OU coaches at age 48
Bob Stoops turned 48 on Tuesday. Rather than some gift that Bob might think was a gag, like an orange tie, I thought I would give Bob something that might come in handy for future decisions. Like historical perspective.
I thought it would be fun to go back and look at what some other Sooner coaches were doing when they turned 48.
Stoops is trying to figure out how to win a road game 2,000 miles from home and protect what could be a special season.
Barry Switzer turned 48 on Oct. 5, 1985. Switzer in October 1985 hadn’t won a national title in 10 seasons and had just come through a rocky stretch of four defeats in three seasons, 1981-83, and a loss to Washington in the 1984-season Orange Bowl. On Oct. 5, Switzer’s Sooners beat Kansas State 41-6 to run their record to 2-0. But the OU wishbone, run by a skyscraper named Troy Aikman, still seemed rusty. Who knew that Switzer was on the verge of national title No. 3?
Lesson for Stoops: National title droughts can come when you least expect it.
Bud Wilkinson turned 48 on April 23, 1964. His three national titles, 47-game winning streak and 145 OU victories were behind him. On April 23, 1964, an Oklahoman poll showed that Wilkinson was running strong in the polls. You know what happened. Democrat Fred Harris rode the coattails of President LBJ and defeated Wilkinson, who left politics.
Lesson for Stoops: If you enter politics, be careful who your party is trotting out for president.
Chuck Fairbanks turned 48 on June 10, 1981. Behind him already was six seasons as the Sooner coach in which he thrice finished No. 2 in the AP poll and six seasons as the New England Patriots in which he turned around a pathetic franchise and went 46-39 overall. Also behind him was two years at Colorado, where he had jumped for a big contract but was just 4-18. He had alienated some with an extreme makeover: coach’s office edition that cost $50,000 in a year in which CU dropped six sports: wrestling, baseball, men’s and women’s swimming, men’s and women’s gymnastics. Fairbanks in June was preparing for a season in which the Buffs would go 3-8, his three-year record would fall to 7-26, and Fairbanks would resign to take over the New Jersey General of the USFL.
Lesson for Stoops: Keep leaving good jobs and you’re going to find one that isn’t.
Bennie Owen turned 48 on July 24, 1923, and truth be told, I don’t know what football coach did in the summertime 85 years ago. Probably work on the football field and raise money for Owen’s pet projects, which eventually became the OU Field House and Owen Field. But Owen in 1923 already was an Oklahoma icon; he had completed 18 seasons with a record of 108-39-13, including four unbeaten years. Owen’s final four years were not great. OU went 14-15-3. Owen resigned and became athletic director, just as Gomer Jones would do almost 40 years later.
Lesson for Stoops: Don’t stay too long or they’ll make you the AD.
Howard Schnellenberger turned 48 on March 16, 1982. He was preparing spring practice for a team that had senior Jim Kelly at quarterback. Miami had gone 5-6, 9-3 and 9-2 in Schnellenberger’s first three years. So at age 48, Schnellenberger’s career victory total was 23, some 76 wins shy of where Stoops is now. You know the rest. Schnellenberger still is coaching, with 119 more wins since the summer of 1982, winning a national title at Miami, taking the Louisville program to legitimate status, building Florida Atlantic football from scratch and an 11-month stop in Norman for a campaign that failed.
Lesson for Stoops: There’s a lot of coaching left for some guys after 48.
Gary Gibbs turned 48 on Aug. 13, 1998. That summer, he was in Norman, still cashing a paycheck from OU almost four years after he was fired, enjoying his family and watching Sooner Nation still keep the hope for John Blake. Gibbs had spent 25 seasons as a player or coach in Norman. In 2000, Gibbs would return to coaching, as defensive coordinator at Georgia and then LSU. He would join the Dallas Cowboys and follow Sean Payton to New Orleans as defensive coordinator, and Gibbs’ success would result in a couple of interviews for head-coaching positions, which still could come.
Lesson for Stoops: You can have two careers, and both can come in football.
Happy birthday, Bob. Use as you see fit.
College football Week 2: Seafood linguini, campus corner & Big East problems
The second week of college football was better than the first. For me. I was at a real game. OU-Cincinnati lived up to its billing. The rest of the college football landscape was mediocre.
TEN BIG LOSERS FROM WEEK 210. Temple: One of college perennial big losers had a chance to beat a team of some stature, leading UConn 6-0 after three quarters. But UConn rallied to tie, then won 12-9 in overtime.
9. Washington State: Lose a conference home game 66-3, as WSU did to Cal, and there’s little reason for optimism in Paul Wulff’s first season as coach.
8. Army: A 28-10 home loss to New Hampshire, which followed a home loss to Temple. The Cadets could be looking at a winless season. No wonder Army wants no part of a home-and-home series with Oklahoma.
7. Ralph Fridgen: Remember when the Maryland coach was the toast of the ACC? He won 31 games his first three seasons. But after a 24-14 loss at Middle Tennessee, Maryland could be facing its second straight losing season.
6. Big East: The conference didn’t beat a Division I-A foe in Week 1. In Week 2, flagship team West Virginia got rolled by East Carolina and Cincinnati quarterback Dustin Grutza suffered a broken leg.
5. State of Colorado: Colorado State and Colorado both rallied to beat Division I-AA teams. CSU beat Sacramento State 23-20; CU beat Eastern Washington 31-24. Could be a long year in the Rockies.
4. Steve Spurrier: The South Carolina coach lost to Vanderbilt for the second straight year, and the Gamecocks might have to hustle to make a bowl. You wonder if Spurrier might get bored.
