Emails in on Sooners, Cowboys, Jordan & Peterson

The new emails are in, and we’re talking all sorts of cool stuff. Adrian Peterson and Michael Jordan. Coaching shortcomings in Stillwater and Norman. Quarterbacks and strategy. Let’s get right to it.

Corby: “Hey, Berry, you looked great with that funny mustache in the video the other day. I think you should try that thing on for size full-time.”

It would take me 16 years to grow something like that.

Bill: “I am prompted to write by your blog nominating Jimmy Brown as the greatest all time NFL running back and your opinion/hope that Adrian might equal or surpass him. I agree with all you said. However, what really moved me was the realization that I may be one of the few (possibly only) people who personally witnessed Jimmy and Adrian’s first college football games. In the fall of 1954, I was a freshman at Cornell when we played Syracuse in an early season game. Syracuse’s regular starting halfback up until that game had been a guy named Mickey Rich (a two or three year starter, as I recall). I can’t remember if he got hurt (I think he did) or if Jimmy just beat him out, but Jimmy started and played and was sensational. He was a sophomore (no freshman on varsity in those days) and my recollection is that he was never out of the starting lineup again. My wife and I have had season tickets for OU continuously since 1980. Adrian came in with lots of advance pub, and Gail and I were in the stands when he played his first game (and for every other game he played). We hope that Adrian gets to fulfill his promise. By the by, did you know that Jimmy was a four-letter man at Syracuse (football, basketball, track and lacrosse). He used to never come out for basketball until football season was over, but one year I remember that even with the short season he led the team (Syracuse) in rebounds. He was very good.”

Jimmy Brown played basketball? Jimmy Brown played basketball at Syracuse? The lacrosse, I knew about. But basketball? Let’s see Barry Sanders or Adrian Peterson top that.

Keesee wrote about OSU-Houston: “The Houston people are rejoicing after their win in Stillwater. Acknowledge they were lucky, but really feel that it was a breakout win. Now, they want a statement game. And that is Texas Tech on the 26th in 32,000-seat Robertson Stadium on the east side of downtown Houston. Cougars have an off date this weekend. Tech plays Texas in Austin this Saturday. I look for a very physical loss for the Red Raiders. Going in injured and badly beaten to Houston the next week could, as hoped in Houston, be a very decided loss for Tech. If so, the loss by the Cowboys won’t look as bad.”

Houston certainly could run the table. The trouble with the OSU-Houston result was not how bad the loss looks. It doesn’t look all that bad. It was the opportunity that was lost for OSU. A chance to spend most of September and October in the top five?

Todd wrote about my OSU-Houston column: “Biased much? Can’t you give OSU any credit? OK, so they lost one game, so what? The way you write, their season is down the tubes. To remind you; OU did lose a game last week, too. Does that mean their season is over? Every bit of your article in Sunday’s paper read as if to put OSU back in their place; they must be second to OU. Give me a break! I do my best to support both schools in this state, but it is OU fans like you that make that extremely difficult. Next time, why don’t you just keep your worthless drivel to yourself!”

You mean like the final score?

Meanwhile, Paul is an OSU fan who does what most fans do. Try to figure out what went wrong: “In the harsh light of the next morning and a little research it becomes clear that the OSU-Houston game was just a repeat of last year, at least on Houston’s part. They scored almost exactly the same amount of points, (taking away the interception return for TD), they had almost the same yards (little less passing, a little more rushing). OSU’s defense played essentially the same game as last year. It was the OSU offense that kept Houston in the game. I have seen basketball teams come out flat and lay an egg, but usually in football out of 11-plus players, someone steps up. As a fan I hope they improve offensively, but until Zac Robinson returns to himself they will not. This defense was better against Georgia but the same, almost to the yard, as last season against Houston. It was the offense that was 200 plus yards short of last season. Go figure.”

It was an offensive letdown, no doubt about it. Four offensive touchdowns is enough against some teams. Against others, not so much.

