Oklahoma All-State Games: Not what they used to be
The Oklahoma All-State football game is tonight at Tulsa Union, and the all-state games aren’t what they once were.
Big crowds and all the state’s best athletes once were staples of the all-state games. No more. Now, many of the state’s best — particularly in football — bypass the all-state games, getting ready for college. And the Oklahoma Coaches Association watered down the event with expansion, creating two games per sport — large school and small school — in all but football.
The expansion allowed more kids to participate in all-state week. But it also took away much of the drama and glamor from the games. In basketball, for instance, no longer did Ryan Minor or Chianti Roberts or Bryant Reeves play against the Class 5A and 6A athletes. We eventually learned, of course, that they could more than hold their own against anybody in America. But the all-state game would have been a fantastic test case that would have drawn huge interest.
Now the all-state games are mostly an afterthought. Times have changed, and even had the games not expanded and were even the best players all playing, all-state week would be more quaint. Sports fans have more to do, more to follow, and the only high school all-star games that can capture the public fancy is a national event like the McDonald’s All-Star Game.
Thanks, Bill Snyder
Kansas State coach Bill Snyder singled me out Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days. In a good way.
The K-State coach legend – legend might be the wrong word; mythic or messiah might be more fitting — has returned to the job after three years retired. It was good to see him back. He’s not the most interesting coach around or the most quotable or the gregarious. But he has accomplished the most.
Anyway, back in 2001, The Oklahoman produced a project in which we debated the greatest college coaches of all time. Several staff members made their case for a candidate. I made the case for Snyder, and we played it up big. I think it was a Mount Rushmore look, with Snyder’s face front and center.
Anyway, I called him the greatest coach of all time, and in January 2003 — about 16 months later — I helped introduce him at OKC’s Thorpe Award banquet, after Kansas State’s Terence Newman won the trophy. Snyder took the podium and, before presenting Newman, said I was his favorite sportswriter of all time, that he had seen the story and couldn’t believe an Oklahoman would give him that kind of honor and credit.
Anyway, he was back Wednesday, and I asked him a question from the floor along the lines of how he might do in a second go-round, considering most coaches who had tried such a plan had generally failed.
Snyder started to answer, then said, “Berry, by the way, I don’t know if I ever told you face to face. You wrote one of my most famous articles ever that I really appreciate. It’s the only one I’ve ever given to my children. I appreciate that a great deal. A long time ago.”
I appreciated Snyder saying so, and what makes it even more flabbergasting is how rare is such a public statement. When you think about it, most of the stuff written about coaches and athletes is positive. Overwhelmingly positive. Most of it flattering, some of it glorification and occasionally very well done.
And we never hear about it. We hear the complaints and the bitching and we don’t even think twice about it. That’s just the way it goes.
When someone thanks you for what you’ve produced, it’s totally disarming. Now I understand why curveballs still freeze major-league hitters. If you don’t expect it, you can’t react.
Anyway, here’s the web address for what I wrote back in 2001:
http://www.newsok.com/the-bill-snyder-lovefest-resumes/article/2756662?custom_click=lead_story_title
Soar or crash in this K-State revival, I won’t change my mind about Bill Snyder. What he accomplished at Kansas State, the Manhattan Miracle, is the greatest college football story ever told.
I would have been pulling for him anyway. Even without the curveball.
Gresham vows silence
OU tight end Jermaine Gresham attended Big 12 Media Days on Tuesday and was engaging. But he also said this would be the final time he talked to the media all season.
Gresham is upset that news of his arrest warrant went public. Gresham was issued a citation for failure to wear a seat belt and failed to pay the ticket or post a bond. So a warrant was issued.
Several media reported the incident after Gresham was arrested — not when he received the original ticket, who cares? — including The Oklahoman. Gresham was particularly upset with newsok.com, The Oklahoman’s website, though no one is real sure why.
Anyway, we’ll see if Gresham keeps his silence. He’s very capable. Gresham is the guy who didn’t even come out on the field for Media Day at the BCS national championship game. So he may very well have spoken for the last time as a Sooner.
A&M, ISU paying the price
Irony filled Big 12 Media Days on Monday. Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman was followed to the podium by Iowa State’s Paul Rhoads.
Two schools paying the price for goofy decisions.
