COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 6: 38th Parallel Games
Bob Stoops’ chief malady in recent years has fluctuated. His teams seemed to struggle on the road. His teams couldn’t win a bowl game.
Here’s a new one. His teams can’t win on neutral turf. Starting with the USC Orange Bowl in January, the Sooners are 5-8 in neutral stadiums: 1-3 vs. Texas, 1-4 in bowl games, now even the Brigham Young egg laid in September.
They’re all intertwined, of course. The bowl problem is a neutral-field problem. The Texas problem (if OU loses Saturday, it most definitely has a Texas problem) is a neutral-field problem.
Think about it. The most important games on the schedule almost always are neutral-field games. Texas, Big 12 title game, bowl game. They all are trophy games, which is why the Sooners have taken to having their picture shot in front of the scoreboard after victories, though admittedly, OU hasn’t cleared Kodak’s shelves in recent years.
Stoops, of course, started out like a house-a-fire on neutral fields. Before USC, Stoops’ record on neutral turf was 12-4, and two of those losses came in 1999.
That makes Stoops 17-12 overall in neutral-turf games.
And here’s the fun part. There are some coaches who can easily be compared to Stoops. Three other jobs have a similar schedule cadence to OU’s: Florida, Georgia and Texas. All play a neutral-site regular-season game against a bitter rival. All play in a conference with a championship game in a pro stadium. All then proceed to a bowl. So here are the comparisons.
* Florida’s Urban Meyer is 8-2 in neutral-site games. He’s started out very much like Stoops. National title in his second year, back to contend for more very soon.
* Georgia’s Mark Richt is 9-9 in neutral-site games. Richt seems beloved in Athens, Ga. He was cagey; Richt didn’t win a national title early and set his bar too high.
* Texas’ Mack Brown is 14-11 in neutral-turf games. But here’s the rub. Brown is 9-1 starting in January 2005. When Brown took his team to the Rose Bowl in December 2004, the Longhorns were 5-10 in neutral-site games. But now Brown has won five straight bowls, has gone 3-1 vs. OU and won the only Big 12 title game he’s reached during that time.
Bob Stoops is not in any kind of hot water at Oklahoma. That’s not what I’m saying. He does have disgruntled fan base, to some extent, most of which doesn’t want him or even his coaches gone. That fan base just wants to win some neutral-site games against teams from outside the Big 12 North.
GEOGRAPHY LESSON
Last week, I spent a few days in the Florida Keys. After the Miami game, we drove down to Key West, the southernmost point of the Continental U.S.
Going to the Keys is a great geography lesson. Driving to Key West, you’re going more west than south. Key West is farther west than Tampa.
Anyway, this always has been my picture of the Keys. Long stretches of engineering genius; mile after mile of highway bridges stuck in the middle of the Atlantic, punctuated by an occasional respite stop.
Wrong. The Florida Keys is a series of 1,700 islands, though most aren’t connected by roads. Driving down U.S. Highway 1, you probably go through 50-60 keys, most connected by a short bridge no longer than the bridge that spans the Oklahoma River. The Seven Mile Bridge is the only part of the trip that is extensive travel over water.
Most of the trip down the keys, you can see water on at least one side, sometimes both. But the land is inhabited not just with opulent homes or resorts, but towns and villages. A couple of them are charming; most are not. Take away the water, and it’s not unlike driving through west Texas.
Key West is a gorgeous, historic, funky tourist town 90 miles from Cuba. You enter the city of about 25,000 from the northeast, and it looks like Fort Lauderdale or something, with Ford dealerships and KFC’s dotting the terrain.
But down into town, you reach the historic district, Duval Street, which leads to Front Street, and the historic seaport.
It’s an interesting place. I’ll tell you more about it.
TEN BIGGEST LOSERS OF THE WEEK
10. Indiana: The Hoosiers played Oklahoma State in the 2007 Insight Bowl, but that marginal success is long gone. The Hoosiers opened the season with unimpressive victories over Eastern Kentucky, Western Michigan and Akron, then almost won at Michigan before falling 36-33. But Virginia, a struggling team itself, routed IU 47-7, stamping Indiana as a possible selection for worst team from a BCS conference.
9. Rushers: Weekly passing leaders often lose. Weekly rushing leaders rarely. But last week, three of the top five rushing games were turned in by players from losing teams. Memphis’ Curtis Steele (240 yards vs. UTEP) and Oregon State’s Jacquizz Rodgers (189 yards vs. Stanford) were winners. But North Texas’ Lance Dunbar (187 yards vs. Louisiana-Lafayette), Utah State’s Robert Turbin (184 yards vs. New Mexico State) and Auburn’s Ben Tate (184 yards vs. Arkansas) were losers.
