Looks Like Nick Zepp is right!!!

[Collier11]

HA HA HA, just kidding but tramel seems to think so

OU blockers: Who knew?

By Berry Tramel
The Oklahoman

2005 ranks as the worst coaching job of the Bob Stoops era. Of course, there's not a lot to pick from.

A big turnaround in Year 1, a national title in Year 2, Big 12 titles in 2002 and 2004, national title games in 2003 and 2004. It comes down to 2001 and 2005.

And '05 wins going away. The NFL draft told us that.

First round: Guard Davin Joseph goes 23rd overall, to Tampa Bay.

Second round: Center Chris Chester goes 56th overall, to Baltimore.

Sixth round: Fullback J.D. Runnels goes to Chicago.

Free agency: Guard Kelvin Chaisson signs with Houston.

NFL scouts obviously are smitten with OU's 2005 blockers. Which brings us to a question:

Why couldn't the Sooners block anybody last September?

OU gained 225 total yards (97 rushing) against TCU. The Sooners rushed for 157 against UCLA, with 61 coming on two Travis Wilson reverses.

Yes, TCU and UCLA turned out to be quality teams. Yes, the Sooners were using green quarterbacks.

But TCU and UCLA were not Jimmy Johnson's Hurricanes or Tom Osborne's Cornhuskers. Green quarterbacks are no excuse for a limp running game when you've got Adrian Peterson and NFL-worthy blockers.

Eventually, Rhett Bomar grew into a good quarterback, the blocking improved and the offense became acceptable.

What went wrong last September? I don't know. No doubt a combination of dozens of factors.

But the pieces were there for success. Not BCS success. Not beat-Vince-Young success. But beat-TCU success. Beat-Baylor-before-overtime success.

The Sooner staff eventually put the pieces together. But it took awhile.

Hey, it happens. NFL teams drafted three North Carolina State defensive linemen in the first round. Mario Williams went first to Houston, Manny Lawson went 22nd to San Francisco and John McCargo went 26th to Buffalo. Give a team three defensive linemen about to go in the first round of the NFL draft, and it should conquer all foes.

N.C. State went 7-5 in 2005.

[yermom]

Berry Tramel is dead to me :mad:

did he watch the TCU or UCLA games?

[picasso]

did he watch the Tulsa game too? we ran the ball on 3rd and 47.

[colleyvillesooner]

Well, neither of those guys were drafted at the position they played in 2005.

[toast]

all of Berry's and Nick's brain cells added together could be wiped out with one can of Bud Light.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Maybe Berry is Nick

[Octavian]

I thought 05 was one of Stoops' best coaching jobs in his OU stint...

We were the Bad News Bears in September and October. Before New Years Eve we'd beat the #6 team in the country.

[spaceman]

I thought 05 was one of Stoops' best coaching jobs in his OU stint...

We were the Bad News Bears in September and October. Before New Years Eve we'd beat the #6 team in the country. There is no doubt that Bob miscalculated the qb situation and it hurt the team. Rhett should have been taking the majority of snaps from the start of spring practice. Add in the untimely OL situation along with a predictable CL offense and you have a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, we were able to recover and salvage the season.

[Octavian]

There is no doubt that Bob miscalculated the qb situation and it hurt the team. Rhett should have been taking the majority of snaps from the start of spring practice. Add in the untimely OL situation along with a predictable CL offense and you have a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, we were able to recover and salvage the season.

hindsight has its advantages. Who made more progress from Week1 to bowl season than OU?

[Salt City Sooner]

I find it hard to take a lot of stock in an article from a guy who can't spell his name right.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

i hate shallow articles. why can't writers take a little bit of time and look at the overall picture? why can't he look at the 1000 articles he's written over the last 5 years and see all the butterfly wings that caused the perfect storm that was last year.

why can't he go back and look at how the QB battle of '01 was handled and why we allowed it to happen again in 2005? why did we have the exact same scenario unfold again where we have a good practice QB win the job but freeze up in a game?

why can't he go back and look at how our defensive back recruiting was handled under mike stoops? why can't he talk about all the kids that were recruited as corners and ended up as either transfers or safeties? why can't he ask why that was allowed to go on for so long unaddressed?

why can't he go back and look at our OL recruiting over those same years and ask why it wasn't addressed?

the simple matter is that it had always turned out okay. that very powerful force that causes you to turn a blind eye to the erosion of your kingdom until hannibal is at the gates. changes have been made, but it will be interesting if they solve the underlying problem that seemed to plague us last year.

why did we continue to play guys out of position on the OL? did we really need our best guard at left tackle with the plays we ran? why, if corner is easier to learn than safety, did we have our most experienced guys at corner instead of safety? why did we continue to run a 4-3 when all teams did was pass on us? why didn't we use more plays like the shovel pass to keep the defense honest?

ugh.

