milesl
10/24/2006, 12:26 PM
Debated whether to put this here.They just go over what bad luck we seem to be getting. The Star is a good paper except for its liberal bend.
Little going right for Stoops, Oklahoma
After years of doing no wrong, it's Bummer Sooner now.
By BLAIR KERKHOFF
The Kansas City Star
NORMAN, Okla. | If any college football coach exuded a golden touch, it was Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops.
He gave the Sooners a national championship and Heisman Trophy winner, and the letters OU became synonymous with BCS. When Stoops waved his magic wand, college football followers couldn’t help but marvel.
But on one unStoopslike evening in the Orange Bowl, his team could do nothing right. And with that embarrassing 55-19 loss to Southern California on Jan. 4, 2005, the magic not only vanished but also seemed to transform into a curse.
Dismissals, injuries, officials calls. Oklahoma’s fight song these days might as well be that old “Hee-Haw” tune, “Gloom, despair, agony on me…If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.”
But if the Sooners are getting worked over by Murphy’s Law, Stoops will tell you he didn’t study law.
“You guys make too much of this,” Stoops said. “(We) deal with things as they come and move on.”
Oklahoma, 5-2 and ranked 19th, moves on to 23rd-ranked Missouri for Saturday’s showdown with a different team than what might have been expected. No Rhett Bomar. No Adrian Peterson.
Stoops sees no need for sympathy.
“We’re a lot stronger than people give us credit for,” Stoops said.
The timeline started in August when Bomar, the starting quarterback and future star, and offensive guard J.D. Quinn got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. The sophomores were dismissed from the program for taking extra pay from a Norman car dealership.
The Sooners were now without their young, talented quarterback whose play was going to lessen the load for running back Adrian Peterson. But Peterson’s strong legs carried Oklahoma early. In the third game, at Oregon, he powered for 211 yards, and Oklahoma looked as if it were going to pull off a season-defining road triumph.
Oklahoma led by six and needed to recover an onside kick to ice the game. But the Ducks recovered and scored the game-winning touchdown. Replays showed an Oregon player illegally touched the ball on the kick, and officials missed another call on an Oklahoma pass-interference penalty.
Yet, the biggest blow was struck Oct. 14 against Iowa State. Peterson’s father, Nelson, who because of jail time had never seen his son play in high school or college, was in the stands. He saw Peterson rack up another monster game, ending with a highlight reel run on a 53-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
But disaster struck. As Peterson landed in the end zone, he broke his collarbone and is probably out for the rest of the regular season.
“We’ve had a lot of bumps this season,” quarterback Paul Thompson said. “OK, maybe that one was a hill.”
Oklahoma went with Allen Patrick and Jacob Gutierrez in Saturday’s 24-3 victory over Colorado. They combined to rush for 128 yards in 40 carries.
All of this from a program that seemingly could do no wrong beginning with the national championship season of 2000.
Trick plays? They all worked. A touchdown pass off a fake punt in a victory over Kansas State in 2001, a fake field goal that knocked out Missouri in 2002, another fake punt that kept alive a scoring drive against Alabama in 2003.
There was the remarkable stretch of victories over ranked opponents. Stoops’ teams won 18 of their first 20 against teams in the top 25 and 11 of 12 in the top 10.
They beat Texas five straight times, twice topping 60 points.
There was the national championship, four first-place finishes in the South Division and three Big 12 championships.
Even when something went amiss, the Sooners quickly recovered. Quarterback Jason White overcame two blown-out knees and won a Heisman Trophy.
Some might point to the 2003 Big 12 title game as the moment Oklahoma’s fortunes turned. The top-ranked Sooners were being talked up as one of the greatest teams ever when they lost to Kansas State 35-7 at Arrowhead Stadium. The Wildcats haven’t been the same since, but as a pivotal moment it doesn’t work for Oklahoma, which won the 2004 Big 12 championship after rolling to a 12-0 record.
That perfect 2004 season, though, ended with the Southern Cal debacle and the dark cloud still lingers.
Last season, the Sooners lost their veneer of invincibility. Peterson, coming off a freshman season in which he finished second in the Heisman voting, suffered an ankle injury in the season opener against TCU that affected him all season. Oklahoma lost to TCU, UCLA and Texas and started 2-3.
Then there was the loss at Texas Tech on a final-play touchdown that replays showed shouldn’t have been allowed.
After five seasons of double-digit victories, Oklahoma finished 8-4. With a healthy Peterson and a year of experience for Bomar, this was to be the bounce-back season.
But, so far, it’s just been more hard luck.
“We’ve definitely had a lot of unfortunate things happen this year,” Thompson said. “But stuff happens everywhere. We can’t use it as an excuse. We’ll get through.”