8. UCLA: The Bruins were in position for a big upset, leading Oregon 3-0 at halftime. But the Ducks’ Kenjon Barner returned the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown, 13 seconds later Talmadge Jackson returned an interception 32 yards for a TD and, after a UCLA fumble, Jeff Maehl scored on a 20-yard screen pass. Oregon had taken a 21-3 lead in less than four minutes and went on to a 24-10 victory.
7. Saturday nights in Baton Rouge: LSU hadn’t lost a Saturday night home game since 2002, a streak of 32 straight. But top-ranked Florida pinned a 13-3 defeat on the Tigers. A year ago, LSU lost home games to Georgia, Alabama and Ole Miss, but all in the afternoon.
6. Ron Zook: The heat is rising on the Illinois coach, who is 18-34 in his fifth year and 1-4 this season. Zook got the Illini to the Rose Bowl two years ago, but that promise looks far away. Zook benched veteran quarterback Juice Williams against Michigan State in what appears to be a desperation move - replacement Eddie McGee completed just two of 11 passes for 31 yards and an interception.
5. Gus Malzahn: The deposed Arkansas offensive coordinator from a few years ago returned to the Ozarks with a mighty Auburn offense. But the Razorbacks shut down Auburn, roaring to a 34-3 lead before the Tigers rallied. Auburn finished with 375 total yards.
4. Georgia defense: Having given up 37 points to South Carolina and 41 to Arkansas in victories, the Bulldogs finally cracked. They were rolled 45-19 by Tennessee. Ineffective Vol QB Jonathan Crompton had a career game, completing 20 of 27 for 310 yards and four touchdowns. With games remaining against Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech, 3-3 Georgia could be looking at a .500 season.
3. Blaine Gabbert: In September, the Missouri quarterback was just drawing comparisons not just to his predecessor, Chase Daniel, but to, ahem, John Elway. On a cruddy night in Columbia, Gabbert had a fourth quarter to forget, throwing back-to-back interceptions that helped Nebraska storm back from a 12-0 deficit to a 27-12 victory. Gabbert’s numbers (17 of 43, 134 yards) were not exactly Elwayian.
2. Cody Hawkins: The son lost his job before the father lost his. Colorado quarterback Cody was benched during a dreadful performance against Texas (6-of-18, 68 yards, two interceptions), and his dad, beleaguered CU coach Dan Hawkins, says Tyler Hansen will start for the Buffaloes.
1. Mike Stoops: The Arizona coach had a chance to get his team to 5-0 in the Pac-10. The Wildcats, 1-0 already in the league and with three straight home games coming, none against USC or Oregon, had a 33-21 lead with three minutes to play. But Washington quarterback Jake Locker threw a touchdown pass with 2:55 left, then UW’s Mason Foster intercepted a deflected pass off the foot of ‘Zona’s Delashaun Dean and returned it 37 yards for the winning TD in a 36-33 verdict.
SEAFOOD, EAT FOOD
I love fish. I don’t love TO fish, but I love eating fish. In seven days away, I had seafood six times. Missed only on game day.
I had lobster. Eating a full lobster as an entree, I can remember only doing once before, 25 years ago in Los Angeles. But we stopped at the Fish House in Key Largo, which is famous in song and movie and now, in my mind, for a cool restaurant.
Any place that has strung lights on the ceiling and a basket of crackers on every table is my kind of joint. This place offered a special; $14.95 for a one-pound lobster dinner, or $19.95 for 1.5-pound lobster dinner. I bit on the latter.
It was excellent. I’m glad I ate it. But I’m not sure I would eat lobster again. It’s good, but I’ve never understood why lobster is more expensive than giant prawns or mahi-mahi. They’re all good to me.
I also got an appetizer of conch. Key West is known as the Conch Republic - it facetiously declared its independence in the 1980s when the government set up a road block leading out of the keys, to search for drugs. Conch is sort of like calamari. Stringy. Didn’t taste bad, but I didn’t see much to it.
The Fish House was so good, we stopped back by on our way out of the Keys. I had mahi-mahi and a giant shrimp appetizer. Outstanding.
Down in Key West, you can eat right on the wharf. I found those places to be a little pricey and not as good as up in Largo. But I did discover a fabulous new item. Lobster rolls at Turtle Kraals.
Turtle Kraals was the best of the Key West places we dined. Its lobster rolls are just like egg rolls, only stuffed with lobster. I like egg rolls big and fast and piping hot, like I get at Canton Palace in Del City, and that’s the way these were.