[Scott D]

i hate shallow articles. why can't writers take a little bit of time and look at the overall picture? why can't he look at the 1000 articles he's written over the last 5 years and see all the butterfly wings that caused the perfect storm that was last year.

why can't he go back and look at how the QB battle of '01 was handled and why we allowed it to happen again in 2005? why did we have the exact same scenario unfold again where we have a good practice QB win the job but freeze up in a game?

why can't he go back and look at how our defensive back recruiting was handled under mike stoops? why can't he talk about all the kids that were recruited as corners and ended up as either transfers or safeties? why can't he ask why that was allowed to go on for so long unaddressed?

why can't he go back and look at our OL recruiting over those same years and ask why it wasn't addressed?

the simple matter is that it had always turned out okay. that very powerful force that causes you to turn a blind eye to the erosion of your kingdom until hannibal is at the gates. changes have been made, but it will be interesting if they solve the underlying problem that seemed to plague us last year.

why did we continue to play guys out of position on the OL? did we really need our best guard at left tackle with the plays we ran? why, if corner is easier to learn than safety, did we have our most experienced guys at corner instead of safety? why did we continue to run a 4-3 when all teams did was pass on us? why didn't we use more plays like the shovel pass to keep the defense honest?

ugh.


Because.....THAT....

Is Oklahoma Journalism.
:D

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

That should never be the title of any thread, EVAR!

[Collier11]

SORRY!!!

[CincySooner]

Because.....THAT....

Is Oklahoma Journalism.
:D


there is only ONE......


Berry Tramel

[okienole3]

Do you think that the people at jimtraber.com and soonertimes.com are ****ed off at sf.com because they are going to have to put up with more Zepp this week as a result of his baneing?

[Widescreen]

i hate shallow articles. why can't writers take a little bit of time and look at the overall picture? why can't he look at the 1000 articles he's written over the last 5 years and see all the butterfly wings that caused the perfect storm that was last year.

why can't he go back and look at how the QB battle of '01 was handled and why we allowed it to happen again in 2005? why did we have the exact same scenario unfold again where we have a good practice QB win the job but freeze up in a game?

why can't he go back and look at how our defensive back recruiting was handled under mike stoops? why can't he talk about all the kids that were recruited as corners and ended up as either transfers or safeties? why can't he ask why that was allowed to go on for so long unaddressed?

why can't he go back and look at our OL recruiting over those same years and ask why it wasn't addressed?

the simple matter is that it had always turned out okay. that very powerful force that causes you to turn a blind eye to the erosion of your kingdom until hannibal is at the gates. changes have been made, but it will be interesting if they solve the underlying problem that seemed to plague us last year.

why did we continue to play guys out of position on the OL? did we really need our best guard at left tackle with the plays we ran? why, if corner is easier to learn than safety, did we have our most experienced guys at corner instead of safety? why did we continue to run a 4-3 when all teams did was pass on us? why didn't we use more plays like the shovel pass to keep the defense honest?

ugh.

Everything you've listed is Chuck Long's fault.

[colleyvillesooner]

Do you think that the people at jimtraber.com and soonertimes.com are ****ed off at sf.com because they are going to have to put up with more Zepp this week as a result of his baneing?

heh

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

Do you think that the people at jimtraber.com and soonertimes.com are ****ed off at sf.com because they are going to have to put up with more Zepp this week as a result of his baneing?

I think D.E. should have given Zepp to coach Schmidt for a week and give him the lineman's workout and then we could read more observations about the o-line.

[Soonerwolf]

I think D.E. should have given Zepp to coach Schmidt for a week and give him the lineman's workout and then we could read more observations about the o-line.


TRAMEL (OR IS IT CAMEL) IS A TOOL . . . DID HE SKIP THE TECH GAME AND THE HOLIDAY BOWL ???

DO US ALL A FAVOR BERRY AND COVER OSWHO . . .