After the 2002 season, A&M decided R.C. Slocum had coached the Aggies long enough. Slocum in 14 seasons went 123-47-2 with no losing seasons. A&M played solid defense, oft-boring offense and routinely beat Texas and Oklahoma.
In the six years since, A&M is 36-36. The Aggies already have fired Dennis Franchione, who went 32-28 in five forgettable years, and now have turned to Sherman, whose second Aggie squad is picked last in the Big 12 South.
But the Slocum decision appears enlightened compared to Iowa State.
The Cyclones have been to nine bowl games in their history. Five came under Dan McCarney.
McCarney arrived as ISU’s head coach in 1995; he went 13-42 his first five years. And the Cyclones stuck with him. It was one of the great displays of patience ever seen in college football.
And it paid off. Iowa State’s next six seasons included five bowl trips. Iowa State went 9-3 in 2000 and won seven games four of the next five years. But in 2006, Iowa State fell to 4-8 and fired McCarney.
All that goodwill, all that patience, down the drain. I was stunned. If OU had fired Bob Stoops after the bowl loss to Florida, it wouldn’t have been as surprising as Iowa State firing the only coach who established sustained success.
In the Cyclones’ two years under Gene Chizik, they went 3-9 and 2-10. And the prospects under Rhoads don’t seem any brighter.
Two programs. Two disastrous coaching decisions. Two successful coaches fired because they didn’t win enough. Let it be a lesson learned for the rest of the Big 12 and all of college football.
SOS for Bradford or Robinson fans
Big 12 Media Days begin today in Arlington, and we’re starting to work on our special football preview that will be published in August.
And I need some help from fans. We are going to publish an essay, probably 150-200 words, from a Sam Bradford fan and a Zac Robinson fan, on why they love their quarterback.
Ideally, the fan would be a teen-age girl. We’re going to focus on the matinee idol aspect of Bradford’s and Robinson’s ascensions in college football, and both Sam and Zac are popular with the ladies. I met a high school girl a few months ago who is just ga-ga over Bradford, and girls in our office talk about what a dreamboat is Robinson.
So if you’re a young female in love with either quarterback, shoot me a note. Or if you know someone who gets misty-eyed thinking about Bradford or Robinson, have them drop me a line. They might just make our football preview.
Remembering Ricky Bryan
Ricky Bryan died Saturday night, a star-crossed OU football star.
Bryan was plagued by timing. He was a great Sooner who played in a not-so-great period: 1981-83. Other Sooners have suffered the same fate. Carl McAdams, the great linebacker from the early 1960s. Demond Parker, the 1990s halfback phenom. Indian Jack Jacobs, the quarterback extraordinare from the early 1940s.
In fact, of OU’s 35 two-time all-Americans, only three never won a conference title: McAdams, Ralph Neely (1963-64) and Bryan.
Bryan came to OU as a tight end out of Coweta and left as a two-time consensus all-American defensive tackle who ranks just below, but in the same discussion, with Tony Casillas and Lee Roy Selmon. Bryan’s statistics actual outshine those two epic players’, and his pro career was equal to Casillas’, just behind the Hall of Fame standard of Selmon.
In Barry Switzer’s first 13 years as the Sooner coach, he had Selmon, Bryan or Casillas manning the defensive interior in eight seasons. And when Switzer didn’t have those epic players, he had the likes of Reggie Kinlaw or John Goodman or Richard Turner or Keith Gary. I would argue that defensive lineman was OU’s greatest position of the Switzer era, better even than halfback.
Ex-OU recruiting chief Scott Hill told me a story once about Proposition 48, the landmark NCAA legislation that established entrance requirements for scholarship players. Prop 48 was enacted in 1983. Hill said that if the rule had been in effect when Bryan came out of Coweta, he would have been ineligible. Yet Bryan became a two-time all-Big Eight academic selection.
Bryan’s brothers, Steve and Mitch, also played at OU. Steve was a starting DT on the 1985 national title team. The list is short of Sooner brothers more decorated: the Selmons, the Burrises, the Owenses.
When left the NFL after 10 years, he returned to Coweta and raised a family on his 1,000-acre ranch and farm. He was a big ol’ country boy who could play football and play it well.
How well? Rick Bryan can be mentioned in the same breath as Lee Roy Selmon and Tony Casillas, which in Sooner lore is as high of praise as can be offered.
