The Bob Stoops golf tournament was Thursday, with the OU football staff and support personnel playing a scramble with boosters and media. That always prompts several questions from different precincts.
One, why is Stoops and staff playing golf with the media? Two, why is the media playing golf with Stoops? An newsroom editor once asked, do our city-hall reporters play golf with the mayor.
Well, to answer the last question, I assume not, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea. The golf tournament is a kickoff to the preseason; a chance to chat and develop a relationship without the pressures of specific questions or practice time restraints or deadlines or any number of issues that affect both parties once the pads have been pulled out.
And here’s the best thing about the golf tournament. If you get to play with a coach you don’t really know, after 18 holes in the suffocating sun, you know them afterwards. Which is why Thursday was great. I got to play with Jay Norvell.
OU’s new receivers coach — who actually spent three weeks on Stoops’ staff in 2001 before taking an NFL job with the Raiders — rode with me in the cart, and I got to know much more about Norvell, an old Iowa teammate of Stoops’.
You can read stuff in the media guide, but it’s not the same as driving around Jimmie Austin Golf Club, looking for lost balls and a little shade. A new things I learned about Norvell:
1. He’s a big baseball fan. Grew up in Wisconsin and loves the special sauce on the brats at Brewer games, be it old County Stadium or new Miller Park. 2. Norvell’s dad played at Wisconsin, and Norvell later coached at Wisconsin, but in between he jumped down to play at Iowa for Hayden Fry. 3. One reason Norvell left OU after three weeks in 2001 was Norvell needed only one more season to be fully vested in the NFL pension plan. Norvell said Stoops was very understanding. 4. Norvell, who came from Bill Callahan’s Nebraska staff, was on the Wisconsin staff with Callahan and speaks highly of the beleaguered Husker coach.
We talked about a ton of other things, but that’s a sampling. The Stoops Tournament is bad golf. Golf-wise, it’s good for nothing but a sunburn and missed shots. But relationship-wise, it’s one of the best things going.
I didn’t play in the Mike Gundy Tournament this year; it teed off at 9 a.m. last Thursday, and that’s the morning I got back from Kansas City at 3:15 a.m., and I knew I’d be having the late night, so I didn’t sign up. But it was my loss. In years past, I’ve gotten to know OSU coaches like Doug Mallory and Joe DeForest, and I’ll definitely try to play next year.