Key West also is known for key lime pie, which my wife just loves. I’m not that crazy about key lime pie; give me blueberry pie any day. But we had key lime every day and maybe twice on Sunday, I can’t remember. We had it with meringue, we had it with whipped cream, we had it plain.
They’ve even got a series of stores. Key Lime Pie Company, where you can buy stuff to make key lime pie. We did make a purchase. Usually, that kind of stuff gets spilled, and your jeans smell like lime juice, but so far I haven’t discovered any calamities.
REALITY RANKINGS
10. Boise State: Doesn’t reflect win at Tulsa.
9. Southern Cal: Win at Notre Dame would move the Trojans up big.
8. LSU: Championship-caliber defense.
7. Georgia Tech: Option is alive and well.
6. Miami: Hurricanes could go 11-1 and not make ACC title game.
5. Virginia Tech: Hokies not likely to beat out Boise State for BCS title game berth, if it comes to that.
4. Cincinnati: Huge game Thursday night at South Florida.
3. Iowa: Hawkeyes have some tough games coming up.
2. Florida: Bama-Florida has the chance to be a game for the ages.
1. Alabama: Hey, if Bama and Florida are unbeaten going into the SEC title game, wonder if SEC fans will argue that both should advance to the national championship game? SEC fans argued the other way when Michigan and Ohio State wanted such a repeat in 2006.
TO HAVE & HAVE NOT
Key West always was a favorite spot of Ted Williams, the great Red Sox slugger who lived there much of the time and was an avid fisherman. In three days in Key West, I never saw on reference to Ted Williams.
But Ernest Hemingway is everywhere. Key West is home to the Hemingway House. Hemingway, noted fisherman and tomcat and occasional author, lived in Key West in the 1930s, and his home has been restored and is open for tours.
I recommend it highly, even at $12 a head. I always like touring period homes, even if no one famous lived there. But the tour guides tell all kinds of Hemingway stories that are interesting.
The place is a virtual mansion for the ’30s, with a swimming pool and a beautiful verandah and a studio in which Hemingway did most of his writings.
The place is overrun with cats, 40something in all, and they say they all come from cats who lived there with Hemingway and his family. The tour guide knew most of the cats by name, and some would come when he called.
Hemingway was a wild man, always cheating on his wives and getting divorced. But he could write.
Truthfully, I hadn’t read much of Hemingway. In college, I was a William Faulkner man. But in the Hemingway gift shop, I bought a copy of To Have And Have Not. Read it on the plane home. Outstanding. Very, very good.
TEN BIGGEST WINNERS OF THE WEEK
10. Florida: The Gators won the game of the day, 13-3 at LSU, and it was big for this reason. Florida didn’t have to use its get-out-of-jail-free card. Even had the Gators lost, they would be in the national title game by winning out. Beating LSU, which figures to be their toughest of the regular season, means the Gators stillhave an ace in the hole.
9. Florida International: Golden Panthers won 37-20 at Western Kentucky in a battle of winless teams. FIU might have stayed that way with a loss. They’ll be underdogs the rest of the way.
8. Wake Forest: Demon Deacons routed Maryland 42-32 (Wake led 35-10 at halftime) and now lead the ACC’s Atlantic Division, with victories over the two teams (Boston College and Maryland) immediately behind them.
7. Ohio State returns: Wisconsin’s offense outscored Ohio State’s offense 13-10. But the Buckeyes scored three touchdowns on returns - Kurt Coleman’s 89-yard interception, Jermale Hines’ 32-yard interception and Ray Small’s 96-yard kickoff - to beat the Badgers 31-13.
6. Iowa: Why aren’t the unbeaten Hawkeyes getting more love in the rankings? They’ve won at Penn State and, in Iowa City, beaten Arizona and Michigan, the latter 30-28 Saturday night. With wins in back-to-back road games upcoming at Wisconsin and Michigan State, the Hawkeyes have to be taken seriously.
5. Service academies: Army got a victory over an SEC opponent, Vanderbilt, for the first time since 1990. Navy got its most lopsided victory in 36 years, 63-14 over Rice; and Air Force played a heck of a game, losing 20-17 to TCU.
4. David Cutcliffe: Fired at Ole Miss, the Duke coach again showed he still can get the job done. Duke QB Thad Lewis threw for 459 yards and five TDs as the Blue Devils beat North Carolina State 49-28 to snap an 11-game series losing streak and win an ACC road game for the first time in almost six years.
3. Nebraska: The Cornhuskers trailed Missouri 12-0 but scored 27 points in the fourth quarter to win going away and seized control of the Big 12 North Division, which, amazingly, Nebraska has won just once this decade.