Emails in on OU defense & coaches poll
The new emails are in, and we’re talking about the coaches vote and OU’s defense.
James wrote about my column concerning the OU defense: “Sorry, Berry, but giving up 35 points to K-State, 31 to Kansas, 28 to Nebraska and A&M and 41 to OSU is not a great defense. Texas held OSU to 24 points, Kansas to seven and A&M to nine. Also, I agree that talent-wise we have an opportunity to be great on defense at all positions except for one: defensive coordinator.”
Kansas State had 17 offensive possessions against OU. OSU had eight offensive possessions against Texas. Do the math. Really, folks. Is it this hard to figure out? I’m not saying OU’s defense in 2008 was Selmon-level. I’m just saying you have to look past the raw scoreboard, or you’re branding yourself a football lightweight.
Jimmy: “The fact is that Venables should have been replaced years ago. We’re 0-5 in BCS bowl games under him. That’s unacceptable when you’re Oklahoma. Big-time programs fire assistants all the time. Mack Brown started winning when he hired great defensive coordinators like Chizik and Muschamp. We all want Mike Stoops back, but there’s a lot of great defensive coordinators out there we could go after. Bo Pelini would have been great, but Bob ran him off to LSU and he helped them win a championship. I guess Venables has been with Stoops so long that he’s like a son to him and he can’t fire him. I don’t know.”
You know, we talk all the time about how OU has returned to the penthouse under Stoops. But we don’t talk about WHY Stoops has been successful. If I ranked all the reasons why Stoops has been such a terrific success, I would put staff stability in the top three reasons. Maybe the top two. Stoops hires coaches he believes in, and they believe in him, and never once has that trust been compromised by the cowardly act of making a scapegoat of someone. Brent Venables’ defense has on occasion been lit up. His defense also shut out Vince Young in 2004. His defense also puts the lid virtually every year on Mike Leach. His defense gave OU a chance to beat Florida, but the offense failed. If you can’t stand losing, get out of the game, because it happens to the best of them. And by the way, Mack Brown didn’t fire anyone to make room for Gene Chizik. Greg Robinson left UT to take the Syracuse job.
Roland: “It seems that OU will be much better defensively. However, I have one remaining concern that will likely not be answered until the season starts: the OU kickoff team. Last year was one of the worst seasons I have experienced watching the ineptitude of the kickoff team. I never saw an OU team give up that many yards on kickoffs before in any season. In many cases, that is what lead to the defensive problems because of the amount of yards the kickoff team gave to opponents, placing the defense in a hole to begin with. I really hope Stoops and his staff come up with players that will limit the amount of yards the other teams get on kickoff returns. I think that would help the defense immensely.”
Excellent point. We all focused on all those touchdowns returned on kickoffs last year. But what about the times the Sooners finally dragged down the guy at midfield or past? OU’s kick coverage last season was a joke.
Jason: “I like your stats on defensive efficiency. It reminded me on a stat I wish they would change — red zone efficiency. The way they calculate it now is goofy; either you score or you don’t. Never mind that if you score a touchdown and kick the extra point you’ll have more points with 50 percent red zone efficiency than if you kick all field goals and have 100 percent efficiency. I think they should show an average points per red zone trip. For example: if you score two RZ touchdowns and make both extra points, a field goal and fail to score once, your number would be 4.25. If you get three field goals and one touchdown and an extra point your number would be 4.0. I still think it matters more how many times you get in the red zone, but I think this would be more useful than what they use now. ”
I agree. That’s why my defensive efficiency counts TDs as one and field goals as a half. Truth is, you don’t win in college football with field goals. This isn’t the NFL.
Isaiah: “As an OU fan, I’m curious if you think Bob Stoops will put more pressure on himself and his staff/team to try to win another Big 12 championship or national championship. This could possibly be the last year that he has both coordinators, Wilson and Venables, and a host of star players destined for the NFL. It looks like Bob could be facing a large rebuilding process if some or all leave after this coming season.”
Oh, the Sooners won’t be as good in 2010, no doubt about that. But there’s no possible way Stoops could put more pressure on himself and his staff and his team. I think all coaches at the elite levels of sport produce maximum pressure. But every game must have a winner and a loser.
