Coaches have harebrained idea
Mike Gundy said he would like to have a preseason scrimmage against another school. Bob Stoops endorsed the idea, too.
Here’s the problem guys. You’ve already got one. Or two. Or sometimes three.
Of all the harebrained ideas, this has to rank near the top. Coaches want quality competition, just not when the scoreboard is turned on. In September, OSU already is scrimmaging
Sam
Houston
State and Florida
Atlantic. Those are not games. Those are not contests the Cowboys possibly could lose. OU’s two scrimmages are against slightly better programs, North Texas and Utah State, but the one-sidedness of the competition is the same.
When coaches endorse equality in scheduling, when coaches quit talking about opponents that help you ease into conference play, then we can talk about inter-squad scrimmages. Until then, forget about it.
Scrimmages: Open or closed?
OU scrimmaged Saturday in front of 7,000 fans. OSU scrimmaged Saturday in front of classified personnel only.
Two ways to conduct business. Each has costs, each has benefits.
I side with Bob Stoops, naturally, because I’d rather watch a scrimmage than be told about it. But I understand both approaches. Mike Gundy wants to keep the wraps on his team. Probably more defense, since new coordinator Tim Beckman is trotting out a new look and new attitude, and
Georgia spies are curious. If it’s offense Gundy wants to keep secret, that’s goofy. We’re talking about an offense that’s supposed to be unpredictable and never know what’s coming, so what does it matter if someone sees a scrimmage?
The cost? The Cowboys missed an opportunity to connect with fans. The chance to bring some die-hards to campus and give them a sneak peak, reward some very loyal fans. State football always seems to be a little slow in public relations, not so much with media as its own fans. Sort of the opposite in
Norman, where an August scrimmage is an event.
Heat soared Saturday in
Norman, even with an 11 a.m. tipoff, and yet the crowd was strong. Better yet, that gave OU’s coaches a chance to see their quarterbacks play before a crowd. It wasn’t 80,000 and national TV, but still, completions brought cheers and incompletions brought groans, a wave of emotion that can affect a player’s performance.
Bottom line, scrimmages should be open. It’s good for the fans, and fans often are forgotten in 21st-century sports.
Bradford the man
It’s 9 a.m. Saturday, the OU scrimmage is two hours away and the broiler hasn’t’ been turned on yet. It will be, of course.
I’m amazed every August that we don’t have more serious health situations arising from football in 100-degree heat. It’s brutal out there.
My advice for fans: wear something on your head, drape a towel around your neck, don’t stay too long and don’t be consumed by the quarterback derby.
I think the QB race is over, before the scrimmage. I said it in April and I’ll say it now. All signs point to Sam Bradford.
Insiders say the offense really is clicking in practice, and it’s clicking with Bradford. Kid Nichol could still turn into a good quarterback, but this job is Bradford’s to lose, and not in today’s scrimmage. The games will have to unseat
Bradford.
There is no reason why Bradford can’t be this year’s Colt McCoy. A redshirt freshman who takes over a veteran offense — good running backs, excellent receivers, experienced line — and plays well enough that the offense goes great guns, even if the quarterback is young and still learning.Sam Bradford has a chance to be the OU quarterback for a long time.
Victims of closed practices
Bob Stoops was asked yesterday why he closes practice, what’s the benefit, and Stoops gave what I thought was a very good answer. He said he wasn’t sure there was a benefit, also said he wasn’t sure that was benefit to keeping practices open, but just feels like it’s better for a young player to not get reamed out by coaches while perhaps hundreds of eyes aren’t watching.
That’s certainly a legitimate concern. But here’s another side of the story. I chatted with one of my wife’s co-workers yesterday. Her husband I’ve known on a very elementary level for two decades. Huge, huge OU football fan.One of those guys that really knows the team. I don’t mean he knows or cares what kind of car Austin English drives, but the fan knows the depth situation at linebacker. Knows who’s the backup right guard. Knows the names of all the new recruits.
This fan recently retired and is bummed out by the timing. Last August and this August, he’s finally got the time to follow the Sooners. Go to the two-a-day practices, watch and study, really take in each player’s strengths and abilities.
Except they’re closed. Closed practices are perceived as a shot at the media, and maybe they are. Certainly closed practices hurt some media, including even some Oklahoman writers. They don’t bother me. That means one less thing I have to do. One less place I have to be. As long as we get to talk to the players and coaches on a regular basis, I’m set.
But the retired fan is screwed. A great outlet for his passion has been squelched. Call him a casualty of the 21st-century order between media and college sports.
Skipping the PGA
I’m not going to the PGA this week, and I hope that’s OK with you readers. I know it’s OK with the golf world.
Anyone who golfs in his Converses and who thinks the funnest part of golf is driving the cart and putting out, well, that person doesn’t exactly fit in on America’s most hallowed golf clubs.
Besides, our golf coverage is in the capable hands of Jenni Carlson and John Rohde. Jenni played golf in high school, at the links powerhouse Clay Center, Kan., and Rohde has forgotten more golf than I ever knew.
I’m skipping Tulsa because of a family situation and it’s best if I stay close to home. The Oklahoman is a great place to work; the PGA is one of the biggest events to hit our state in a long time, but my bosses put my welfare above our coverage, and I’m eternally grateful.
Baseball history? Forget about it
Last night, at least I remembered the game was on. I flipped over somewhere around 10 p.m., after “The Wonder Years,” to get an update on Barry Bonds and the Giants, checking to see if Home Run 756 might be upcoming.
In previous days, I hadn’t even remembered the game was on. Bonds hit No. 755 Saturday night without me even turning on the TV. I’m not boycotting. I’m not protesting. I’m just not remembering.