Wayne: “I have had time to further reflect on yesterday’s game (and the last couple of seasons) and offer the following. I keep thinking every year that something will be different. Our defense will improve, our play selection will be less than predictable and Gundy will be less than arrogant. If you analyze our performance from yesterday, I believe that we’ve missed on all three counts. OSU football fans dream of a Big 12 title, deep down a national championship, without a doubt we could be as close as we’ll ever be, but all the money in the world (or at least a good chunk, thank you T. Boone!) cannot buy you a championship without: 1. tremendous athletes (I think we have this covered); 2. preparation, practice, conditioning (both mental and physical), and scouting of the opponent. I don’t believe in luck. Hard work on and off the field creates opportunities; it appears that we focus on this as well; 3. rock-solid fundamental coaching (we’ve made improvements, but Gundy’s play calling system is too complex and time consuming. And it doesn’t matter how we get the plays in, if we repeatedly run the ball with less than two minutes to go, fail to compute that it’s a two-possession game … I can go on and on. Have we ever heard of the two-minute drill? Can we call more than one play at a time? Or provide an audible or two? I follow Texas 5A football. I’m a season ticket holder for the Katy Tigers and attend all of the games. They are the current defending state champions (two consecutive years). This football program is built on fundamentals where excellence is a tradition and championships are an outcome. They continue to win because they are balanced. Offense, defense and special teams all contribute to their success, in contrast to OSU’s performance yesterday. Some way say it’s the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle. I may not know a lot about college or high school football, but I believe that there is something that our OSU football program and coaches could learn about winning championships by looking outside of their own experience and arrogance to other very successful programs in college and 5A football. I’m afraid that OSU will continue to sputter, spin, and blunder. Yes, we’ll have winning seasons, but I’m not confident that championships will ever be in reach. I believe that we should be searching for a coach that believes in the KISS principle, that can as a minimum follow the fundamentals of football mathematics, one that can learn from season to season, and one that has the potential to deliver championships. I can arrange an extra ticket to a Katy game for Mike Holder or designate, if they are interested.”

I know, I know. It sounds goofy. But you know what? This is exactly what OSU needs. Passionate fans. Not fans like the joker above who wants the media to give OSU credit when it loses to Houston and squanders a top-five ranking. It needs fans who get mad when the Cowboys close.

Dan: “I noticed watching the game yesterday, twice, Robinson between plays shook his head. The kind of shake like trying to shake out cobwebs or shake off dizziness. The thought occurred that maybe something from last week’s run-in with the wall?”

How about last season’s run-in with Oregon? Robinson hasn’t been the same since.

Josh: “Did you think Gary Gibbs was run out of town way too early? His record was a fairly solid from where he brought the team from. And do you think Bob Stoops could have won a national title with any of the Sooner teams in the ’90s? The ’94 team was stacked with talent. Or the ’99 team if DeMond Parker had been a senior?”

Let me get this straight. You’re saying the 1994 OU team, which finished 6-6, had national championship talent, then you’re asking if Gary Gibbs was run out of town too early. The answer to your questions are these. Stoops could not have won a national title with any of those ’90s teams, and the fans fired Gibbs. No one was buying tickets.

Shlomo wrote about my list of great OU backup quarterbacks: “Landry Jones may well have what it takes. But remember, the others on the list had a supporting cast; they were not out there on their own. Jones has a O-Line that will be suspect until it shows that it can do the job against a real contender. Further, there is a serious question about his receiving corp. The scrimmage against Idaho State featured a number of early catches by Broyles and a bunch by the backs. I know that the weather was bad, but if Jones is going to try to make a living throwing to his backs all day, then he may be in trouble. Good teams are going to see that and defense that. And if the running game gets bottled up… So this may not be so much about Landry Jones as it is about the people around him. And that goes for the D, as well. Charles Thompson managed that game, but the D held Nebraska to one touchdown. Had we needed to score in bunches, Charles Thompson may not have gone down in OU lore; he may just have gone down. This week will tell more.”

I don’t disagree with much of anything Shlomo wrote, other than to point out that beating Nebraska 17-7 in 1987 required a lot more than managing a game from the quarterback. But maybe we should hold off on the Landry Jones bandwagon. He’s played one mediocre half and a full game against Idaho State. Which means we know nothing.

Ralph: “I enjoyed your article on QB backups, but I think that Frank Reich belongs in the story. Did he not win the greatest comeback victories in both the NCAA (with Maryland vs. Miami as Boomer Esiason’s backup) and the NFL (with Buffalo vs. Houston in the playoffs as Jim Kelly’s back-up)? I’m going on memory, not research, so I could be wrong.”

