Thanks, Bro
Wow. There’s nothing left to say after yet another wild night in college football in which the national championship race and the Heisman Trophy campaign were turned upside down in the Arizona desert.
All those OU fans who wanted Mike Stoops back now feel a little silly, because Bob’s little brother helped the Sooners as much coaching Arizona as he could have producing sabertooth defenses in crimson. Arizona bounced Oregon 34-24 Thursday night, sending yet another No. 2-ranked team sliding down the polls, and now the Sooners can stop scoreboard watching. Except in their own games, of course.
OU, by winning its final three games, will absolutely qualify for the Big Bowl, the national title game in
New Orleans. It won’t be easy. The Sooners play at Texas Tech on Saturday, a game far more difficult than Oregon’s assignment of going to play an Arizona team that was 4-6. Then comes the holy war against Oklahoma State, but that’s at Norman and the Sooners tend to spank the Cowboys on Owen Field. Finally, a Big 12 title game that shapes up as the biggest in league history, a bonafide national semifinal against the winner of the Kansas-Missouri game.
Here’s a plum to chew on Saturday. It’s not likely, but it’s possible, that top-ranked LSU could lose at
Mississippi. The Rebels are no good; 3-7 overall, 0-7 in the SEC. But Ole Miss isn’t awful at home; it lost by 13 to Missouri, six to Florida and three to Alabama. In fairness, Mississippi also lost by 36 to Arkansas in Oxford. Meanwhile, LSU has been a tad shaky on the road: lost at Kentucky, won by seven at
Alabama. In fairness, LSU opened the season with a 45-0 win at Mississippi State.
But crazier things have happened this season than LSU losing at Mississippi. And if we do see that upset, and the Big 12 takes cares of business Saturday, with OU at Tech, Kansas hosting Iowa State and Missouri at Kansas State, then check out the BCS come Sunday afternoon:
1. Kansas. 2. Oklahoma. 3. Missouri. That’s right. 1-2-3 in the BCS. You’d think it was 1971 all over again, when the final poll had 1. Nebraska, 2. OU and 3. Colorado.
Even if LSU wins, it’s going to be 2-3-4 with the Big 12, barring an upset. Of course, there’s not a lot of comfort in being No. 2. Oregon became the FIFTH No. 2-ranked team to lose to an unranked team this season, joining Boston College (Florida State), South Florida (Rutgers), California (Oregon State) and
Southern Cal (Stanford). This is the craziest college football season in recorded history, so don’t make reservations in New Orleans just yet, Big 12 teams. Anything remains possible.
Two weeks ago, Andre Cohen’s brother visited from California. He’s a huge sports fan and a big Pac-10 follower. In a staff meeting, I mentioned that Mike Stoops might have a little something to say about
Oregon’s national title run. Miss Saigon’s brother looked at me like I was crazy.
But here’s why it was possible. Arizona gets better under Stoops. The Wildcats now have won three straight to get to 5-6, and that’s nothing new under Stoops. In 2006, UofA won three of its last four to finish 6-6. In 2005, Arizona was 1-6 but beat Oregon State and top-10 UCLA in consecutive weeks. In 2004, Arizona was 1-7 but won two of its last three. Mike Stoops clearly is Mr. November and has saved his job with his ability to get his team to improve. If he can get the Wildcats to play well out of the chute, they will be a Pac-10 force.
Of course, it certainly helped Thursday night that Oregon lost its quarterback. Dennis Dixon was the Heisman front-runner, and we saw why. A 39-yard touchdown on the seventh play of the game, then a long pass that had the Ducks on the Arizona 4-yard line. Then Dixon threw to open flanker Derrick Jones in the end zone for what would have been a 15-0 lead.
Who among us believes Arizona rallies from a 15-point deficit? The Wildcats didn’t have to. The ball bounced off Jones’ pads, Arizona’s Nate Ness intercepted and returned it 45 yards. Soon enough, UofA scored, and we had a ballgame.
Then Dixon suffered a sprained knee, and Oregon was forced to turn to veteran backup Brady Leaf. If any team in America should be set with a backup QB, it’s Oregon. Each of the last two years, Dixon and Leaf have alternated. Both quarterbacked against OU in the 2005 Holiday Bowl. Leaf finished off last season as the start. But 2007 has been Dixon’s year, and Leaf was awful against Arizona. He completed 22 of 46 for 163 yards and two interceptions.
Dixon probably is lost for the year, and thus the Heisman nod probably returns to Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. And the BCS is there for the taking for whichever team emerges from the Big 12.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
The Ducks, without Dixon really stink. They are not a number two team! Who is? No one gives Kansas a chance, all the talk is about Missouri and Oklahoma. I think the best teams in America are LSU, Florida, Kansas,Oklahoma. Can two teams from the same conference play for the National Championship?
