Tramel had a good point today...finally.

[jackietreehorn]

"If the sooners had played Murray State or Florida Atlantic, Northeastern or Montana, the Owen Field scoreboard would have read 56-3 and Soonerville would be celebrating in its ignorance. UAB showed us exactly where the Sooners stand. They had to struggle to beat a middle-of-the-road C-USA team.

Tough news to swallow for those expecting a quick return to glory. But that's better than not knowing."

[Octavian]

At least we know we've beat a team better than Middle Tennessee St. and Colorado

[FlatheadSooner]

OUr strategy for NC is unfolding exactly as planned.

MMMMUUUOOOAAAAHHHHAAAAHHHHAAAA!!!!!!! :P :eek: :D

[FaninAma]

"If the sooners had played Murray State or Florida Atlantic, Northeastern or Montana, the Owen Field scoreboard would have read 56-3 and Soonerville would be celebrating in its ignorance. UAB showed us exactly where the Sooners stand. They had to struggle to beat a middle-of-the-road C-USA team.

Tough news to swallow for those expecting a quick return to glory. But that's better than not knowing."

He doesn't have a good point. He has no clue what kind of team the Sooners have. Anybody who judges where a team is by the first game is just being ignorant. We don't know how good the Sooners are. We don't know how good UAB is. Texas doesn't know how good they really are from their first game.

The thing about Trammel is he continues to make the same assumptions and engages in conjecture without any factual support. And he should know better because he's been around long enough to know better. He probably said the same things in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 after the first game. So he was right once in 7 years.

[rhombic21]

I can remember sitting in the stands in 2000 when OU had less than inspiring victories over Rice and Arkansas State and hearing people say that we were going to get killed by Texas, Nebraska, and KState. Remember in 2002, when we rushed for -23 yards against Alabama (on the heels of a game against Tulsa where we managed 3 points in the entire first half), and then Quentin went on to come within 11 yards of what was then a single season rushing record (and put up 230+ on the Horns), and we won the Rose Bowl?

OU teams always start out sluggish. Also, nobody seems to be realizing the impact of the new clock rules, and the advantage that they give to teams like UAB who run ball control offenses, and get a couple flukish turnovers. Because there were about 20 fewer snaps than there would have been under the old rules, it makes it easier for UAB to shorten the game and keep things close.

[Kingwoodboomer]

OU teams always start out sluggish.


If memory serves me well, I remember year after year when we were down in the 3rd quarters to come back & win.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

I'd call UAB better than "middle-pf-the-road" C-USA. I bet they vie for the conference championship. They found a good QB in Hunt. UAB sure looked a lot better than Memphis, USM or UH. Just sayin'...

[RedstickSooner]

OU teams always start out sluggish.


If memory serves me well, I remember year after year when we were down in the 3rd quarters to come back & win.

Absolutely. And that worries me this year - we don't have as much time for the comeback.

The clock change thing is a very nasty problem for our team -- for every game where we went up early and sat on a lead, seems like we've had at least two where we've fallen behind early and had to fight back to win in the end.

With 20 fewer plays per game, I wonder how our record would've changed since 2000?

[jackietreehorn]

He has no clue what kind of team the Sooners have. Anybody who judges where a team is by the first game is just being ignorant.

well then what do we judge it on? how do you know where you need to get better for the second game?


We don't know how good the Sooners are. We don't know how good UAB is. Texas doesn't know how good they really are from their first game.

you're right--texas doesn't know how good they are because they played a terrible team. you're making my point. And again, the sooners DO know that they need to get better in some areas BECAUSE OF THE STRUGGLES AGAINST UAB.


The thing about Trammel is he continues to make the same assumptions and engages in conjecture without any factual support. And he should know better because he's been around long enough to know better. So he was right once in 7 years.

If you're saying he was right once in seven years basically says that he did have a good point. i think you just need to pretend that someone else other than tramel wrote the article and maybe it won't **** you off so bad.

[Blues1]

New Clock rule MUST be changed back - and I say it will,,---Only problem we will have to wait another year...I see UAB with at least 7 wins this season and maybe more -Lets see at bowl time where UAB stands...??

OU vs North Texas I say would have been at least 44 - 6 maybe more,,??


Still R'

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

"If the sooners had played Murray State or Florida Atlantic, Northeastern or Montana, the Owen Field scoreboard would have read 56-3 and Soonerville would be celebrating in its ignorance. UAB showed us exactly where the Sooners stand. They had to struggle to beat a middle-of-the-road C-USA team.

Tough news to swallow for those expecting a quick return to glory. But that's better than not knowing."

remember in 2001 when a freshman QB from a middle of the road ACC team made our defense look silly? good times, good times. that defense ended up being okay.

[FaninAma]

well then what do we judge it on? how do you know where you need to get better for the second game?
We need to get better on the turnovers. We need to get better in tackling. Tramel could have pointed out that the Sooner D gave up 2 first downs in the last 20 minutes of the game. GHe could have ponted out the Sooner D gave up 13 yards in the last 13 minutes of the game. But he didn't because he likes to criticize the program. It would be different if his coverage had any balance at all, but it doesn't. He's a critic of the program and for whatever reason he never seems to find any opportunity to give credit to these coaches and players. There's an old sayoing by Theodore Roosevelt concerning critics who never enter the arena of competition which fits Tramel perfectly.




you're right--texas doesn't know how good they are because they played a terrible team. you're making my point. And again, the sooners DO know that they need to get better in some areas BECAUSE OF THE STRUGGLES AGAINST UAB. Yes, see above. But Tramel infers OU is really not a very good team. He doesn't know that. UAB may be a very good team similiar to Bowling Green or Miami, Oh of the MAC a couple of years ago. Tramel doesn't know that.