I can remember spring 1974, when Henry Aaron bore down on Babe Ruth. The historic 715th came on a Monday night, with NBC cameras providing a rare live, mid-week telecast. We had a church function, and in 1974 there wasn’t a lot of discussion about whether to go. I missed the first half of the 1972 OU-Penn State Sugar Bowl and the 1973 season Notre Dame-Alabama national title game because of church stuff. No VCR. No TiVo. No debate.
And that night when Aaron hit 715, I was all aquiver, which I guess you get more of when you’re 13. While others at the church on North Findlay in Norman were praying for souls or rain or some other cause worthy of Jeremiah, I was praying that Aaron would delay his assault on history. I wanted to see it.
Fast forward 33 years, and I can watch history any time I want to. And apparently I don’t want to.
Is it the steroids? Baseball’s fallen status? Barry Bonds’ personality? All of the above, I suppose.
I don’t know. I just know I’d rather see a Conference USA football game than baseball history being made. I’d rather see the Orlando Magic play the Golden State Warriors in a November NBA game than Tom Glavine pitch for his 300th win, another milestone I flipped past over the weekend. I’d rather close my eyes and daydream about the soon arrival of the NFL than watch Baseball Tonight.
I love baseball history. If you want to keep up with me on baseball smarts, you’d better bone up on the Baseball Encyclopedia and fast. I like to study baseball history. I like to read baseball history. But apparently, I just don’t want to watch it. Not anymore.
Tell you what. Someone send me an email tonight when Bonds is about to bat. Maybe I’ll be online and can be reminded to flip over. Unless “The Wonder Years” is on.
Looking ahead to 2008
Kevin Wilson pointed out a scary little fact the other day. His OU offense on occasion will have NO seniors on the field.
Tailback Allen Patrick and tight end Joe Jon Finley are the only seniors who figure to play extensively, and both have superb backups, DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown, plus Brody Eldredge and Jermaine Gresham.
Thus the scary part. If OU gets solid quarterbacking, and develops an efficient offense, think of the prowess of 2008. The Sooners would field an offense of veterans, led by a veteran quarterback. 2007 seems promising enough. The Sooners don’t figure to ask too much of their quarterback but have enough weapons to challenge for championships. Give whichever quarterback a year under his belt, with an offense even more experienced, and 2008 looks very, very strong.
Let’s talk access
There’s a word you’re going to hear often in the next few weeks.
Access.
The media often complains about limited access, particularly when it comes to football, and the public can misconstrue what we mean.
The public thinks we mean letting us in on stuff. Practices, gameplans, who’s in trouble. That kind of stuff.
That’s not what we mean. We understand keeping us at arm’s length on those issues. Sure, we’d love to poke our heads in huddles and sit in on film watching. But we don’t expect it.
What we do expect is to be able to talk to players and coaches. Simply ask them questions.
And that’s what we mean by access. And that’s what been more and more limited over the years.
Who you can talk to. When you can talk to them.
College football programs have become much more protective of players over the years, and you can understand why. The media has exploded in the last decade. Time was, maybe 3-4 guys would cover a typical OU football practice. Today, anywhere from 15-20 reporters could be there.
Also, unscrupulous forces — agents or agent runners, betting representatives, heck, even professional autograph collectors — can mix into the media throng. The schools’ response has to batten down the hatches.
OU and OSU are neither worst nor best in terms of working with the media. Some schools are remarkably open with access; USC for example. Some schools are remarkably closed; any school that employs Nick Saban, for example.
OU in 2006 set an offense day and a defense day. You could talk to offensive players after practice on Monday (or Tuesday, I forget which) and defensive players after practice the other day. That’s a once-a-week shot.
If you’re doing a story on wide receivers — and 98 percent of college football stories are harmless features just like that — that means it could be difficult to chat with Malcolm Kelly, Juaquin Iglesias and Malcolm Johnson in the short time allotted. That’s what we mean by limited access.
OSU set a policy that first-year players were off limits to the media. So when Dantrell Savage ran for 100 yards against Texas A&M, he couldn’t talk to the media. That’s just silly.
A bunker mentality does NOT help a school’s public-relations image, even though schools think it does. Most people in power on college campuses — presidents, athletic directors and coaches — are into control. They think they can control even the media, which means they are ignorant of more than 300 years of American history.
The professional sports leagues figures this out long ago. They do not try to control the media. They work with the media, not against them. They have access that is tenfold greater than that found on college campuses.
The pros figured out the media propels their billion-dollar business. Not all colleges have figured it out, even though it’s true.
Centennial lists draw criticism
Sorry for the delay in blogging. I had vacation, the trip to San Antonio, some family issues and trying to finish up the Centennial series, which ate my lunch.
And angered some of the masses. I heard from many an Oklahoman who offered up ideas on how I could have improved my Centennial lists, but most of them suffered from fatal logic. Many wanted me to add someone to the list, but few offered a suggestion on who to take off.
This wasn’t a Dick Vitale NCAA bracket. Listen to Dickie V., and 136 teams should be in the field of 65. If someone goes on the list, someone else goes off.
I was pleased with most of my lists. I wish I could redo the athletes list; I think I would make it strictly Oklahomans, people who were raised here. That would eliminate the collegiate move-ins, but that would have been OK. My team list was so subjective, you could have turned it almost upside down and not been overly scandalous.
But the venues, I thought were great. The coaches was good, too, and the events. Few people have convinced me I made any kind of oversight on those lists.
The criticism can be funny. I’m told Pat Jones, who was very kind after my venue list and had me on his radio show, was upset that I didn’t include the 1984 Oklahoma State football team. Those Cowboys went 10-2 and could have played for a national title had they beaten OU in late November.
But this wasn’t a could-have list. This was a did-have list. Funny thing, the 1984 SOONERS weren’t on the list, either. Don’t you think they deserved to be higher than the ’84 Cowboys?