3. Pat White: The West Virginia quarterback’s Heisman Trophy hopes seem slight after a poor game against East Carolina — 97 yards rushing on 20 carries but just 72 yards on 11 of 18 passing.
2. Notre Dame-Michigan rivalry: The old powers play this week, and who could possibly care? Notre Dame squeaked by San Diego State, which is truly awful, and Michigan struggled to survive Miami-Ohio. The fight songs will be grand; the teams will not.
1. Tyrone Willingham: The Washington coach desperately needs victories; he’s 11-27 in his fourth year. With a chance to beat Brigham Young, UW missed overtime when a shaky excessive celebration penalty forced the Huskies to try a 35-yard extra point, which was blocked. BYU won 28-27.
THE PRIDE OF SEAFOOD LINGUINII didn’t make it to OU’s campus Friday night for dinner, but I got close. Benvenuti’s in downtown Norman. We had a charming dinner with a group of people that included retired Air Force Gen. Jerry Holmes and OU College of Engineering dean Tom Landers.
Landers is an interesting guy; a big military buff and especially taken with the airplane art of World War II. He knows all about the B-29 piloted by Waddy Young, the former OU all-American who was shot down and killed in 1945. Says there are all kinds of leadership clues in Young’s art; maybe some day I’ll write about that.
We also talked about engineering, and how Oklahoma and American high schools don’t produce enough students interested or qualified for U.S. engineering schools. Doesn’t this seem like a simple solution for economic development? Kindle interest in math and science among younger students, fifth through eighth grades, and eventually get them into engineering schools. Landers told me companies are recruiting OU engineering students earlier and earlier. They recruited on campus last week, even though students are nine months away from the work force.
Meanwhile, Gen. Holmes knows almost everyone in American politics. Bush, Colin Powell, John McCain. He told some great stories, but my favorite was about Joe Paterno.
Gen. Holmes once spoke at Penn State for a conference on ethics. Holmes spoke on ethics of war; Paterno spoke on ethics of sport.
The general said he asked Paterno what he would do under the following scenario. One of his players runs for the winning touchdown, but you saw him step out of bounds and the officials didn’t see it. What would you do?
Holmes said Paterno told him, “If I was coaching junior high or high school, I would tell the ref to bring the play back, because my job would be teaching and instilling character.”
But what if it happened at Penn State? “Are you crazy,” Paterno said. “My job here is to win football games.”
At Benvenuti’s, I had the seafood linguini. It was excellent. Good restaurant. A little pricey, but a great place for a nice dinner or special occasion. It’s in the old Interurban building, which made me a little sad, because I love Interurban, and I’m glad to know they’re opening again in Norman, out on the interstate.
Across the street from Benvenuti’s is Coach’s, and in the middle of dinner Friday night, we saw out the window that a bunch of OU band members, in uniform, had assembled on the sidewalk across the street. Eventually, they went into Coach’s, and turns out they play in Coach’s every Friday night before home games.
Which reminded me of Aggieville on the Kansas State campus. Aggieville is a thriving area, sort of an expanded OU Campus Corner or OSU Strip. The Friday night before K-State home games, a Wildcat pep band strolls Aggieville and pops into every eatery for a fight song. A great tradition, which really adds to the spirit of the weekend.
Sounds like a great idea for OU and OSU. An OU pep band could hit the Hideaway, LaLuna, Louie’s, Othello’s. It would be great. Same in Stillwater, where an OSU pep band could go to Eskimo Joe’s, Hideaway, Qdoba.
REALITY RANKINGSIn a blog last week, I introduced you to a new concept in ranking college football teams. Teams judged not on what they might do or could do, but on what they have done. Novel, I know. Anyway, rank teams based on what they’ve done instead of some kind of mystical projections, and the rankings look much different. Here’s the top 15 for this week:
15. Arkansas State: Winning at Texas A&M won’t keep the Indians listed for long, but two weeks into the season, it’s enough.
14. Vanderbilt: Won at Miami-Ohio, which is a decent win, and beat South Carolina in Nashville.
13. Oklahoma State: Two wins, two semi-legit opponents (Washington State, Houston). In today’s college football, that’s better than most.
12. Wake Forest: Victories over Baylor and Ole Miss. Not exactly Texas and Alabama, but give the Demon Deacons credit for not yet having played an automatic win.
11. Kentucky: Dominant win at Louisville; too early to tell how UK or Louisville will turn out.
10. Fresno State: Victory at Rutgers has Bulldogs dreaming of the BCS.
9. Georgia Tech: Victory at Boston College stamps Yellowjackets as an ACC contender. For what that’s worth.
8. California: Golden Bears have two victories over BCS-league opponents, Michigan State and Washington State, though beating WSU 66-3 says more about the Cougars than the Bears.
7. Florida: Two home victories, which don’t count as much, but Hawaii was in the Sugar Bowl in January and Miami has pride, if not power.
6. UCLA: Home victory over Tennessee seemed more fluke than anything, but ours is not to question.
5. Utah: Win at Michigan’s Big House might not mean as much later in the year, but for now, it gives the Utes credibility.
4. Missouri: Romp of hapless Southeast Missouri State counts for squat, but neutral-field (St. Louis) victory over Illinois packs a punch.
3. Alabama: Routed Clemson on a neutral field in Atlanta, then beat Tulane.
2. Southern Cal: 52-7 slaughter at Virginia serves notice. The Trojans are a load.
1. East Carolina: The Pirates would be on this list even if it had gone just 1-1 in its first two games. But East Carolina beat Virginia Tech on a neutral field in Charlotte, then popped West Virginia. Of the five most impressive wins in college football this season, East Carolina has two of them.