If you're saying he was right once in seven years basically says that he did have a good point. i think you just need to pretend that someone else other than tramel wrote the article and maybe it won't **** you off so bad. Again, see above. Tramel's MO of always being critical of OU doesn't lend itself to much objectivity for his writing from Sooner fans.

[rhombic21]

I agree with the basic premise of the article, which is why I think Joe C needs to be commended on his scheduling decisions.

Playing teams like UAB and Washington (or TCU and Tulsa a year ago) is infinitely better than playing a Division I-AA team, because they can actually put up a fight and expose areas that you need to work on/improve. How much better will our team be for the Oregon game, haven been shown what can happen when you show up and have a couple turnovers and undisciplined play on defense? A lot better. The coaches can address areas that need to improve earlier in the year, and get things ironed out before we go up against teams that have upper-tier talent, and the players don't get cocky and complacent because they went out and beat up on some hapless opponent.

OU didn't look as good on Saturday as a lot of other teams in the top 25, but I think that by the time conference play rolls around, we'll be more finely tuned than those teams which played 3 games against creampuffs.

[start8]

With 20 fewer plays per game, I wonder how our record would've changed since 2000?


We would have won the Texas Tech game last year, not gone to overtime with Baylor, and not have worried at the end of the Oregon game.

[Sooners78]

They found a good QB in Hunt. UAB sure looked a lot better than Memphis, USM or UH. Just sayin'...

Hunt looked very good to me too. We may not see that same type of QB this season. While the starter was in, our defense looked good. I'm guessing that we prepared for him and not Hunt.

In 85, the first game of the season, we beat Minnesota 13-7 and they were driving at the end of the game. Minne-freaking-sota! That season didn't turn out too bad.

[start8]

We ran what ...53 Offensive plays and had 4 turnovers (that's about 10%) people and we still won.

[daddywarbucks]

Trampel=putz

[Stoop Dawg]

We need to get beter in turnovers. We need to get better in tackling. Tramel could have pointed out that the Sooner D gave up 2 first downs in the last 20 minutes of the game. GHe could have ponted out the Sooner D gave up 13 yards in the last 13 minutes of the game. But he didn't because he likes to criticize the program. It would be different if his coverage had any balance at all, but it doesn't. He's a critic of the program and for whatever reason he never seems to find any opportunity to give credit to these coaches and players. There's an old sayoing by Theodore Roosevelt concerning crityics who never enter the arena of competition which fits Tramel perfectly.

I agree with Fan. Tramel likes innuendo and inferences, but shys away from actual analysis. He may or may not know a lot about football, but from I've read he most certainly doesn't write much about it.

However, the scoreboard should still have read 45-10 at Owen Field on Saturday - if not for a couple of key turnovers.

[OklahomaTuba]

If we had not turned the ball over so much, this would have been a blow out. We would have broken UABs will to win at that point.

The problem with turnovers like we had is that it kept UAB in the game and allowed them to build momentum, while at the same time the defense started getting tired, sloppy, etc.

I hope work ethic is correctable, cause I am beginning to think we have some soft players that are hurting us. That, or the coaching staffs ability to motivate left with Mikey.

[Partial Qualifier]

He doesn't have a good point. He has no clue what kind of team the Sooners have. Anybody who judges where a team is by the first game is just being ignorant. We don't know how good the Sooners are.



I agree, and also with FanInAma's reasoning. The problems we had the other night weren't talent problems, they were mistake problems. It's hard, even impossible, to judge where this team is at based on Saturday's game.

As an aside, I'm the biggest Trammel fan out there, but I'm getting tired of his "shock the newspaper readers to boost his fledgling radio show's ratings" schtick. Getting really tired of it. Not saying he's doing that with this piece, but he's been doing that alot for the past few months.

[rhombic21]

If we had not turned the ball over so much, this would have been a blow out. We would have broken UABs will to win at that point.

The problem with turnovers like we had is that it kept UAB in the game and allowed them to build momentum, while at the same time the defense started getting tired, sloppy, etc.

I hope work ethic is correctable, cause I am beginning to think we have some soft players that are hurting us. That, or the coaching staffs ability to motivate left with Mikey.
I disagree. The players played with tremendous effort on both sides of the ball on Saturday. They just weren't very sharp, especially on defense which is to be expected in a season opener when the other team runs the kind of offense that UAB was running. There were lots of teams that looked less than amazing in their openers.

[TUSooner]

He doesn't have a good point. He has no clue what kind of team the Sooners have. Anybody who judges where a team is by the first game is just being ignorant. We don't know how good the Sooners are. We don't know how good UAB is. Texas doesn't know how good they really are from their first game.

The thing about Trammel is he continues to make the same assumptions and engages in conjecture without any factual support. And he should know better because he's been around long enough to know better. He probably said the same things in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 after the first game. So he was right once in 7 years.

I'd say he was a close to right as you can be after 1 game. Of course, if UAB now goes winless and N Tejas St. or middle Tenn St run the table, we'll know how wrong he was, but on the whole I think he made sense.
Bottom line: W, and we're 1-0

[jackietreehorn]

listen fanin, i hate the guy as well. that should've been inferred by the "finally" in the thread title.

but you said that you can't judge us on the 1st game. i'm just saying that the 1st game mistakes are what we, or I, judge them on because it let's us, or me, know where we need to get better.

i think UAB is a very decent team, nothing more or less. and playing a decent team that puts up a fight rather than a creampuff that we schalack is better for us in the long run of this season.

so-to go on record--I HATE TRAMEL, i just think he occasionally makes a good point. IMHO this was one of them. much love to ya though.