[TheUnnamedSooner]

Told you guys Trammel was an idiot. And no one believed me ;)

[Harry Beanbag]

Do you think that the people at jimtraber.com and soonertimes.com are ****ed off at sf.com because they are going to have to put up with more Zepp this week as a result of his baneing?


He got baned again? Damn, I'm missing everything with this new job. :mad:

[tulsaoilerfan]

Maybe Berry is Nick
:D Or his daddy

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Everything you've listed is Chuck Long's fault.Don't know if you're joking or not, but my guess is that we will be a lot better off with LONG GONE.

[Octavian]

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8215/capsoff3ey.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[MiccoMacey]

why did we continue to play guys out of position on the OL? did we really need our best guard at left tackle with the plays we ran?

I've been stewing over that for some time now.

Unless our other tackles were incapable of playing college level ball (which says a ton about our coaches if this were true), I'll never understand that move.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Maybe Berry is Nick's gay lover

Fixed it for you YWIA!!

[birddog]

that traber board just reminded me how much i hate Sheep U. Living in colorado makes it difficult to keep up with such stupidity. Of course, the buffs provide a slight reminder for me.

[rhombic21]

I will admit that there were lots of things on the line that I didn't understand. But I'll qualify that by saying that I'm not a coach, I'm just a fan. I'm not really in a position to say whether Stoops did a terrible job. In the end, we went 8-4 (and probably should have gone 9-3), which is pretty close to on par for what I expected going into the season (I thought we'd probably lose 1 or 2 games).

But things that I didn't understand:

- Why Chester wasn't the starting center from day one? Dude was a second round draft pick at the position, despite only playing a handful of games there, and only having one year of starting OL experience. Plus it was obvious from the first quarter that Bush was getting manhandled by the TCU DT.

- What the hell happened to Duke Robinson at Tackle? He seemed to play well against Tulsa, at least well enough to allow Joseph to play guard.

- Speaking of which, why wasn't Joseph ever moved back to guard after it was apparent that the tackle move wasn't working out? He a mediocre tackle, and a great guard. Personally, I would have rather seen Rayl, Robinson, or Braxton play tackle, and just let Joseph dominate at guard. It seems to me that guard is more vital for the power run game, which is what we wanted to focus offensively, at least when Chuck was here and AD was healthy.

- Why did Kevin Chaisson continue to play over Quinn and Cooper? I never saw him dominate his man once. Most of the time when running plays got blown up, it seemed like it was often Chaisson's man who was breaking up the play. Again, I'm not an expert on line play, but it just seemed to me like Chaisson lacked the physical strength to be a good run blocker, and it seems to me like we should have been trying to get our best run blockers on the field for AD/KeJuan/Gute. With a young QB and WRs, our pass offense was obviously not going to be a strength anyways, so it would have made more sense to me for us to just try and do one thing really well, and hope that guys could learn how to pass block better as time went on, than to do neither thing well, and be stuck with guys who were physically limited in what they could do.

- Why did we wait until this offseason to move Simmons over? Seems like we could be way ahead of the curve if we'd have moved him last year. How did nobody look at the depth at DT and the depth at OL and deduct that somebody was going to have to move, and how did that decision take until this spring to make?

On the QB situation, I still don't understand what happened.

- Did we promise PT that we would let him play QB? Did we just not realize that he couldn't get the job done? Why wasn't somebody able to sit him down and convince him to move to WR 2 years ago, during his redshirt year, when Grady was on Campus.

- How did PT go from being starting QB to not even playing at all when Bomar struggled? The only logical answer that I can come up with is that the coaches decided that PT couldn't get the job done, and that Rhett was the man. Why wasn't this decision made during the spring?

- If we were going to use PT at QB, why didn't we run more QB designed runs (options, draws, etc...)? Why the hell did we wait until the final 2 weeks of fall practice to even install the QB run game? I don't understand how the coaching staff didn't look at the QB situation after Jason left and say "wow, 2 of these 3 guys can run, we better install a bunch of new running plays, and work on those so that we can use them in a game." It was pretty obvious to anyone watching that the only way PT was going to be effective at QB is if we allowed him to be a Brad Smith/Reggie McNeal type QB, and then during the season opener, we didn't call very many plays that utilized his legs at all. Very few rollouts/bootlegs, no option plays, and only a handful of zone reads (which he apparently didn't execute correctly, partly because it wasn't a staple of the offense during the spring or early fall). I have to admit, there's a big part of me that wonders if PT would have been any less successful that Bomar during the UCLA game, when we opened up the offense and used a lot of designed QB runs. It seems to me like the offense for the TCU game was geared towards Bomar and Grady's strengths more than PTs, so I can't help but wonder why PT was the starter.