Watch out in Tech. Country, this could be an upset waiting to happen.
JIm B. – The best team should not have 3 losts…
I concur that Venables does need some help in the D site. He had alot of talents there however the D still has not yet improved over last 5 years. If OU does not have good O this year, we are really in trouble with at least 2 or 3 lost…
I’m in Arizona and I decided to subscribe to E-NewsOk when
Coach Mike Stoops accepted the head coach position at my
alma mater the University of Arizona and I’m glad he did.
Coach Mike has had his trials and tribulations since he arrived
here 4 years ago but he’s learning and some of us anxious
Arizona Wildcats are accepting that we have to be patient
with Coach Mike while he learns to become a head coach
and Coach Mark Stoops the youngest of the Stoops learns
to become a defensive coordinator.
I’m confident that Coach Mike and Coach Mark will get the
Arizona program back to where it was under former UofA
Coach Dick Tomey when we went 12-1 in 1998 and beat
Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl.
Wildcats alum, boosters and fans main criticism of Coach Mike
and Coach Mark are their clock and timeout mismanagement,
and that they haven’t beat USC yet although they play them tough
every year, but most of all Coaches Mike and Mark Stoops
just don’t understand how much Arizona Wildcats alum,
boosters and fans HATE Arizona State.
We can’t lose to Arizona State under no circumstances even if
we lose every other game, we can’t lose to the scum devils.
Losing to them is worst than Oklahoma losing to OSU.
The scum devils hopes are riding high that they’re currently 7-1
and they believe they have a shot at the national championship.
So we’re proud that Coach Mike Stoops coached the Cats to
a major upset over Oregon and helped Coach Bob Stoops,
but we Wildcats will really be satisfied with victory over ASU.
We Wildcats are glad to be able to help Oklahoma out in the
race for the title. Good luck to Coach Bob Stoops and OU
and oh by the way, don’t worry about Kansas, Iowa State is
going to roll them Saturday.
I still hold to my position that the whole systems stinks, and that doesn’t change just because we are in a position to play for all of the mythical marbles. Until a playoff is developed, I just want to win the conference (something that is legitimate) and beat a quality opponent in a major bowl. This is what I enjoy – I could care less about spread sheets, computers jumping on and off a bandwagon, and making justifications and excuses. Until we settle it on the field, it’s all just a water cooler playoff, not a real championship
I still hold my position that this system is the best in all of sports. If we had a play-off system, I could have got to bed early Thursday night because I WOULDN’T HAVE CARED who won the Oregon-Arizona game. Oregon and OU would both undoubtedly make an 8-team play-off (and you’re kidding yourself if the play-off folks would settle for anything less than 8 teams). Thanks to our current set-up, I was glued to this game, whooping and hollering at every big Arizona play. THANK GOD there isn’t a play-off in college football!! This regular season is one for the ages; a play-off would have rendered it 4 months of water-cooler stuff.
Predictions, aka, call your book…
OU 43, Tech 17
Baylor 21, OSU 10
OTHER HEADLINES of INTEREST
***Kansas has “intent” off the ball. They are not controlled by the line of scrimmage. They see the end-zone. This is a remarkable job of coaching and no matter how Kansas ends the season, Mangino deserves Big 12 Coach of the Year.
Personally, I hope they play for the National Championship against LSU and prove to the world that heart trumps Rivals.com
P.S. Gundy is an amateur and Pickens is old — easily enthralled by his mug on TV as if that’s the beginning of a pay-off from his 40+ million investment.
Personally, I have NEVER seen ANYTHING in the Gundy dossier to have earned him the position he holds nor do I see any reason to have given his assistant coaches “raises and security”.
Georgia set the tone for the OSU “Let-Down ’07″ by focusing their troops on the INFERIOR COACHING/CONTROL that allowed OSU’s overblown offensive hype to become chum in the water.
Again, Gundy is NOT head-coach material but he is certainly in the same league as Neil Bush who is now marketing “learning aids” with his momma…
Playing Texas “Not to Lose” was the last straw for me. Every coach should be fired and Pickens should be pickled — but not before he hears the latest OSU fight song composed in his honor entitled, “Emminent Domain”.
You divide and conquer when you are confident and assured, dumb-a__es — Not when you’re channeling the ghost of Pat Jones in critical situations.
Yea, yea, yea, spell-ckeck isn’t working and my knee hurts. Get used to it.
Squib
Like I said earlier in this discussion. Venables must go! We are pathetic! Also, it might be a good time for Stoops to think about moving along too! Just look back over the last 7 years at our pathetic showings in bowl games. Can you say over rated? I’ll bet they were chanting that at Tech tonight!
If Bradford is out for Bedlam we are toast!
Makes me sick!