STREET FESTIVALOU’s Campus Corner is hopping for several hours before kickoff. Part of the carnival is the media. On that one-block stretch of Asp alone, two radio stations were set up doing live broadcasts, KOCO-TV set up a stage for its pregame show and The Oklahoman set up a stage for its new live pregame show aired on newsok.com.
I parked near the train depot in downtown Norman and walked down to campus. I did a 30-minute segment with Eschbach and Traber on the Sports Animal, then went to prepare for our pregame show.
We’re in the infancy of this webcasting by newspapers. Sort of feeling our way along. It was a wreck before the Chattanooga game, but the Cincinnati pregame went smoothly. Dave Morris of newsok.com, myself and Jake Trotter did the show, and we had a couple of guests, former Sooner John Tatum and author Jeff Snook, who has written a new OU book, Then Bud Said to Barry, Who Told Bob. We still don’t have any idea what we’re doing on camera, but the resulting videos seem to be popular. And besides, you can’t keep a face like mine off video.
The best thing about such days is the interaction with the crowd. I get to meet new people and see old friends. Come into contact with 20,000 people, and you’re bound to know some of them.
On the walk from Campus Corner to the stadium, I encountered two familiar faces.
Calvin Jones is an OU fan I met on a flight from same game, don’t remember which. But he’s a loyal Sooner. Lives in Valentine, Neb., which is hard by the South Dakota border in northern Nebraska, and works on an Indian reservation in South Dakota. Yet Calvin makes it to most OU games.
And E.C. Wegener of Minco is a guy I met several years ago at the Fairfield Inn in Las Colinas, during an OU-Texas weekend. I saw him year after year at the Fairfield and learned he was part of the OU chain crew on the sidelines.
In February 2005, Wegener was in an horrific truck-train crash. His face was mangled and his body was crushed. But after 52 days in the hospital, Wegener walked out of the hospital, and that September he was on the sidelines for the OU-TCU game.
I walked with Wegener to the stadium and all the way to the entrance. It was good to see him. I don’t stay at the Fairfield anymore; we’ve moved over to the Courtyard for OU-Texas. But Campus Corner brought us together again.
TEN BIG WINNERS FROM WEEK 210. U.S. Marines: 32-year-old ex-Marine Brandon Crawford, Ball State’s captain and defensive end, had four tackles in a 35-23 victory over, yes, Navy.
9. Rice: The Owls won at Memphis 42-35 and are 2-0 in Conference USA. Rice could up playing some big games for the first time in what must be 50 years.
8. Wake Forest: Sam Swank’s 41-yard field goal with two seconds left beat Ole Miss 30-28 and guaranteed the Demon Deacons will be unbeaten when they go to Florida State on Sept. 20.
7. Tim Tebow: The Florida quarterback is the chic pick to not repeat as the Heisman winner. But he threw for 256 yards and ran for a game-high 55 against Miami’s stout defense. Don’t discount Tebow from finishing out his bookends.
6. Oklahoma stats: The nation’s leading passer for the week was Tulsa’s David Johnson, with 418 yards against North Texas. OU’s Sam Bradford was third, with 395 passing yards against Cincinnati. The leading receiver in the nation was OSU’s Dez Bryant, with 236 yards on nine catches. The No. 2 rusher was OSU’s Kendall Hunter, with 210 yards on 22 carries.
5. Colt McCoy: Quarterbacking on the road can be rough, just ask Bradford. But McCoy was very good for Texas at UTEP, throwing for four touchdowns and 292 yards.
4. Mid-American Conference: Rarely does a league make a statement in defeat, but that’s exactly what happened in dueling ESPN games. Michigan edged Miami-Ohio 16-6 while Ohio State barely survived Ohio U. 26-14. The MAC didn’t get its big upset, but it earned even more respect in Big Ten territory.
3. Big 12: OK, so the competition wasn’t great. But still, the Big 12 went 12-0 Saturday. Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Texas won road games against mid-majors hungry to make a name for itself, and OU beat Cincinnati in one of the day’s marquee games.
2. Paul Johnson: Some wonder if Johnson’s option attack, which worked at Navy, can work at the big-time level. But Georgia Tech beat Boston College 19-16 to give Johnson a victory in his ACC debut..
1. Skip Holtz: The East Carolina coach pulled off his second straight big upset, this one 24-7 over West Virginia. Keep this up, and Holtz might soon take over his dad’s old job, coach at Notre Dame.
Emails are in on Thunder & Big East
The new emails are in, and I heard from NBA fans weighing in on the new Thunder nickname and Big East fans who didn’t like my column saying their league stinks and OU football fans who think I missed a fullback on the best-ever list I produced.
Jim wrote, “I thought you article on how the Big East stinks was out of touch with reality and out of line. We did have a bad week last week, but when does one week make a conference? If it did, OU and the Big 12 would have ‘sucked’ last year when WVa. took you guys to the woodshed. Are we the SEC? No, but then again, neither is the Big 12. Before you say we suck you may want a little more time to pass than ONE week.” Then Sunday morning, Jim wrote back. “After this weekend, yeah, you’re right. The Big East sucks this year.”
Sometimes, the scoreboards do my work for me.
Danny is another Big East fan who wrote, “Are you just trying to get your name out there? I know of many prominent writers across the country, but you sir, I’ve never heard your name. When you pose the quote ‘Big East sucks,’ yes we had a bad week, but when you go on to stretch that into last year and extend it with West Virginia should have left for the ACC, you fail to remember we’ve been good since the beginning of the new Big East, and only last week has our conference shown a low point. I remember not to long ago your conference ‘sucking’ when Texas was carrying the WHOLE conference.”