Greg wrote about OU scheduling. “Add me to the list of enjoying you say, ‘play Army.’ I have a lot of USMA grads as friends, and they don’t understand the AD’s reluctance to play OU or go to Norman following. In fact, most would rather play us than Notre Dame because Stoops and our state have a lot better street cred than going to South Bend, who most believe has nothing in mind, but attempting to reconstruct their lost reputation on running up the score. They actually comment Stoops is like a general who only saves pastings for assholes and UT. Given the fact he cleaned the bench on both sides of the ball at Colorado Springs a few years back, I tend to agree. For that matter, I would like to play Navy at Annapolis. Trip to D.C. on Thursday, stay in Annapolis area, eat and drink around old harbor area, go to their museum. Real cool.”
Covering games at West Point and Annapolis are on my bucket list. Let me rephrase. Covering games at West Point and Annapolis are at the top of my bucket list.
Let’s move on to the coaches vote and the SEC flap concerning Steve Spurrier. Tom: “I agree with you that the coaches poll is a joke. Spurrier, in his defense, has come out saying the vote should be public. It was ironic that the media demanded to know who would possibly think Tebow was not all-SEC – to this I think Spurrier is innocent. Do you think the media will demand the coaches ballot for every coach at the end of the season to determine the BCS? Probably not. The Spurrier incident does illustrate the lack of credibility of the Coaches Poll; however, secret ballot takes it off the charts. I emailed Grant Teaff with no response weeks ago. The problem is that the AFCA went to Gallup for advice. Gallup runs a bunch of polls that are based on samples and in most cases, anonymity provides an open response. Problem is that the Coaches Poll is NOT a sample but rather a panel that Gallup does not have experience with. The same group of people vote over and over again, so it is certainly not a random sample. The panel has inherent bias because of how it is handled and the relationships among the panel members. For instance, the Stoops coaching tree would produce Leach, Mangino, Sumlin and Mike Stoops or the Bobby Bowden coaching tree would produce something similar. You have conference relationships and bias. Finally, you have the worst possible scenario, voting to improve the chances of your own team with regard to the BCS and the Big Money (Mack Brown last year had the opportunity). The only thing that keeps the coaches honest is public scrutiny. Anonymity does not solve this bias problem but rather enhances its effect because the coaches know that they have cover for their manipulations. Reality is the secret vote gives us what we really distain in the United States, the possibility of corruption. A second recommendation from the Gallup organization was to reduce the number of teams voted on to ten. This will create distance between teams with its impreciseness but it will also allow a coach to really punish another team by leaving them off of the ballot. You hit the nail on the head in your article. Can you imagine the public’s response to NOT KNOWING how their elected official voted at either the State or Federal level? Their public votes are at the heart of the American Democracy. Those bodies are panels just like the coaches voting in the coaches poll.”
Tom, you’re exactly right about Gallup. Frankly, I don’t see the coaches vote surviving much longer. I think we’re headed to committee. And by the way. If you just scan these emails and don’t read the long ones, go back and read Tom’s. It’s full of great insight.
Brian: “I don’t understand why the national media and SEC writers are mad and/or shocked that Tim Tebow isn’t a unanimous all-SEC preseason selection. Who cares? It’s a preseason list. Besides, where is it written that Tebow is supposed to be a unanimous pick? Most media want coaches to have opinions and then act shocked when they actually give that opinion via a poll or player ranking.”
Well said. It’s like what I wrote in my Saturday column. We have lost the ability to honor someone when we place values on to what extent they are honored. For instance, in some baseball Hall of Fame voting totals, the story is not that, for instance, Cal Ripken gets in, but the story becomes who didn’t vote for him? If Jevan Snead is voted onto the team ahead of Tebow, that’s a story. If Snead gets one vote, that’s not an outrage. It’s interesting, but it’s not an outrage.
Tracy wrote about the Ben Roethlisberger lawsuit: “Can you tell me the reason why ESPN has barely mentioned the Ben Roethlisberger case in Las Vegas? Given their enthusiasm for all things Michael Vick, PacMan Jones, T.O. or Kobe Bryant, does the lack of attention to the allegations against Roethlisberger smack of racial bias, or at the least, favoritism?”