“Time for Stoops to think about moving along too!?” – Oh my goodness, come on people. It’s amazing that anyone could think that. Remember the 90′s? Even though we lost – there was no quit under adversity. I love that about Stoops teams. Remember last year when we lost Bomar and AD and won eight in a row and the Big 12 title. We are 6-3 against Texas since Stoops came to town. Tonight, we played without arguable our best defensive player (Austin English) and our best offensive player (Bradford) and came back to make a run at it. If they had made the right call and ruled Manny J’s catch a touchdown with 5 minutes to go, who knows? Minus the USC Orange Bowl game and maybe the 05 Texas game, can any of you remember a game that we could not have won since Stoops came to town? Look around, everybody stumbles once or twice. We can still win the conference and play in a BCS bowl – as I have said countless times, that’s what really matters. Thank you for your column after the game Tramel, I have said all year that this team was good, actually ver y good, but not national title material. That will come next year – in the meantime, let’s accomplish our goals, they are still within reach.
Nebraska Sooner,
I do really respect Bob Stoops but he seems to be a one hit wonder when it comes to National Championships. He won 7 years ago and honestly, I don’t think with him at the helm we are going to win another until he does something different.
He seems resistant to do what he knows must be done, fire Venables. Let’s face it, our defensive coaching is a joke. How many have commented on the amount of talent we have on defense but yet they get burned consistently by teams that have excellent passers and receivers. Come on, even Baylor put over 400 yards on OU! Baylor for crying out loud. Most people agree that when we won in 2000 much credit goes to the defense that Mike Stoops created. It was awesome and the best I’ve seen in my 44 years of watching my team. But, when Mike left, the elevator started going down and look where we are. We are pathetic on defense and I would agree with you good, not great on offense.
Yes, stoops has done well against weak big 12 oponents but look at the bowl game fiascos at USC, LSU and the Fiesta Bowl. That was defense at it’s worst! And we will have to see that two point conversion forever and ever and ever in the highlight reels.
Bob Stoops is truly a man of great character. He is professional and is making over 2 million a year to produce a “good” team? That is a lot of money to pay a coach to produce “good” teams that get embarrassed in bowl games. Where is the “gunslinger” Bob we remember from his early years at OU? They all left for other jobs. Take for example, Mike Leach. Don’t you think some of Bob’s gunslinger came from him? What about defense? I think there is no question that Mike Stoops departure hurt us big time. Also, where is the fire, enthusiasm and will to win that we see in so many other big time college teams? It’s like someone said they are just professional and then get into trouble and don’t have the heart to pull themselves out of a hole.
So, something is going to have to give down at OU. Bob will either have to change or will be asked to leave. There are way to many wealthy donors to the program that will not tolerate paying a coach 2 million a year to produce good teams.
Also, we can’t be dependent on one guy on offense and one guy on defense to play on each given Saturday. I was shocked at how poorly Halzsey (sp?) played. He was horrible! And what happed to Nickle (sp?). Not a word was said about him.
I’m affraid that if Bradford is not back next week and if our defense plays like they did last night, our 4 year streak against pokie state will be over. At least they are playing with fire, enthusiasm and heart. And their quarterback can hurt you with his arm or his legs so, I’m dreading this one.
We need something to change and if it means Bob leaving that’s what needs to happen.
There once was a coach at OU who had last 6 straight games to Texas. Seven years since the last national title. For 5 years he’d not only failed to end the season with a bowl victory, but OU hadn’t even scored a single post-season point. His last season, he’d had enough talent to win on the road against the defending national champion, yet lost his two biggest games of the year. Five years with only 2 top-ten finishes, and just barely at that — #8 and #10. He’d recently sunk to such a low that Oklahoma went 3-11-1 over a 15 game stretch. I’m sure some folks here wouldn’t have just wanted to fire him, but use tar and feathers. That record just isn’t good enough at OKLAHOMA!
And yet, I think Bud Wilkinson in 1963 was still one of the 2 or 3 best coaches who’s ever lived. I only wish he could have lived up to our expectations here.
I say it’s time for the “Bro” to come home. OU’s defense has been in gradual decline since the “Bro” left for Arizona. There’s a pretty decent chance that OU will win out against Tech and Pokie State. But, this year, the Big 12 will be no gimmie for sure. Then, if by some miracle OU wins the Big 12 Championship, we’ll get hammered in our bowl game (just take a look at our bowl game performance since 2000). I, for one Sooner fan am sick of it! Why in the world does Brett Venables still have a job after all these years? How do teams like BAYLOR rack up over 400 yards against a top 5 team??? How many games have we watched this year in which marginal teams routinely get first downs when it’s third and 15 or so? Remember the 4th and 18 in the Fiesta Bowl? How many times have OU’s secondary gotten burned by big passes? Really solid football teams don’t play that way! Wake up Bob! Please, Fire Venables and bring the “Bro” home for good!!!