First off, I didn’t say the Big East sucked. I would never use the word sucked. I said the Big East stinks. And it does. Did you see the results Saturday? And anyone who thinks Texas ever carried the Big 12 isn’t paying attention to anything.
On to the NBA. Marquita wrote, “Please extend my congratulations to all those planners, designers and secret-keepers of the new nickname, logo, colors, etc. for the NBA team. The Logo is outstanding. Fantastic. Dynamic. Love the design and the colors. As to the name, I reckon I still like Pioneers the best but am sure I will come to love Thunder when I understand it and associate it with a great team.”
Well said. Maybe we’ll all like Thunder when we understand it.
Don wrote, “I think the name Oklahoma City Thunder is fine. Using the Oklahoma flag and school colors is great for the logo. What I do NOT understand is why they stopped there. Why did they not continue that theme and use a song recorded by an Oklahoma-grown entertainer. The sound track from Garth Brook’s song “Thunder Rolls” is perfect for the team introduction at a game.”
Well, maybe they will. But after I suggested the same thing, someone pointed out the song is about domestic violence. So we’ll see.
Chris wrote, “Artistically speaking, who in the blazes designed the new Thunder logo? George Jetson? If you put that logo on a vacuum cleaner or a new bowling ball retriever, ya got a winner. On a NBA jersey, however, I give it an F and I am being nice. That thing is bone ugly and does not get me jazzed in the least.”
I’m not crazy about the logo, but let’s wait until the uniforms come out before we get too worked up. Who cares about the logo compared to the uniforms?
John wrote of Thunder, “Tis catchy. Can hear the announcer now, full of verve, loud voiced, saying, ‘OK, fans, time to rummmble, time to roarrr, time to Thunnnnn-der. A giant screen shows buffalo rumbling across the plain with the sound of thunder battering the fan’s ears. Fans cheer, adding to the roar filling the center.”
Unlike the Big East, the name doesn’t stink. Or suck.
Craig wrote, “I like it. Mascot should be Thor. I can hear the intro now. The lights dim and the announcer says, ‘When you see the lightning, you’re about to be thunderstruck!’ Of course you then would have a big boom sound like Thunder and then launch into the opening riffs of Thunderstruck. Works for me. That would get the crowd going.”
Thor would get the ladies going. Most mascots are geared toward kids.
James doesn’t like Thunder. Doesn’t like it at all. “This is bull! Let me be clear: the basketball franchise in OKC will never win an NBA championship with a name so stupid as Thunder. This is rinky-dink! This has Arena Football written all over it. This is smalltime, dopey and hokey! There is a psychological component here. A team named Thunder will never be any good. A team called Thunder can have no swagger. How are the Thunder supposed to compete with Celtics or Pistons? The Barons would at least have had a fighting chance. Clay Bennett and the management group threw the city under the bus.”
Does that mean that the Miami Heat DIDN’T win the 2006 NBA title? As I’ve written, every name is goofy on the surface. And competing with the Celtics and Pistons has nothing to do with name and everything to do with quality ballplayers.
Dee wrote, “Was in attendance at Leadership Square, thought it was first class. I do think it is funny that Thunderstruck will be the theme song. The lyrics to the song salute Texas. Oh well, might make a sign when Dallas plays here next year.
Actually, same as with “Thunder Rolls.” We’re not sitting around a campfire, singing Kumbaya.
Terry didn’t like my column urging the Thunder to keep their innocent players away from the ruffians on college campuses. “You had to be tongue in cheek. Let’s see, rapist Bryant, doper Birdman, HIV Johnson, 20,000 sexual mates Chamberlain, old coach choker Sprewell, the into the stands and after the fans boys, girly and tattoo king Rodman, and on and on. These are your idea of role models? Talk about mollycoddled.”
I was tongue in cheek. And who is Molly?
Dave read my NBA/campus column and wrote, “I really was hacked-off at you for your words on OU-Chattanooga. Then today I’m laughing out loud, so I guess you’re doing a great job. Thanks for having a sense of humor.”
I was born with it.
Marc wrote, “When was the last time you saw a clean cut, crewcut black kid off the farm? How about a clean cut shaved head kid out of the ghetto nurtured by a devoted grandparent? Oh, by the way, are you biased toward acne faced kids from the boonies? The ACLU will be after you.”
Uh, Marc. I think you’re trying to be a little funny yourself.
Let’s get back to OU football. Randall wrote, “Having watched Ryan Broyles for three years at Norman High, he was the best high school athlete I ever saw. Second place isn’t close. His athleticism was even more obvious on the basketball court, due to more opportunities. So in this day of early scholarship offers and commitments, why did he get offered by OU only weeks before signing day and after he committed to OSU? Don’t suggest his size was a factor – he could start now as a cornerback. Could it be OU coaches have wandering eyes, like the guy who looks at other women, even though they don’t compare to his own taken-for-granted girl? Just a thought.”
Here’s a thought. Maybe the Sooners knew a little too much about Broyles and his off-field risks. A guy in your own town can’t really fool anybody.
Melissa wrote, “Your top 10 OU fullbacks seemed to focus on rushing yards only, but we think one of the best fullbacks of all time at Oklahoma had to be J.D. Runnels. J.D. wasn’t lucky enough to play in the wishbone, so he wasn’t given the ball much. However, he was a great receiver and even a better blocker. Just ask Adrian Peterson.”
Great point. Except for one thing. Bob Stoops didn’t always put Runnels on the field. Runnels played anywhere from half to 2/3 of a game, depending on formation. How can a guy be one of the greatest if he doesn’t even play all the time? All those other guys I listed hardly ever came off the field.