I truthfully don’t spend a lot of time with ESPN television, so I can’t verify how much they’ve ignored Big Ben. And the Owens, Vick and PacMan cases aren’t similar. But Kobe and Big Ben allegations are very similar, and if ESPN has largely ignored one and not the other, it has, to quote Sen. Tom Coburn, “some ’splainin’ to do.”
Evan wrote about Jamelle Holieway: “Good call on your thumbs down on Holieway. Let’s hope that some establishment on campus corner in Norman doesn’t put him on their roster for an autograph session on game day this fall. That’s happened in the past on several occasions after a couple of DUIs.”
Oh, Holieway always will be popular on the memorabilia circuit. He’s a legendary name, and he’s a charming guy to be around. Not arrogant. But he’s got some problems, obviously, and he’s squandering what was a wonderful setup for life.
Terry wrote about the eternal high school debate: “I graduated from Burns Flat in 1972. We were in class B 11-man football and you had to win your district in order to advance in the playoffs. We finished second, so by Thanksgiving we were playing basketball. Today, it seems that at least 50 percent of teams advance to the playoffs and there are way too many classes. There is no shame in doing your best but accepting the fact that only a select few advance and contend for championships.”
You’ve nailed it. The truth about the private school rise is that they started winning a lot more championships when the classes became bloated. Everyone thinks they have a divine right to a gold ball. Ridiculous.
Chad wrote about the British Open: “I was at work Sunday when Tom Watson’s approach shot skidded off the 18th green and settled into that horrible lie. After Tom putted out and with a playoff certain, I thought it best to drive home. On the car radio there was a debate raging on ESPN as to whether golf is a sport. The condemning argument held that if someone Tom Watson’s age could win a major, then it wasn’t sport at all. Not one of the people lined up on hold waiting to make a comment even thought to bring up Jack’s charge and victory at the 1986 Masters. Not one caller remembered Faldo’s apology to Greg Norman after Greg’s collapse in the final round at Augusta, or Payne Stewart clenching Phil’s face with the truth about “life” as Phil stood shocked by defeat at Pinehurst. Ultimately the callers didn’t know much about golf either. Had they, at least one caller might have commented on the pickle Tom Watson’s 8-iron approach shot to the 18th green put him in. They just wanted to weigh in on golf being a non-sport. Is the debate put to rest with the eventual winner? Well at least he’s younger, but you have to feel for Stewart Cink. There is always the challenge of sportsmanship within a non sport. He won an unsuspenseful playoff and the raising of his arms in victory seemed both unnecessary and required at the same time.”
I long ago grew tired of the is-golf-a-sport debate. Or is-NASCAR-a-sport. There are all kinds of sports. Some require great speed and strength. Some require great skill. Some require both. People who engage in such debates are of limited imagination. They can’t think of anything else to say.
Historic day for Josh Fields
Thursday was quite a day for ex-OSU baseball star (and quarterback) Josh Fields. He hit a grand slam in the White Sox’ 5-0 victory over Tampa Bay, and teammate Mark Buehrle threw the 20th perfect game in baseball history.
Never before in baseball history has a player hit a bases-loaded home run in the same game in which his teammate pitched a perfect game.
Something a little strange is going on with perfect games. From 1880 through 1980, baseball had 10 perfect games. That’s 10 in 101 years. Now baseball has had 10 more in 29 years.
It’s kooky. Baseball didn’t have a perfect game between 1922 and 1956 (Don Larsen’s World Series masterpiece), and you could sort of see why. The 1920s and 1930s were an offensive era; hard to throw a perfect game when entire teams were hitting .300.
Perfect games rebounded in the 1960s with three (Jim Bunning ‘64, Sandy Koufax ‘65, Catfish Hunter ‘68), then the 1970s produced none.
But in 1981, not long before the start of another offensive explosion, Len Barker threw a perfect game. He was followed by Mike Witt in 1984, Tom Browning in 1988, Dennis Martinez in 1991, Kenny Rogers in 1994, Pedro Martinez in 1995, David Wells in 1998, David Cone in 1999, Randy Johnson in 2004 and now Buehrle.
1987 started an offensive explosion, so we’ve had eight perfect games in the 23 seasons since.
Of course, this offensive explosion is different from the ’20s and ’30s. No great spike in batting average. Lots more free swinging and strikeouts. Maybe that explains the increased perfect games. If guys today aren’t hitting home runs, they’re making outs. That’s over-simplification, but it’s as easy as ever to get batters out. But when you don’t get them out, you pay a heavier price.