No, Ralph, you’re exactly right. I don’t think Frank Reich fit my story – one-game wonders really isn’t the theme of Landry Jones – but the Reich story is remarkable. The greatest comeback in college and the greatest comeback in the pros both engineered by the same quarterback, and he was a backup in both games? Amazing.

Don: “Good story on the backups today. So how many sports guys do you think are going to know about John Milton?”

Oh, probably more than you think. Al Pacino’s “The Devil’s Advocate” gave Uncle Milton a little shelf life.

Mark: “In your column, you say, ‘God rest his football soul,’ speaking of Eric Mitchel. When did Eric Mitchel pass away? How?”

Eric Mitchel didn’t die. Not so far as I know. His football career died when he got stuck behind Jamelle Holieway.

Kent: “What’s up with Stoops and no comment on Bradford? ‘I’m not going there.’ That sounds like Bill Snyder How many losses will make this a disappointing season?”

I would say one more defeat makes this a disappointing season. I think Stoops just wants to stop all the questions. I don’t much believe in tea leaves.

Bill: “What bothers me and many others is that OU has been placed in the championship game at least once, after losing to KSU in the Big 12 Championship game 35-7, and last year, when Texas beat them head to head and should have been in the game, when they have been undeserving. It’s frustrating. When OU clearly deserves to be in the big game, even I will pull for them to win.”

This quite possibly will become the most tired argument that I have ever had to deal with. Did you read what Bill wrote? That Texas OU clearly deserves to be in the big game… No one from the Big 12 clearly deserved to be in the big game. That’s what happens in a three-way tie. There is no clarity. And using the BCS as the tiebreaker is imminently reasonable. In fact, it’s unreasonable NOT to use the BCS.

Larry, our resident Tech fan: “Was wondering when and where Big 12 officiating assignments are announced. No particular reason, just idle curiosity.”

They aren’t announced in advance. You have to show up at the stadium to find out. Either that or park outside Mack Brown’s house and see who comes over for a steak dinner.

Jim: “Here’s an idea for a question to ask or article to write about: what is the state of the audible in college football or OU in particular? Seems like an experienced and intelligent guy like Sam Bradford (when healthy) could be trusted to audible a lot of plays at the line. If true, that could cut down on all the times when OU lines up, then has to step back to look at the sideline to see the hand signals. Seems like that lets the defense off the hook and negates the advantage of the no-huddle offense. Maybe nobody audibles anymore. It might not work in today’s game, for some reason. Maybe coaches don’t want to surrender that power/privilege. Might not be practical. But it seems like in the past OU quarterbacks have had that option and I don’t know why an elite QB like Sam doesn’t have the green light to call the play at the line. Just curious.”

I think you hit on the head with the power. Coaches don’t want to surrender control.

David: “This morning I wrote you about ‘revenge’ and the ‘Umbrage Wars’ in football. You wrote that it never impacts a game, but here’s the question I’ve come up with for you that gets to the heart of my problem with it. Do you think it contributes to the rampant poor sportsmanship that plagues our games when players and commentators act like it’s the normal thing to take offense to everything? It doesn’t change the game score, but do you think it impacts what are commonly called pre-game or post-game altercations — things that are all too common? Even more, does it contribute to the thing that bugs me most — the incessant demand by college and high school athletes that they be ‘respected’ by their opponents? Respect isn’t something one gets by demanding it, it’s something one earns by actions. And respect of an opponent isn’t the kind that matters most anyway: that would be self-respect. The constant demands for revenge and respect by people in a position to be listened to for good or ill, I worry that it has an impact on something more important than the final score. That’s what bugs me about it.”

The answer to your question is no. This “revenge” stuff is merely a symptom. We have a crisis of spirit in America, which creates symptoms like revenge and all the respect talk. I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know what the cause is. Selfishness, materialism, misplaced priorities. All of which stems from this. Lack of good raising. No home training.