Jerry wrote, “It appears to me that celebration station has gotten completely out of hand. I sort of thought that when the powers that be made it a substantial infraction for excessive celebrating that there might be some kind of control over this. It seems, though, that the players believe that a 15-yard penalty is a small enough price to pay for showing off their overblown enthusiasm. Since this penalty is pretty much an opinion by a referee who is adjacent to the action, the players should be advised by their coaches that this is something that MUST be curtailed. Maybe the possibility of losing a close game after scoring an important touchdown and needing the extra point will emphasize to the coaches the necessity of controlling the emotions a bit. The announcers at the BYU-Washington game seemed to think the call was not right. I thought it was a good call and that there should be more of these penalties assessed.”
I thought the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Washington quarterback Jake Locker for throwing the ball up in the air was a bad call. He didn’t spike the ball. He didn’t throw it in the stands. He didn’t gyrate like he was being electrocuted. He threw the ball up in the air when he scored a last-second touchdown. Why do we want to get rid of emotion?
Venables: Cincy ranks with OU’s best non-conference foes
When I asked Brent Venables if Cincinnati was in the Fresno State/UCLA range of quality opponents, he surprised me by saying no. The Bearcats were better.
OU routed Fresno State and UCLA in 2003 and took care of Cincinnati on Saturday. All by similar scores. Fresno 52-24, UCLA 59-24 and Cincy 52-26.
Venables said the staff believes this Cincinnati team ranks with 2002 Alabama as OU’s best non-conference opponent of the Bob Stoops era.
Interesting. And maybe right. OU has played some big names in the last 10 years, but those big names often have been big duds in the years they landed on the Sooner schedule.
Remarkable, really, how the Sooners have, through no fault of their own, met traditional powers in some of their worst seasons in decades.
1999 Notre Dame finished 5-7. 2003 Alabama went 4-9. Oregon finished 5-6 in 2004 and 7-6 in 2006, the latter even with the gift victory over the Sooners. 2006 Washington and 2007 Miami both finished 5-7.
Even the next level of foe hasn’t caught OU in a good year. 2001 Air Force finished 6-6. ’99 Louisville was 7-5. ’03 Fresno State finished 9-5, including a Silicon Valley bowl victory over another OU foe, UCLA, which finished 6-7.
Venables is right. That 2002 Alabama was very good; it finished 10-3 in Dennis Franchione’s final year in Tuscaloosa.
The 2005 UCLA team that beat OU in the Rose Bowl finished 10-2. People didn’t think too highly of that team and apparently still don’t; but go 10-2 with a Pac-10 schedule and a decent non-conference slate, that’s saying something.
2002 South Florida finished 9-2 but was just building its program.
Maybe the most underrated team OU has played in the Stoops era is 2005 TCU, which upset the Sooners at Owen Field and finished 11-1, with an inexplicable loss to SMU. That was a solid Horned Frog team.
So here’s my ranking, taking Venables’ thoughts into account, of the best non-conference foes of the Stoops era, discounting bowls:
1. Alabama 2002
2. UCLA 2005
3. TCU 2005
4. Cincinnati 2008
5. Oregon 2006
Rating the OU football books
Seems like a new OU football book is published every few months or so. The latest is Then Bud Said To Barry, Who Told Bob: The Best Oklahoma Sooners Stories Ever Told, written by Jeff Snook, who will be on campus today to promote the book. Later this season, a books-signing is planned before an OU game.
Last week, I rated my favorite baseball books ever. This week, I’ll list my favorite OU football books. Heck, I’ll just rank all that I have, which is a ton but not every book that’s been published.
For instance, I haven’t grabbed the latest, written by OU media relations director Kenny Mossman, The Oklahoma Football Vault, which contains some rare jewels, like a letter written by John Harts to OU historian Harold Keith. Harts was OU’s only winless coach; he led the school football team for one game in 1895.
I also, for some reason, never have read The Boz, Rick Reilly’s tale of Brian Bosworth. And I can’t find When All the Laughter Died In Sorrow, Lance Rentzel’s account of his fall from grace with the Dallas Cowboys.
Maybe some day. And maybe even next week for Walk-On, by D. Mikels, a novel about OU football. I haven’t read it yet. But I’ll take it to Seattle next week and give you a report.
I still have 28 books on the list, which means there are at least 32 books available on OU football. Let’s get started.
1. Oklahoma Kickoff, by Harold Keith, 1948. Absolutely priceless history of the early days of OU football, 1895-1920. Great stuff on Norman and campus life and dusty football days. Not bogged down with football details, although Keith does provide a page diagramming plays. If you ever wondered what Bennie Owen was like, this book’s for you.
2. Bootlegger’s Boy, by Barry Switzer with Bud Shrake, 1990. The Switzer autobiography is a wild read. It doesn’t answer every question you ever had for Switzer, but it answers most, in an entertaining way.
3. Presidents Can’t Punt, by George Lynn Cross, 1977. A true inside look at how the OU football monster developed. George Cross was OU’s president from 1943-68 and writes a very readable account of how Jim Tatum and Bud Wilkinson and Gomer Jones were hired; of how OU regents determined to get good in football; of constant head-butts with the Big Seven Conference.
4. 3rd Down & Forever: Joe Don Looney & the Rise & Fall of an American Hero, by J. Brent Clark, 1993. Before the Boz came the original OU wild man. Brent Clark superbly captures the saga of Joe Don Looney.
5. The Courting of Marcus Dupree, by Willie Morris, 1983. Not really an OU football book, but enough Sooner stuff to keep fans interested and regardless, a wonderful book about a fascinating section of this great country. Compares the civil rights unrest in Philadelphia, Miss., with the recruiting of its legendary football star two decades later.