By the way, when I count perfect games, I count Harvey Haddix in 1959 and Pedro Martinez in 1995. Both were perfect through nine; Martinez lost his perfect game in the 10th inning, Haddix in the 13th. For the purposes of this discussion (and really, any others), those were perfect games.
World ends: I’m on Twitter
I have gone to the dark side. I’ve jumped the shark. I’ve begun twittering. Or is it tweeting? I better get that right or I’ll be kicked out of the runaway thumb club.
I signed up for Twitter because my bosses thought it would be a good thing, so here goes. I’m going to Twitter. I’m going to pound out a few thoughts every day, hopefully all of it interesting and none of it about routine daily activities.
I can see how it could be engaging. Like during the British Open, I could have tweeted all kinds of thoughts. How cool was Turnberry, which is so unlike many British Open courses. Whatever happened to Steve Marino, who we never even saw on Sunday?
Or the Big 12 football media days, which commence next week in Arlington. Let people know what Mack Brown just said, or Bob Stoops’ reaction to a certain question, or what Mike Leach is rambling about.
During ballgames, it can be very useful. Easier than blogging and easier to retrieve, I suppose.
I will deviate from sports on a couple of fronts. I love to read and write about restaurants, so I’ll probably do some of that. And I love to read and write about travel, so when I break away for a few days, to Arlington or Texas or Key West, I’ll let you know what I’m seeing.
But anyway, it should be fun. If you want to follow me, here is the link:
http://twitter.com/berrytramel
See you on twitter and all the other places we seem to congregate these days.
Another sad chapter for Holieway
On a hot Sunday in June, I spent more than two hours with Jamelle Holieway and a couple hundred of our closest friends, tucked into the tiny Sooner Schooner store on Lindsey Street in Norman.
Assembled was a remarkable collection of OU football heroes: the Sooners’ five national championship quarterbacks, together for a book-signing. Actually, all five never were together — Jimmy Harris had to leave for a plane before Josh Heupel arrived from his football camp. But the persistent fan could get autographs from all five: Claude Arnold (1950), Harris (1955-56), Steve Davis (1974-75), Holieway (1985) and Heupel (2000).
Of the five, I’d only dined with one. Holieway. In January 1985, I accompanied OU recruiting coordinator Scott Hill on a whirlwind, week-long trip, capped by a Thursday night dinner with an OU booster and Holieway, then a high school senior at Banning High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Wilmington. One of the two or three times I’ve ever eaten lobster.
You know the rest. Less than a year later, Holieway quarterbacked the Sooners to a 25-10 Orange Bowl victory over Penn State and placed himself into college football lore, as a true freshman who led a national championship team. Holieway was a landmark QB, his career short-circuited by a horrific knee injury in 1987 against Oklahoma State, but always remembered as the optioneer who took over for Troy Aikman in that magic year of 1985.
In the years that followed, Holieway seemed to struggle. Run-ins with the law. Traffic fines, minor drug offenses, just sort of a wayward existence.
But on that hot June day, Holieway could not have been more accommodating. He was charming with the fans, even working the line to get autographs rather than sitting at the table waiting. Holieway was deferential to the other title-winning quarterbacks. I enjoyed chatting with Holieway. I think I was like a lot of people that day who hoped that maybe Holieway had turned around his life.
Then came word Tuesday that Holieway and a female companion had been arrested Sunday in McAlester, where he has been living, on a complaint of shoplifting from a Wal-Mart. They also had outstanding warrants and were taken to the Pittsburg County Jail, where they posted bail.
It made me sad. I see all the OU football players who used their college football careers as a springboard to a productive, fruitful life. Dewey Selmon and Steve Owens and J.C. Watts and hundreds of others, including quarterbacks named Arnold, Harris, Davis and Heupel.
I don’t know why Holieway hasn’t grown up, why he hasn’t been able to take command of his life. Even Charles Thompson, Holieway’s old teammate, who wrote a scathing autobiography about their old shenanigans and who ended up in federal prison for drug trafficking, seems to have produced a productive life.
Holieway isn’t a young man anymore. He turned 42 a couple of weeks after that autograph signing. He’s got a name that still resonates with a good many Oklahomans. He still can do something with his life. But the clock is ticking.