Robert: “I don’t always get the chance to read all of your blogs, but I usually make it a point to do so after an OU loss. You absolutely hit the nail on the head — too many of the OU fans have gotten spoiled and believe it’s their divine right to win every game. You summed it up best in your article: three straight Big 12 titles, six Big 12 titles in nine years and four national title appearances in nine seasons. Fans of virtually every other team would take those numbers even if you told them that they would only win one national title. Like you, I’m also getting tired of hearing about Mike Stoops. The D played plenty well enough to win against BYU. It will be interesting to see how this team handles adversity as something tells me that Bradford may be out longer than anticipated. Stoops has rallied the troops before (notably in 2006 when they lost early to Oregon, but still went on to win another Big 12 championship). Oh, but I forgot, conference championships apparently are easy to come by.”

Hey, I just thought of something. If OU wins the Big 12 title this year and goes, let’s say, to the Fiesta Bowl, wouldn’t that be a successful year? Wouldn’t OU fans have to be happy with that? Lose a quarterback and lose a game but rally and win a tough Big 12? Wouldn’t you have to label that a good year?

Bob: “Even with OU again embarrassing themselves on national TV and showing their coaches cannot (when does practice start this year?), BYU’s only chance to win was to knock Sam out, and they deliberately did it. It was deliberate and late, but expected. I knew someone would get Sam – figured it would be a leg.”

How dare an opponent actually hit Oklahoma’s quarterback. Of all the unmitigated gall. Arrest that man!

Mickey: “A lot of us would like to wake up and realize that the BYU game was a nightmare, instead of the opening game of the season. As a player and a baseball coach for a number of years, the one thing that I would not tolerate was mental mistakes. Mechanical mistakes can and will happen, but there is no excuse for not having your head in the game. How many times have you seen multi-millionaire baseball payers screw up because they did not know how many runners were on base or how many outs there were? Linemen are supposed to be big and dumb, but they surely can count from get set through four. I know a coach that would get his linemen down of the line of scrimmage in practice situations and blow an air horn or fire a shot gun blast over their heads while the snap count was being called out. Those that flinched were made to sit down. A Simple Simon drill like this worked wonders in eliminating false starts by the offensive line and or the running backs. Fortunately, OU worked hard to eliminate these stupid penalties in their game against Idaho State.”

Actually, I don’t see millionaire baseball players forget the outs more than once a year.

C.W.: “You get to talk to Kevin Wilson, right? Can you let him know that there’s not a rule that requires you to run it up the middle every time while in the red zone?”

Here’s what’s beautiful about OU football. Only the names change. The same things they’re saying about Wilson, they said about Chuck Long. They same things they said about Long, they said about Mark Mangino. The same things they said about Mangino, they would have said about Mike Leach, except he was here only 15 minutes and didn’t give them time.

 Jeff: “What is going on with Jameel Owens? They sure were high on him on signing day.”

They’re high on everybody on signing day. Owens’ problem is he’s not very good. OU’s problem is most of the receivers don’t seem to be very good.

George: “I currently live in Utah. I am a graduate of the University of Oklahoma (and U.S. Grant High School) and lived in Oklahoma the majority of my life. Since the OU-BYU game, I have expected ceaseless teasing and taunting from the people up here about the outcome. In fact, I had surgery performed yesterday by a surgeon who had jokingly threatened to forget the anesthesia if we beat the Cougars too bad. However, I have received nothing but the highest compliments for a game well-fought – and condolences for what happened to Sam Bradford. The reason I write this is to report on what those Utahns who attended the game in Dallas have said: to a person they have stated that the OU fans are the classiest fans they have ever seen. They said they got many back-slaps and congratulations from the Sooners as they were leaving the stadium. They said that never happens to them, otherwise. I am, have always been, and will always be proud to be an Okie. The classy showing of my fellow Sooners after this game makes me even more so.”

Huh. And they even sold alcohol at the game.

Craig: “It appears from your blog that Landry Jones is everything that Rhett Bomar wasn’t. Isn’t that nice for a change in these times?”

Well, actually, Bomar was the change. Every Sooner quarterback is has been pretty classy. Nate Hybl’s one of my all-time favorite people. Jason White has turned into a swell fellow. Paul Thompson was pure class. Sammy B. is a lot like Josh Heupel; sort of hard to get to know but certainly nothing at all that you can say against his character.