2. Alabama defense: Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead, who not so long ago was a Heisman contender, completed just 11 of 35 passes against the Crimson Tide in a 22-3 loss. Snead’s 31.4 completion percentage is the lowest for a game this season by a quarterback. The second-lowest? Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett, 34.3 percent against Alabama. Don’t mess with the Bama defense, and don’t mail the national title to Gainesville, Fla., just yet.
1. Steven Sheffield: Few positions in football are more fool-proof than Texas Tech quarterback. Mike Leach’s triggermen automatically become stars. But with first-year Tech starter Taylor Potts out with a concussion, Sheffield threw for 490 yards and seven TDs in a 66-14 rout of Kansas State. Leach is mum on who will start this week, but Sheffield showed enough to campaign for the instant-stardom job.
SUNRISE, SUNSET
Key West is one of those rare places where you can see the sun both rise and set over water. Key West is known for its glorious sunsets. I don’t think people get up early enough to see sun rise.
Please don’t take this wrong. Key West indeed has gorgeous sunsets. But the beauty is no greater than an Oklahoma sunset. In fact, I’d say our sunsets are more colorful.
The difference is, on the water, you can actually see the sun drop off the edge of the Earth. Actually see the sun move. (I know, I know, we’re the ones moving, but you know what I mean.) In Key West, the sun seems not to slide away, but step away. Point by point. Move and stop. Move and stop.
It’s really something.
And of course, Key West’s ocean water is great. Clean, colorful. Hard not to like a place that gives you options of both the Atlantic and the Gulf. Key West does NOT have much in the way of beaches. The keys don’t have much sand.
We took two boat rides, a sunset cruise on a sailboat that was really fun. But best of all was an excursion that took us out into the ocean, where we sailed for awhile, then snorkeled and finally kayaked.
Snorkeling, I’m not crazy about. It’s fun to see what’s under the sea, but I guess I’m not built to hold my face under water while breathing through a tube. My wife loved it, though.
The kayak was tremendous. We went around the mangroves, which are tree islands. This grove of trees grows out of the water, and over millions of years actually forms sediment that forms land that formed the keys in the first place.
There is something adventurous about being in a tiny little kayak in the middle of such an awesome ocean. The water wasn’t deep around the mangroves. Never over our head and sometimes less than three feet. But still, when I think about rafting the Illinois River, and I think about kayaking the Atlantic Ocean out of Key West, I get a little amused.
The boat excursion, which is offered all over Key West, is like $69 a person for 5-6 hours. It’s a great deal. They serve you all you can drink, plus fruit and snacks. Fabulous day. Simply fabulous.
September and October are Key West’s slow months, because it’s hurricane season. No one wants to get caught in bad weather. It would take forever to go back up the keys if everyone was trying to leave via the two-lane highway.
Everyone says Key West is a little on the decadent side, and I’m sure there’s some truth to that. But I’m about as straight as it gets, and I never once felt uncomfortable. Generally, you have to go looking for trouble to find it.
-------------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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Comments
Great column, Berry.
I agree with Harris about your Florida Keys travelogue.
About Bob Stoops in neutral-site games–good analysis. Interesting to see that Bob’s record in neutral site games is similar to Mack Brown’s. What’s frustrating to OU fans is that they seem to be on opposite trajectories. Bob’s big successes came early, and are seldom seen anymore, outside wins against the annual chump from the Big 12 North, while Mack seems to have gotten better with age. We used to think that Bob could win with his against the other guy’s, or win with the other guy’s against his.
Now that description seems to apply to Mack, and it seems the other way around with Bob.
Berry:
Looking back at Bob Stoops’ record on neutral turf, I see you credit him with an 11-3 record going into the USC game, with two of the losses occurring in 1999. The two losses in 1999 are right–vs. Texas in Dallas, and vs. Ole Miss in the Independence Bowl. But he also lost two neutral-site games in 2003–vs. K-State at Arrowhead and vs. LSU at the Sugar Bowl.
Maybe 11-4?
Just my opinion, but as far as the neutral site record goes, it seems to me that Stoops’ reliance on the passing game, and thus apparent DEemphasis on the running game has cost him over the past 4-5 seasons when playing on the road. When OU destroyed UT about 7 years ago, Quentin Griffin had 5 or 6 rushing TD’s. Besides Adrian Peterson, I can’t remember another RB that Stoops has leaned on in big games since then.
You know the old coaches’ saying, if you want to win on the road, you need to pack two things – your defense and your running game.
Enjoy your column, but i’m writing to say i really enjoyed your Florida Keys comments,really outstanding, very seldom someone gives you a real feel for a place, many thanks, hope to be heading down for a visit sometime in the near future.