6. The Undefeated, by Jim Dent, 2001. A controversial look at the Wilkinson era, focusing on the players who helped fashion the 47-game winning streak. Dent doesn’t always portray Wilkinson in a flattering light, which turned the old Sooners against him. But the book is a good read and a mostly sentimental look back to a half century ago, when Oklahoma unquestionably ruled college football.
7. An Autumn Remembered: Bud Wilkinson’s Legendary ’56 Sooners, by Gary T. King, 1988. In the 1960s, King was a Norman High School football hero. But in the ’50s, he was a kid who worshipped Wilkinson’s legendary Sooners. King catches up with those heroes of his youth as he looks back at the halcyon days of growing up in Norman.
8. Bud Wilkinson, An Intimate Portrait of an American Legend, by Jay Wilkinson, 1994. Yes, this is a son’s view of his father, but Jay tackles some unpleasant subjects, like his father’s decision to end his first marriage. Any Sooner fan who wants to know more about this mythic man should read this book.
9. Sooner Century, by Brent Clark, 1995. A coffee table book that has the best collection of Sooner photos. The text is solid — in full disclosure, I wrote some of the wishbone-era stuff for Brent — but the pictures provide the greatest value.
10. I Remember Bud Wilkinson, by Mike Towle, 2002. One of a series of “I Remember” books by Towle — Al McGuire, Jim Valvano, Walter Payton, Pete Maravich, Arthur Ashe, Ben Hogan, Vince Lombardi, Bobby Jones — in which he lets people speak in their own words about an American sporting icon. This kind of sports literature comes from The Glory of Their Times, Lawrence Ritter’s majestic look at early-20th century baseball. The Wilkinson book is not as good as “Glory,” but it’s still worth the read. And go back and look at that list of people Towle wrote about. Bud Wilkinson is on that list.
11. 100 Greatest Sooners, produced by Sooners Illustrated, 2004. I don’t know if this qualifies as a book; it’s more like a big, thick magazine. But it’s a heck of a compilation, if I do say so myself, since I was one of the voters and contributors to the project, which ranks the best Sooners, 1-100.
12. Down and Dirty: The Life & Crimes of Oklahoma Football, by Charles Thompson & Allan Sonnenschein, 1990. Thompson’s account of his fall from grace is at times outrageous but often revealing. Some well-known Sooners don’t come out looking very good, and even though CT’s credibility was minimal, you end up believing him.
13. The Die-Hard Fan’s Guide to Sooner Football, by Jim Fletcher, 2008. You know, it’s not a half-bad book. The premise is weak — one more catch-all book about OU football – but it contains a few nuggets, including some Q&A interviews that includes stuff you’ve never seen before.
14. Forty-Seven Straight, by Harold Keith, 1984. A year-by-year look at the Bud Wilkinson era, with game details that are hard to find and occasional stories about the Sooners of that era. A solid resource.
15. The Game of the Century, by Michael Corcoran, 2004. A look at the 1971 OU-Nebraska game. It’s OK.
16. What It Means To Be A Sooner, by Jeff Snook, 2005. Another interview book, written in first-person style. Generally speaking, these are great if the old players are talking about campus and coaches and other players, and these stink if they’re just talking about games. This one has a little too much games.
17. Seasons To Remember, by Curt Gowdy, 1993. The Hall of Fame sportscaster spent a few years at WKY radio in Oklahoma City calling OU football and OSU basketball in 1946-49. Gowdy doesn’t really offer anything new on Sooner football, but his entire career was fascinating.
18. The Sooners, by Jim Weeks, 1974. This formulaic book has special meaning, for two reasons. One, it’s the first OU book I ever read and is perfect for someone who wants to learn Sooner history. It covers it all, from territorial days to the advent of the wishbone. Other books provide more detail, but this lays a groundwork. Plus, Jim Weeks got me started in the business, hiring me when I was 17, to be a sports flunky at the Norman Transcript.
19. Game Day: Oklahoma Football, by Athlon Sports, 2006. A minitature coffee-table book that is a lot like Athlon’s preseason magazine every year. Great photos, not great text. But let me repeat. Great photos.
20. Echoes of Oklahoma Sooners Football, edited by Mark Stafford, 2007. A collection of great stories from newspapers and magazines about the Sooners over the years. I guess they’re great. I’ve got one piece in there, a 1999 story I did about Greg Pruitt. I don’t even remember writing it. Hope The Oklahoman got some money off this deal.
21. Tales From the Sooner Sidelines, by Jay C. Upchurch, 2003. Another collection of anecdotes and stories, this one by the editor of Sooner Spectator magazine. All kinds of interesting stuff, as long as perspective and balance don’t matter. The 1957 OU-Notre Dame game, which ended the 47-game winning streak, gets nine paragraphs. A 1975 story in which Chez Evans faked sick so he could get a weekend party started? Seven paragraphs. Of course, I know all about the Notre Dame game. I’d never heard the Chez Evans story.
22. The Road to Glory, by Josh Heupel, 2001. Not exactly Willie Morris, but it’s not supposed to be. If you’re a Heupel fan and can’t get enough about the 2000 season, this book’s for you.
23. Going Public, by Ken Farris, 1994. The long-time OU athletic department business manager’s account of his decades-long numbers-crunching and people-dealing. The action doesn’t jump off the page, but it’s interesting for anyone drawn to the ins and outs of running college athletics. 24. Sooners Handbook: Stories, Stats and Stuff About OU Football, by Jim Weeks, 1996. Sort of a condensed version of my mentor’s original book. This one is notable for the photos on the back cover. Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and John Blake.