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Little going right for Stoops, Oklahoma
After years of doing no wrong, it's Bummer Sooner now.
By BLAIR KERKHOFF
The Kansas City Star
NORMAN, Okla. | If any college football coach exuded a golden touch, it was Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops.
He gave the Sooners a national championship and Heisman Trophy winner, and the letters OU became synonymous with BCS. When Stoops waved his magic wand, college football followers couldn’t help but marvel.
But on one unStoopslike evening in the Orange Bowl, his team could do nothing right. And with that embarrassing 55-19 loss to Southern California on Jan. 4, 2005, the magic not only vanished but also seemed to transform into a curse.
Dismissals, injuries, officials calls. Oklahoma’s fight song these days might as well be that old “Hee-Haw” tune, “Gloom, despair, agony on me…If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.”
But if the Sooners are getting worked over by Murphy’s Law, Stoops will tell you he didn’t study law.
“You guys make too much of this,” Stoops said. “(We) deal with things as they come and move on.”
Oklahoma, 5-2 and ranked 19th, moves on to 23rd-ranked Missouri for Saturday’s showdown with a different team than what might have been expected. No Rhett Bomar. No Adrian Peterson.
Stoops sees no need for sympathy.
“We’re a lot stronger than people give us credit for,” Stoops said.
The timeline started in August when Bomar, the starting quarterback and future star, and offensive guard J.D. Quinn got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. The sophomores were dismissed from the program for taking extra pay from a Norman car dealership.
The Sooners were now without their young, talented quarterback whose play was going to lessen the load for running back Adrian Peterson. But Peterson’s strong legs carried Oklahoma early. In the third game, at Oregon, he powered for 211 yards, and Oklahoma looked as if it were going to pull off a season-defining road triumph.
Oklahoma led by six and needed to recover an onside kick to ice the game. But the Ducks recovered and scored the game-winning touchdown. Replays showed an Oregon player illegally touched the ball on the kick, and officials missed another call on an Oklahoma pass-interference penalty.
Yet, the biggest blow was struck Oct. 14 against Iowa State. Peterson’s father, Nelson, who because of jail time had never seen his son play in high school or college, was in the stands. He saw Peterson rack up another monster game, ending with a highlight reel run on a 53-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
But disaster struck. As Peterson landed in the end zone, he broke his collarbone and is probably out for the rest of the regular season.
“We’ve had a lot of bumps this season,” quarterback Paul Thompson said. “OK, maybe that one was a hill.”
Oklahoma went with Allen Patrick and Jacob Gutierrez in Saturday’s 24-3 victory over Colorado. They combined to rush for 128 yards in 40 carries.
All of this from a program that seemingly could do no wrong beginning with the national championship season of 2000.
Trick plays? They all worked. A touchdown pass off a fake punt in a victory over Kansas State in 2001, a fake field goal that knocked out Missouri in 2002, another fake punt that kept alive a scoring drive against Alabama in 2003.
There was the remarkable stretch of victories over ranked opponents. Stoops’ teams won 18 of their first 20 against teams in the top 25 and 11 of 12 in the top 10.
They beat Texas five straight times, twice topping 60 points.
There was the national championship, four first-place finishes in the South Division and three Big 12 championships.
Even when something went amiss, the Sooners quickly recovered. Quarterback Jason White overcame two blown-out knees and won a Heisman Trophy.
Some might point to the 2003 Big 12 title game as the moment Oklahoma’s fortunes turned. The top-ranked Sooners were being talked up as one of the greatest teams ever when they lost to Kansas State 35-7 at Arrowhead Stadium. The Wildcats haven’t been the same since, but as a pivotal moment it doesn’t work for Oklahoma, which won the 2004 Big 12 championship after rolling to a 12-0 record.
That perfect 2004 season, though, ended with the Southern Cal debacle and the dark cloud still lingers.
Last season, the Sooners lost their veneer of invincibility. Peterson, coming off a freshman season in which he finished second in the Heisman voting, suffered an ankle injury in the season opener against TCU that affected him all season. Oklahoma lost to TCU, UCLA and Texas and started 2-3.
Then there was the loss at Texas Tech on a final-play touchdown that replays showed shouldn’t have been allowed.
After five seasons of double-digit victories, Oklahoma finished 8-4. With a healthy Peterson and a year of experience for Bomar, this was to be the bounce-back season.
But, so far, it’s just been more hard luck.
“We’ve definitely had a lot of unfortunate things happen this year,” Thompson said. “But stuff happens everywhere. We can’t use it as an excuse. We’ll get through.”
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