Emails in on OU, OSU quarterback rankings
The new emails are in, and readers talked about my rankings of the greatest OU and OSU quarterbacks.
Bill: “Steve Davis not in the top 10 OU quarterbacks? 32-1-1 and two national championships, plus the 35-10 buttwhipping of Nebraska in the ’75 showdown? Try to be a little serious.
Whenever someone tells me who to put on a list, but then doesn’t offer a suggestion on who to take out, they have joined the likes of Dick Vitale. Who is anything but serious.
John: “Nice piece on Sam. But how can any OU quarterback be judged by his record without taking into consideration the quality of the teams they played such as Texas up and down and the same with Nebraska. Opposition coaches also should be considered with the likes of Darrell Royal and Tom Osborne. Maybe the BCS geniuses can figure out the major criteria using a computer.”
Don’t laugh. Computers couldn’t hurt. But Texas’ primary down times – 1950s, 1980s, 1990s – really only correlate with two or three OU quarterbacks. Jimmy Harris. Jamelle Holieway. That’s about it. All the others went against prime Longhorn beef, and outside the ’50s, there always are great conference foes, be it Nebraska or someone else.
David: “I recently conducted a survey on four OSU message boards about the expectations for this season. I also happened to ask who was the best QB and WR in OSU history (I understand your point about Thurman having a better career than Barry Sanders, but it would be hard to argue that he was a better running back). As you might expect, most people voted for Zac and Dez. I was too young to remember how good Hart Lee Dykes was, but I think people tend for forget how good Rashaun Woods was. He set a bunch of Big 12 records, but he’s mostly remembered for his two great Bedlam performances.”
Do you realize that to this point, Mike Gundy has quarterbacked almost twice as many games as Zac Robinson? And quarterbacked two 10-win seasons? And set Big Eight passing records? The question is not who is the greatest quarterback in Cowboy history. The question is, can Robinson somehow catch Gundy?
Now, on to some other football items. James: I am an OU fan but truly think OSU will run the table this year and win not only the Big 12 South but the title. They have three of the best skilled people in the nation in Robinson, Hunter and Bryant. Look for the Pokes to blow out Georgia, then they’re in the hunt. They could easily knock off the Sooners in Norman, and I think they’ll upset UT.”
Knock off OU? Maybe. Easily knock off the Sooners, who have lost twice at home in Bob Stoops’ 10 years? Nothing easy about it.
Henry is one of those readers who has to find reasons for defeat other than just getting beat: “Everyone claims that the Big 12 is a better league and more fun to watch since it went to the spread passing game. I say the Big 12 is more like the Mountain West, WAC and Pac-10 of decades past. How many national titles did those leagues actually win? Well, there was Washington in 1991 (and Don James was one of the few Pac-10 coaches that emphasized running the ball and playing defense) and the nonsense of BYU getting picked over Florida in 1984. The Big 12 is getting more like that. It has won two national titles this decade, one of those 13-2 over FSU back when Oklahoma actually used to have a dominating defense (remember those days?) and the other was Vince Young running the option at Texas. That is a far cry from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s when Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Colorado won as many titles as anyone. You probably are the only one on the planet who didn’t enjoy Nebraska rolling up 62 points on Florida in 1994. The idea that run-oriented offenses are boring is absurd. If you are scoring points, it doesn’t matter how they are scored. And watching Oklahoma lose over and over again in title games (and increasingly in matchups against Texas) certainly isn’t fun. Back when Miami dominated Nebraska and Oklahoma a couple of times in bowl games in the 1980s, the football world claimed that the option was dead, outdated and that the Big Eight needed to go with the passing game. But now the Big 12 – and Oklahoma in particular – is playing so poorly in big games, and everyone is talking about how fun it is to watch and how many records Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy are going to set? It should be Big 12 teams doing what Florida did with Chris Leak and Tim Tebow in 2006 and Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin in 2008. It should have been Big 12 teams doing what Arkansas did with the wildcat in 2006. A Big 12 team should have been able to recruit Terrelle Pryor from that mind-numbing Ohio State program, or gotten Russell Shepard away from LSU (where they are going to use him as a combination Tebow/Harvin player). And a Big 12 team ought to be running the offense that Oregon does, or running Penn State’s ‘spread HD.’ And Minnesota and Michigan are putting in versions of that offense as well). For all the talk about how ‘exciting’ the Big 12 offenses are, the actual innovation is going on in other conferences. Really, all the Big 12 is doing is running what Hal Mumme was running at Kentucky and Joe Tiller was running at Purdue in the mid 1990s. It isn’t new, it isn’t exciting and most importantly it doesn’t win championships.”
