jarvis Jones, who had played both guard and right tackle — was out for the season further underscored the value of depth at offensive line. Bob Stoops said Tuesday that he'd ideally like to have 20 of his 105 scholarships go to offensive linemen, but the Sooners currently have just six players who have played in a game (one is a true freshman), two others who haven't played (including another true freshman), one who is a walk-on, and one who might move in from tight end.

Brian Simmons, a part-time starter last year and a fifth-year senior, has been on the shelf with a knee injury for a month. Brody Eldridge, a mauling tight end, has played center and left guard but now has been lost for the season with a shoulder/neck injury. And Jones, a transfer from LSU who played on the Tigers' 2007 national championship team, is gone for the year with a foot injury.

Still, such injuries would be tenable if so many players hadn't bailed out the last five years.

"There's a number of reasons," Stoops said. "Some guys don't want to go to class. Don't want to work out. They want to set their own schedule. That generally, with a team of a hundred guys, doesn't sit very well. Eventually, they're dismissed. 'OK, you don't want to do it, then don't do it. You need to go somewhere else.'"

Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, a former offensive lineman at North Carolina and Stoops' line coach from 2002-2005, said O-linemen are different.

"It's a position that takes time to learn to play," he said. "And as hard as you work, if you don't have success early, guys get frustrated. And it always happens in the second year. First year, everybody expects to be redshirted. Second year is the hardest year for a guy."

Wilson said the team's updated philosophy is to try to get young linemen into games early in their career so, during those grinding offseason workouts, they can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

"It's an unrewarding, difficult job," Wilson said. "Chris Messner's a great example of someone that really wasn't very good when he got here ... and kind of groomed and groomed and by his junior year he's starting and by his senior year he's a captain and all-league player. It was a grind. There were two or three years where I didn't know if he was gonna come back some days."

Of the 10 who left early, eight departed after playing or practicing for at least one full season. There have been tales of grueling treatment during offseason conditioning, and that happens to be when most of those players left.

"I don't question what we do in the offseason because our kids work as hard as anyone," Wilson said. "We run a great deal. Sometimes as a line coach, I wish we were stronger. But then you watch us play, we've got some good feet."

Stoops said there are "modifications" in place during offseason workouts that don't hold the offensive linemen to the same standards as defensive linemen, linebackers or other positions — they get more time to finish a run, for example. It's the torturous kilns of the offseason that harden players, Stoops says.

All those players that quit? They quit for a reason.

"In the end, I'm very confident in our standards and what we expect," Stoops said. "We start having a bunch of guys in here who set their own pace and go to school when they want and show up to practice when they want, or not, what we'd have is probably six to eight more linemen who can't play, or would get more penalties or not go where they're supposed to go."

There's the rub. The offensive line has committed drive-killing penalties all season, but the mistakes — the mental ones, like a false start before the play, or a personal foul after the play — have shown up repeatedly in the Sooners' four close losses.

"It's really frustrating," said O-line coach James Patton. "That's lack of discipline and lack of focus. Their challenge and my challenge is to get them to lock in and focus, not have those dumb penalties.

"They should have more composure and more focus in a stressful environment. It comes back to paying attention to detail and them looking themselves in the mirror and saying, 'Hey, I've got to fix this.' And me as a coach holding them accountable to it getting it fixed on the practice field."

Of course, the line hasn't been the only problem. Inconsistent play at wide receiver has cursed the Sooners all season, too.

Part of the reason for that is because a handful of highly regarded wide receiver recruits — five out of 14, another inordinately high percentage — didn't pan out, from the immaturity of Josh Jarboe (kicked off the team after rapping about shooting people just months after his arrest on gun charges) to the tragedy of Corey Wilson (paralyzed last spring in a car crash).

For those remaining, receivers coach Jay Norvell has been disappointed all season in soft play, incomplete pass routes, lack of competitiveness and dropped passes. One guy plays well here or there, but the group overall doesn't.

"We try to bring positive energy to these guys," Norvell said. "These are young guys. Everybody wants to think they're grown men, but they ain't yet. You gotta show them what to do and how to do it. Different guys, you gotta hit them different ways. You're not always successful at first, but you've just got to keep on prodding and trying to get it out of them.

"But the most important thing is they've got to understand what we need to do to win."


Aching Sooners
The following Oklahoma Sooners have missed games this season:

QB Sam Bradford, injured shoulder: Only full game was against Baylor Oct. 10.

TE Jermaine Gresham, injured knee: Missed entire season.

LB Mike Balogun, ruled ineligible by NCAA: Missed entire season.

