Warning signs
By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
8/30/2006
After a questionable work ethic last summer, OU's loss to TCU in the season opener did not surprise coach Bob Stoops
NORMAN -- Now, one year removed from the great hurricane of 2005, those who knew it was coming, those who faced the immense task of rebuilding, say they have learned from their mistakes.
This hurricane didn't have wind and rain, and it didn't hurt anyone or leave anyone homeless. But it did flood the Sooners' 2005 season with a lot of painful memories.
In the cleanup after last year's 17-10 season-opening loss to TCU, coach Bob Stoops said he saw it coming. The evidence, he said, was a lackadaisical work ethic in the offseason that led to an embarrassing defeat and a disappointing 8-4 season.
"It was kind of like the hurricane's coming, but no one's listening to you," said strength coach and director of sports enhancement Jerry Schmidt. "You give 'em warning, you give 'em warning, you give 'em warning and they think, 'Oh, it's going to veer off. It's not going to hit us.' Then all of a sudden it's right on you and it's too late. Sometimes it takes a storm to wake 'em up."
Those hit the hardest say now they did see it coming.
"We knew we didn't work to our potential last year. Everyone
knew it. It wasn't a secret," said senior defensive end C.J. Ah You. "But we just had to learn the hard way the first game."
The clues were there long before the storm hit.
"I saw during the summer there were a lot more guys who were falling out and weren't completing the workouts. You could see it," said senior linebacker Zach Latimer. "It did carry over into the season."
One year later, have the problems been fixed?
"I think so," said senior offensive tackle Chris Messner. "It started in the winter and carried on in the summer, and I believe we had a very strong offseason. We didn't have guys falling out and stuff like that."
Said Ah You, "Last year, they said that was one of the worst summers we'd had in this program. . . . So we took a lot of pride going into this summer, we had to work out harder and work through these things and make us a better team."
The 10th-ranked Sooners open the season against Alabama-Birmingham at 6 p.m. Saturday, and the although the Blazers were 5-6 last season, they were a Hail Mary pass from 6-5, another one-point loss from 7-4 and nearly won at Tennessee. They come to Norman with the same record TCU had the previous year.
What proof is there, so far, that OU's offseason was better than '05? "I thought everything really started after the bowl game," Schmidt said. "It's not one of those things that, in summertime you say, 'Let's kick it in.' It starts in January. We felt the winter months were good."
Apparently, Schmidt has strengthened the levee to prevent another disaster.
There is no one to blame for Hurricane TCU. Believe it or not, it was the culmination of a process that may have started with guys like Roy Williams and Rocky Calmus. Follow the timeline:
Williams and Calmus had other options, but went to OU despite the losing that had occurred. They, along with Josh Heupel, J.T. Thatcher and others, stopped the losing and won a national championship.
Then came classes that included players like Jammal Brown, Vince Carter, Mark Clayton, Dan Cody, Dusty Dvoracek, Jonathan Jackson, Derrick Strait and Jason White, among others. Those players left with All-American accolades, Heisman Trophies and NFL contracts, but were largely unheralded as high school recruits. Having seen the work ethic of those who came before, the ensuing classes turned themselves (with the coaches' help) into great players.
When the 2004 seniors left -- taking with them 16 starting positions -- they also took a whole lot of game experience and the proper way to take care of business in the offseason.
"I could kind of sense when they left," said running back Adrian Peterson, "that a lot of other guys came in and felt like, you know, they were going to do the same thing those guys did because they had OU on the side of their helmet."
Defensive coordinator Brent Venables said that instead of landing recruiting classes filled with blue-collar guys hungry to prove themselves, OU signed classes full of high school stars.
"That's what's hard," he said. "A lot of times, you recruit a higher-ranked guy that's gotten a lot of attention, that's been told how good he is, he maybe had special treatment in high school and next thing you know, he doesn't have the type of characteristics it takes to become a great one."
It wasn't just leadership and work ethic OU lost in 2004. "You don't want to minimize the fact that you lost 10 guys that were drafted," Venables said. "Bad timing to not work hard and not have experience.
"Sometimes you're a victim of your own success."
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John E. Hoover 581-8384
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