Do you see what happens to your brain when you make excuses. You become pathetic. I don’t pathetic as in ridiculous. I mean pathetic as in to be pitied. Henry obviously is a college football fan who follows the sport but who gone cuckoo. His team hasn’t won a title, so there has to be a reason. Someone is doing something wrong. When a fan reaches that stage, it’s time to leave the sport. Time to take up gardening or hunting or garage-saleing. Football isn’t working anymore. The idea that the Big 12 isn’t innovative is absurd – both OU and Texas won national titles with offenses that were cutting edge at the time and soon copied by scores of other programs, the Mike Leach spread in 2000 and the shotgun option in 2005. The idea that the Big 12 hasn’t won its share of national titles this decade is absurd – two out of nine is about what you’d expect. There are five major conferences, so if it’s spread around, which it almost always is, that’s 20 percent. The Big 12 has won 22 percent. The SEC happens to have won four of the last six but won just one of the previous six. That’s the way life goes.
Josh is a worried OSU fan: “I found some interesting stats. Most of which do not favor us. Just saying. No matter how you spin Georgia’s road record, it is impressive. If we win Saturday, this will be the biggest win of the Gundy era to date without question. Huge, huge, huge game. Georgia enters the week as a six-point underdog on the road. It is only the 10th time they have been underdogs on the road in the Mark Richt era. So that 30-4 record may be somewhat deceiving considering Georgia was the pick to win in 24 of the games. However, that is taking nothing away from that because that is very impressive considering those road games include the following: Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, Alabama, Auburn, LSU, and Clemson. Last season’s trip to LSU was listed as a pick’em. Georgia beat LSU 52-38. The six-point spread this week is the third-largest point spread against Georgia on the road. The others were a pair of 11-point spreads (at No. 11 Tennessee in 2001 and at No. 5 Auburn in 2006). Georgia won both games. This will be the 13th time in the Richt era Georgia faces a ranked team on the road. UGA has been an underdog in eight of those games, including one pick’em (LSU). UGA’s record in the previous 12: 10-2. UGA’s record as an underdog in those games: 6-2.”
Josh, you need to go lie down and rest up. It’s going to be a long week if you let numbers take over your inner-most being.
Bill wrote about my suggestion for a Bedlam All-College: “I think your All-College is a step in the right direction but would in my thinking dilute the thrill of the first conference Bedlam game. I have thought for some time that a classic between the four state schools would be a great draw. That is ORU vs. OU and TU vs. OSU and flip flop the next year. The ADs at the four schools all agree to split the profit four ways. If successful for a couple years, pull a two-nighter and switch opponents, with one night in OKC and one night in T town.”
Settling for an OU-ORU-OSU-Tulsa doubleheader instead of Bedlam is like a Sunday afternoon at Lake Hefner. Perfectly enjoyable, but let’s not pretend we’re on the Oregon coast.
Brian: “Is this the worst All College lineup? OSU/La Salle and OU/El Paso? What happened to having a marquee game?”
This All-College isn’t marquee, but the basketball isn’t bad. La Salle is pretty good, and UTEP is better than that. There have been a lot worse All-Colleges. I mean, is LaSalle/UTEP all that much worse than Rhode Island/Virginia Commonwealth?
And finally, Shannon: “You know what the best thing about America is? We could take any player of off any international team in the Little League World Series, place them on our team and they would not look out of place. We are not without flaws as a country, but that fundamental is still there.”
Well said. Get rid of the Little League World Series and we’re darn near perfect.
-------------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.
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“I am an OU fan but truly think OSU will run the table this year and win not only the Big 12 South but the title…They could easily knock off the Sooners in Norman…”
Hmmm, doesn’t sound like a Sooner fan to me. Why does the DOK even promote this BS?