LB Tom Wort, injured knee: Missed entire season.

DT DeMarcus Granger, back surgery: Missed entire season.

TE/OL Brody Eldridge, injured shoulder: Will miss remainder of season.

DE Auston English, injured foot: Will miss remainder of season.

T/G Jarvis Jones, injured heel: Will miss remainder of season.

G Brian Simmons, injured knee: Hasn’t played since Baylor game.

WR Ryan Broyles, injured shoulder: Missed Baylor game.

RB DeMarco Murray, injured ankle: Missed Kansas game Oct. 24.

WR Brandon Caleb, injured ankle: Missed most of Kansas State game Oct. 31, then all of Nebraska game Nov. 7.

G Tavaris Jeffries, suspension: Didn’t make trip for Kansas game, then missed Nebraska game for personal reasons.

G Tyler Evans, injured ankle: Has played sparingly since starting Tulsa game Sept. 19.

OL Donald Stephenson, suspension: Missed entire season.

— By GUERIN EMIG, World Sports Writer


OU 2009: What could have been
Inconsistent play and injuries at offensive line and wide receiver have been painful for Oklahoma’s offense this season, but because of recent attrition at both positions, the Sooners have few options. A look at some of the misses on offensive players in OU’s recruiting classes since 2005:

Offensive line

2005: Ben Barresi took medical hardship, didn’t rejoin team; Brandon Keith quit team after first two-a-days, now in NFL; Jesse White took medical hardship, didn’t rejoin team; *Brian Simmons started 2009, injured, missed five games in 2009 (so far).

2006: Curtis Bailey quit team in 2007; Chase Beeler transferred to and is starting for No. 25 Stanford; Chad roark quit team after 2006 spring.

2007: Kody Cooke quit team in 2008; Jason Hannan quit team in 2009; Donald Stephenson suspended for 2009; Alex Williams dismissed in 2009.

2008: Britt Mitchell quit team in 2008.

2009: Josh Aladenoye redshirting 2009; Jeff Vinson juco, hasn’t played in 2009

Summary: The real losses here are Keith (he’d be a fifth-year senior this year), Beeler (he’s starting at Stanford but wasn’t very happy at OU) and either Hannan, Stephenson or Williams from that ‘07 class. With three of those five in the mix this season, Brody Eldridge (and now Eric mensik) would still be at TE and things would just be more stable everywhere. All five of the Oklahomabred linemen the Sooners have signed since 2005 have bolted early.

Wide receiver

2005: Eric Huggins quit team in 2007.

2006: Corey Wilson paralyzed in car accident in spring 2009.

2007: Tyler Stradford quit team in 2008; Londell Taylor playing minor league baseball.

2008: Josh Jarboe kicked off team prior to freshman season.

Summary: The real loss here is Jarboe, the rapping, gun-toting Georgia product who’s now playing at Troy. Then again, Huggins would be a fifth-year senior and would likely be a contributor. The speedy Stradford was never consistent but still received countless chances to shine and could really give OU another deep target. Wilson might have made a move last spring if not for his terrible tragedy.

Quarterback

2005: No quarterbacks signed.

2006: Sam Bradford won 2008 Heisman, injured, played just three games in 2009.

2007: Keith Nichol transferred to and playing at Michigan State.

2009: Drew Allen redshirting 2009.

Summary: With Rhett Bomar in the fold, coaches didn’t feel a need to land another QB, and few wanted to come. With a little patience, Keith Nichol likely would be starting not only this season, but next year as well (he had a full year on Landry Jones).

The good news: OU already has QBs committed for 2010 and 2011.

Tight end

2005: Aaron Cummings quit team in 2006; *Brody Eldridge three-year starter injured, out final three games of 2009.

2006: Jermaine Gresham All-American, injured, missed all of 2009.

2009: Gabe Ikard redshirting 2009.

Summary: Nobody can replace Gresham, but Cummings was seen as a physical and athletic player who could certainly be helping a lot this year. Some recruiting services saw Ikard ready to step in immediately, but coaches haven’t been close to taking off his redshirt.

Running back

2005: No running backs signed.

2007: No running backs signed.

2008: Justin Johnson quit team prior to 2009 season.

Summary: Imagine where OU would be with a significant injury to Chris Brown or Demarco murray. Nobody came in 2005 because Adrian Peterson was a sophomore, and nobody came in 2007 because Murray, Brown and Mossis Madu all signed in 2006.

Because of Murray and Brown’s toughness, this is the one position that hasn’t been problematic at all.

*Signed as defensive player, switched to offense early in career