25. Prelude to Greatness, by Jay Smith and Jim Wallis, 2003. The story of Smith, who in the 1990s played for four OU head coaches. Great premise, and some occasional insight, but not a great read.
26. How Dr. Death Became Dr. Life, by Steve Williams, 2007. The former OU guard and heavyweight wrestler tells of overcoming cancer.
27. The Sooner the Better, How Attitude Matters on the Way to the Top, by John E. Tatum, 2006. A player from the 1960s, Tatum recalls a poor upbringing in eastern Oklahoma but how OU football launched him to a successful life.
28. University of Oklahoma Football Trivia, by Jim Weeks, 1988. Only the hard-cores should pick up this one. But if you’re road-tripping to College Station or Waco with some other Sooner fans, this will pass the time nicely. But the Stoops era is not included.
OSU-Houston Big 12′s second-best?
The college football schedule Saturday is awful. The Big 12 is partly to blame. Four Big 12 teams Saturday play Division I-AA opponents. Only Oklahoma plays a team from another major conference. That’s ridiculous.
OU-Cincinnati clearly is the Big 12′s game of the day. ABC-TV quickly picked up that game, early in the summer, after scouring the schedule.
OSU-Houston probably is the league’s second-best game. UH beat the Cowboys two years ago in Houston.
Three other Big 12 games are decent. Kansas hosts Louisiana Tech, and while KU is a big favorite, La-Tech knocked off Mississippi State last week. Texas A&M goes to New Mexico; the Aggies failed to win at home last week against Arkansas State, so this week they’re on the road, against a better foe. And Texas Tech goes to Nevada, which has a history of explosive offense. Tech has struggles on the road, so you never know.
The next best? I guess Texas at UTEP. The Longhorns going to El Paso would be sort of like the Sooners playing a game in Guymon. UTEP showed some flash under Mike Price two years ago but was waxed last Saturday at Buffalo U.
Iowa State hosts Kent State, which upset the Cyclones a year ago in Gene Chizik’s debut game.
The other games are outright dogs. Eastern Washington at Colorado. Kansas State hosts Montana State. Nebraska hosts San Jose State. Baylor hosts Northwestern Louisiana. And in the nation’s worst game of the day, and a game that rivals OU-Chattanooga for the worst in the country all year, Missouri hosts Southeast Missouri State, which struggled last week to beat Southwest Baptist.
So, that’s 12 Big 12 games. One against the Big East. Two against Conference USA. Three against the WAC. One against the Mountain West. One against the Mid-American Conference. And four against Division I-AA opponents.
Awful. Truly awful.
Finally, OKC team has a name
Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry has a new girlfriend but can’t remember her name? Part of the schtick of that episode was Jerry talking to the girl without calling her by name.
Oklahoma City NBA fans know how he feels. We’ve been referring to our new franchise in a muddling way. “Oklahoma City’s NBA team…” or some such collection of words.
Finally, we can just say Thunder. Like it or not, at least it’s a name. At least we’ve got a name we can hang a hat on. And maybe the basketball side of the Thunder franchise is glad to know, too.
Finally having a name doesn’t help “in terms of how you play,” said Thunder coach P.J. Carlesimo. “If we play well, we’ll make people proud of the name and proud of the colors.
“But believe me, I’m glad. It’s been so long, it’s a little more sense of identity than I realized in the beginning.”
Thunder is one of those singular nicknames that sounds a little clunky. But maybe it grows on you.
“I’m excited about it,” Desmond Mason said. “It’s very unique. Just like Utah Jazz or Orlando Magic, it’s going to take some getting used to.”
It won’t take long. We’ll be used to it by October and we won’t remember life without Thunder by December. And for now, we’re just glad we’ve got a name to put with this team.
Revolutionary rankings: USC, Bama, Mizzou
Today we debut a new way to rank college football teams. Instead of ranking teams by what I think they will do, I’ll rank them by what I think they have done. In other words, what have Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio State, West Virginia and LSU done so far? Squat. All defeated lower-division teams.
So that means they are not in this first rankings. Do I think they will get there? Sure. But if you want predictions, go to the more traditional polls. That’s what they are based on. If you want an accurate reading of what has transpired so far in college football, this is your list:
1. Southern Cal: A 45-point victory over a solid Virginia program.
2. Alabama: Routed Clemson 34-10 on a neutral field.
3. Missouri: Beat a good team (Illinois) on a neutral field (St. Louis) in a rivalry game, 52-41.
4. UCLA: Winning at home is not as impressive, but Tennessee was the best team to lose in Week 1.
5. Utah: Beat Michigan in the Big House. If I had thought to do this last year, it’s quite possible that Appalachian State would have been No. 1 for at least a week.
6. East Carolina: Beat Virginia Tech on a neutral field (Charlotte, N.C.). If the Pirates win Saturday at West Virginia, they will be No. 1 in my rankings and should be No. 1 in every poll.
7. Fresno State: I think Rutgers is solid, and Fresno won going away; 3,000 miles from home.
8. Kentucky: Beat an arch-rival and more-successful rival (Louisville) on its home field.
9. Bowling Green: Pitt was overrated, but still, impressive to Heinz Field and win.
10. Arkansas State: Won at Texas A&M, prompting Pat Jones to ask, who’s the best team in Arkansas? Answer: Not the Razorbacks. Not this week.
Week 1: Utah, Fresno State big winners
Last year, I started a weekly look at the college football landscape, plus a few personal observations and some travel adventures. I didn’t go anywhere this week except Owen Field, so that will have to wait. The football will not.