Bob: “Time for me to come out of my cocoon. I am in the dark this year more than normal. I have no feeling about this team until after the Miami game. If we go out and beat Tulsa easily, it says hope, but no answers yet. If we struggle it says a lot. Here is the way I see it now. Landry Jones is good enough to beat everyone up to Texas only if the offensive line blocks average and does not cause penalties. All that theory goes out the window if only one guy can catch passes. This is nothing new that everyone watching this team knows. If OU comes up with some receivers and offensive line they are good enough to beat anyone in the Big 12. I was at the BYU game and our players were more interested in the big screen than the game. If you look at time of possession, BYU had the ball a whole quarter longer than us. This will wear out a defense. Even at that they only scored 14 points. People are forgetting that our defense is everything we thought it would be, and they will keep us in games if we can come up with offense.”

Hey, I couldn’t peel my eyes off that video screen, either.

Jason wrote about my twitter that ripped football games played on baseball infields, like Miami-Georgia Tech: “I don’t like the dirt infield either. I would seem to me, some innovative people could come up with a way to secure field turf over the dirt. Something that could be removed by the grounds crew before the baseball games. I know you can’t put the pieces of rubber underneath it, but I would imagine it would still work better that what they have.”

I’ve never understood how the NFL allows this to happen. NFL players, in specific. Part of the field is this lush grass, then all of a sudden you’re on hard dirt. Madness.

Mary wrote about my mid-majors column: “I have a degree from both Wyoming and OU and wanted to remind you that Wyoming did knock off Tennessee two years ago, too. I know they aren’t usually very good, but hopefully the new coach will make a difference. Being an OU fan is so different than being a WY fan, but I do like to see them do well too.”

I went to an OSU-Wyoming game in 1995. Thoroughly enjoyed it. There once was a Star Trek episode, a time-travel plot, called City on the Edge of Forever. Going to Laramie, Wyo., was like the Game on the Edge of Forever. It was the pure frontier. Great scenery driving up from Colorado, then get into an Old West-type town, with a little stadium sitting there and a pretty good crowd, 30,000 or so.

Tom, a TCU alum: “Thank you for writing an honest article about the quality of play in the Mountain West Conference. The MWC has earned respect on the field and it is nice to see the media take notice.”

It’s hard not to notice. Go Frogs!

Marc: “Every time one of you big dogs gets your ass beat by a school that is not on the BCS list, you put them down by calling them a mid-major. So if you get beat by a low life mid major team that is not good enough to be called a major universities (I think BYU and TCU are two of the finest private universities this country has), doesn’t that make you a lower major school, not good enough to be called a big time operation? Drop the title mid major when you talk about BYU or TCU and we will stop laughing at you. From a true football fan who has a MBA form a school, that taxpayers did not pay for.”

I think this guy’s name is Marc. He didn’t even sign his name, which means he not only lacks class, but he lacks courage. I guess that’s two things they don’t get around to teaching at schools that taxpayers don’t pay for. Hey, pal, don’t get mad at us because you didn’t get into Yale.

David: “You’ve come around some since 2005, when you wrote OU ‘lost to the likes of TCU.’ You have written several complimentary articles about TCU and the Mountain West the last couple of years and today’s was really, really appreciated, especially by a major daily in a Big 12 market. Thanks. Go Frogs!”

I don’t want to start a fight, but the week after TCU beat OU in 2005, the Frogs lost to the likes of SMU. All that said, go Frogs!

Roger: “Last week I happened to turn on my TV while the Basketball Hall of Fame inductions were taking place. I wanted most of all to see the induction for David Robinson, but it turns out he was the first player on the stage and I missed his entire presentation. But I stayed tuned to see the Michael Jordan portion of the program. The other inductees spoke with a good dose of humility along with well-earned pride: Coach Sloan, John Stockton and a woman coach. Very well done by all of them — but Jordan had none of that. Not a drop of humility in his acceptance speech. His speech was intended to show his strong, competitive spirit, along with a dose of Michael Jordan humor. But what his acceptance speech did was show him to be mean-spirited and a bully! His speech revealed more about Jordan than I knew before, but it wasn’t pretty. I decided I really don’t admire him – or even like him as a person.”

The truth about Jordan always has been apparent for those who wish to see it. He’s pretty much a punk.

-------------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.

Powered by Wordpress | WP Premium theme by WP Remix
Copyright 2007. Berry Tramel's Blog. All rights reserved

• Home
• RSS Feed
• Berry Tramel’s Website | NewsOK
• Contact Berry
• Berry on Facebook
• Berry’s Bio
• Sports | NewsOK