- IMO, last spring the QB position should have been a 2 man battle, between Grady and Bomar. If PT isn't the starter (and it seems to me like the plan was to start PT early on, and then plan on Bomar taking over later), and Grady isn't #3 on the depth chart, what are the chances that we don't lose Grady to transfer? Being #2 in a tight QB race is a lot different than being #3, and essentially being told that you aren't even going to be the backup. Envision this scenario. PT moves to WR in the spring, so he's out of the QB picture. Bomar and Grady battle back and forth all spring and fall for starting QB. Bomar barely beats Grady out, or vice versa, but the coaching staff says that the second guy will play a lot (as they said prior to the TCU game with Bomar and PT). Does anybody honestly think that Grady wouldn't have stayed and played another year? It seems to me like we needlessly forced Grady out of town, by not evaluating whether PT could do what we wanted him to.

Defensively, I have a few small things:

- Why did Nic Harris start the KSU and Texas games, and then promptly CEASE PLAYING AT ALL. I understand that he would start a game or two, and then lose some PT because he wasn't playing well. But the whole reason that he wasn't playing well is because he had no experience. So I don't understand why he was virtually pulled from the lineup altogether.

- Why didn't Reynolds and Pleasant get more snaps at LB? IMO, we had such great depth at LB last year, and we didn't use it. Why not rotate our LBs more, and get those young guys some reps. If you remember correctly, Ingram hurt his hamstring against Tulsa on the final play of the game, when we were already up by 9. Seems to me like those kinds of situations would have been a good time to get those young guys some experience. If you're going to play Reynolds on special teams and burn his 'shirt, then why not get him in the game and get him some reps in live action? And Pleasant seemed to play really well against UCLA, so I don't understand why we didn't rotate him in more to try and keep the other guys fresh. Seemed like our defense wore down in a lot of games last year, especially the guys responsible for rushing the passer (how many missed tackles did we see in the fourth quarter against Oregon?), so it would have made sense to try and rotate more, since we had a fourth LB who was very close to the starters in terms of ability.

[Widescreen]

Don't know if you're joking or not, but my guess is that we will be a lot better off with LONG GONE.
I was joking.

And you're right - we're better off.

[NormanPride]

This all boils down to the fact that Stoops is still a young head coach. He's been a coordinator and position coach, but he's never had to run a program. Hopefully, he's learning a lot about how to make decisions that help the team down the line, that keep success over multiple years.

Personally, I'm happy with good bowl games, frequent conference championships, and shots at the NC. That's about as high a level as you can get in CFB.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

I will admit that there were lots of things on the line that I didn't understand. But I'll qualify that by saying that I'm not a coach, I'm just a fan. I'm not really in a position to say whether Stoops did a terrible job. In the end, we went 8-4 (and probably should have gone 9-3), which is pretty close to on par for what I expected going into the season (I thought we'd probably lose 1 or 2 games).

But things that I didn't understand:

- Why Chester wasn't the starting center from day one? Dude was a second round draft pick at the position, despite only playing a handful of games there, and only having one year of starting OL experience. Plus it was obvious from the first quarter that Bush was getting manhandled by the TCU DT.

- What the hell happened to Duke Robinson at Tackle? He seemed to play well against Tulsa, at least well enough to allow Joseph to play guard.

- Speaking of which, why wasn't Joseph ever moved back to guard after it was apparent that the tackle move wasn't working out? He a mediocre tackle, and a great guard. Personally, I would have rather seen Rayl, Robinson, or Braxton play tackle, and just let Joseph dominate at guard. It seems to me that guard is more vital for the power run game, which is what we wanted to focus offensively, at least when Chuck was here and AD was healthy.