BIGGEST WINNERS FROM WEEK 1:
10. Jim Harbaugh: The old Colt quarterback is becoming a heck of a coach. His second Stanford team beat Oregon State 36-28. Prediction: Harbaught eventually will join his brother, John, as an NFL head coach.
9. Neutral sites: The two biggest games of the day were played off campus. Missouri-Illinois in St. Louis and Alabama-Clemson in Atlanta. We’re going to see more of this, not less. Sorry, E.Z. Million. 8. Oklahoma State: Cowboys popped Washington State 39-13 in Seattle, and suddenly OSU’s season outlook improves. Eight wins doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
7. Mark Sanchez: The USC quarterback completed 26 of 35 passes for 338 yards and three TDs on a far tougher stage than most big-time quarterbacks Saturday — at Virginia.
6. Turner Gill: The Buffalo U. coach narrowly missed out on getting hired at Nebraska, and Gill keeps showing he can produce. His previously-awful program continues to improve. It beat UTEP and old fox Mike Price 42-17.
5. Kevin Craft: The third-team UCLA quarterback, handed the reins because of preseason injuries, threw four first-half interceptions but hung in there and led a 27-24 overtime upset of Tennessee.
4. Sun Belt Conference: The most beleaguered league in college football had another miserable record, going 1-5 in non-conference games, but that one win was memorable. Arkansas State upset Texas A&M 18-14, spoiling Mike Sherman’s debut as the Aggie coach and giving the Sun Belt some notches in its belt not supplied by Troy.
3. Skip Holtz: Lou’s son left his first head-coaching spot, UConn, to be his dad’s aide at South Carolina. Skip probably thought he would take over the Gamecocks; instead Steve Spurrier got that job and Skip settled for East Carolina. But a 27-22 upset of Virginia Tech gives Skip a 21-17 record at East Carolina and a 54-40 record overall. Some school will come after Skip Holtz. 2. Nick Saban: The Alabama coach isn’t all that popular. A guy from Bama told me the other day he hopes Saban doesn’t die, because they’d have a tough time finding six men to be pallbearers. But Saban is a heck of a college coach. His Crimson Tide spanked Clemson 34-10.1. Mid-majors: Two teams staked an early claim for being the 2008 version of Boise State or Hawaii. Utah went to the Big House and beat Michigan 25-23. Not a huge upset, but surprising, and enjoyable, for those of us off the Rich Rodriguez bandwagon. And Fresno State went to Rutgers and won 24-7. This month, Fresno hosts Wisconsin and goes to UCLA. Don’t rule out Fresno State winning both.
GOOD EATS
I’ve sort of made it a tradition during football season that when I’m not on the road, I like to take the family down to Campus Corner in Norman for dinner on Friday night. It’s always a good atmosphere, because there’s always energy and a buzz. Gets me in the mood for Game Day. Well, Friday night, my nephew, who is working on his Ph.D. in Chicago, flew in for a surprise visit and asked for the whole family to get together. He wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse.
Texas Roadhouse has excellent food, but when you’re talking about a large gathering, it’s a terrible place to dine. Way too loud. So I ate about 15 great hot rolls and a steak kabob, then let the music and racket rattle my brains for 90 minutes.
This Friday: Campus Corner.
TEN BIG LOSERS FROM WEEK 1
10. Hawaii: The Rainbows lost 56-10 at Florida, this coming off a 41-10 Sugar Bowl loss to Georgia. Good thing Hawaii doesn’t play Tennessee next week. 9. Northern Illinois: The Mid-American Conference Huskies lost to Minnesota 31-27 on a touchdown scored with 22 seconds left. MAC victories over a Big Ten foe are rare; take advantage when you can.8. Chuck Long: The affable ex-Sooner coordinator faces another long year at San Diego State, after a 29-27 loss to I-AA Cal Poly. Long is 7-18 with the Aztecs.
7. Competitive games: 70 Division I-A games were played in Week 1; more than half, 36, were decided by at least 25 points. Only 14 of the 70 were decided by single digits. 6. Sylvester Croom: The Mississippi State coach was a 2007 star, taking the Bulldogs to the Liberty Bowl and beating Nick Saban en route. But Miss. State lost 22-14 at Louisiana Tech, and suddenly, Croom’s alma mater, Alabama, no longer wishes it had hired Croom.
5. Tyrone Willingham: He looked like Dead Coach Walking in Washington’s 44-10 loss at Oregon. Willingham almost got fired after last season. He’s going to need some big upsets (OU?) to save his job.
4. Steve Kragthorpe: Wonder if Kragthorpe misses Tulsa? He was a disappointing 6-6 last year, after taking over a program that was 12-1 with an Orange Bowl victory the season before. Now comes a 27-2 loss to arch-rival Kentucky.
3. ACC: Discounting victories over I-AA foes, the Atlantic Coast Conference went 2-4 in Week 1. Boston College beat Kent State and Wake Forest beat Baylor. But South Carolina routed N.C. State 34-0. Bama rolled Clemson. USC throttled Virginia. And East Carolina upset V-Tech. The ACC will challenge the Big East as the worst conference. They make the Big Ten look good.
2. Big East: Quite possibly the worst day in any league’s history. The Big East went 0-4 against foes outside of Division I-AA. Kentucky embarrassed Louisville 27-2. Fresno State spanked Rutgers 24-7. Pitt lost to a Mid-American Conference school. And Northwestern routed Syracuse 30-10. 1. Dave Wannstedt: Pitt’s 27-17 loss to Bowling Green signals what figures to be Wannstedt’s final season coaching his hometown university. The last time Bowling Green took the field, it lost 63-7 to Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl.