- Why did Kevin Chaisson continue to play over Quinn and Cooper? I never saw him dominate his man once. Most of the time when running plays got blown up, it seemed like it was often Chaisson's man who was breaking up the play. Again, I'm not an expert on line play, but it just seemed to me like Chaisson lacked the physical strength to be a good run blocker, and it seems to me like we should have been trying to get our best run blockers on the field for AD/KeJuan/Gute. With a young QB and WRs, our pass offense was obviously not going to be a strength anyways, so it would have made more sense to me for us to just try and do one thing really well, and hope that guys could learn how to pass block better as time went on, than to do neither thing well, and be stuck with guys who were physically limited in what they could do.

- Why did we wait until this offseason to move Simmons over? Seems like we could be way ahead of the curve if we'd have moved him last year. How did nobody look at the depth at DT and the depth at OL and deduct that somebody was going to have to move, and how did that decision take until this spring to make?



its interesting, but long got blamed for most of these items and they don't fall into his realm of coaching (the QB stuff not included).

[suncoastsooner7]

The problem wasn't individuals with talent it what chemistry but I wouldn't expect a five foot nothing 120 pound sopping wet journalism major in college to grasp this concept.

[goingoneight]

Coaching = guiding an individual or group of individual persons to greater performance.

I see no reason why this wasn't the "best" coaching job Stoops and company has done in 2005. Championships are a reflection of good coaching, but turning nothing into something against the toughest schedule in the history of college football... that is just gold. And all the more reason I'm confident going into every game next season. Whereas I've had more doubts than not before.

[rhombic21]

Coaching = guiding an individual or group of individual persons to greater performance.

I see no reason why this wasn't the "best" coaching job Stoops and company has done in 2005. Championships are a reflection of good coaching, but turning nothing into something against the toughest schedule in the history of college football... that is just gold. And all the more reason I'm confident going into every game next season. Whereas I've had more doubts than not before.
I would disagree that we had "nothing". Were we a championship quality team? No, but I think that you could make a compelling argument that if the coaching staff had better prepared the team (especially OL and WRs), and utilized/evaluated the talent better, that we wouldn't have lost to UCLA or TCU.

It wasn't a terrible coaching job by any means, but I don't think that it was as good as 1999 or 2000.

[goingoneight]

Well it was a figure of speech... I know Bomar and AD were top-caliber products in 2004, and Bob never ceases to amaze with talented recruits... What I meant was that OUr 2005 was "lost" in every sense of the word early-on, and if we had any other coaching staff in the country, we would have lost every last game down to OSU. OUr staff, aside from some fine tuning (secondary and tackling) did an awesome job of whipping this team into shape in only seven days rest before the next challenge. I agree with you I guess is what I meant to say...

[rhombic21]

Well it was a figure of speech... I know Bomar and AD were top-caliber products in 2004, and Bob never ceases to amaze with talented recruits... What I meant was that OUr 2005 was "lost" in every sense of the word early-on, and if we had any other coaching staff in the country, we would have lost every last game down to OSU. OUr staff, aside from some fine tuning (secondary and tackling) did an awesome job of whipping this team into shape in only seven days rest before the next challenge. I agree with you I guess is what I meant to say...
I'll give you that. Stoops did a great job of righting the ship and making the necessary changes. We'll likely never know what breakdowns caused the problems early on, but it is reassuring to know that we've got a guy running things that's capable of making changes when necessary, and who has the mental toughness to deal with adversity.

[Collier11]

I honestly think Stoops blew it with the qb situation, I understand the loyalty but if Bomar woulda gotten the majority of the snaps early on it could have been a lot different, maybe not but I think it would have. Other than that, I really dont see too many mistakes that Stoops has made since he has been there other than for some reason we cant keep o-linemen?

[Egeo]

This all boils down to the fact that Stoops is still a young head coach. He's been a coordinator and position coach, but he's never had to run a program. Hopefully, he's learning a lot about how to make decisions that help the team down the line, that keep success over multiple years.

Personally, I'm happy with good bowl games, frequent conference championships, and shots at the NC. That's about as high a level as you can get in CFB.
i agree
people make mistakes, even bob stoops

i think the qb situation after tcu was - neither qb could get it done and bomar had 4 years left while pt could help at wr

i personally think grady was the better passer, but he had little chance with the lack of speed he had to avoid our defense in the spring (not that he's slow - but all the qb's were running for their life last spring)
and then he got behind in class :(

[Rhino]

i personally think grady was the better passer, but he had little chance with the lack of speed he had to avoid our defense in the spring (not that he's slow - but all the qb's were running for their life last spring)
and then he got behind in class :( myth.