Comments on: Emails: The OU wolves are after Stoops

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:50:18 +0000

How sad that so many people are so fast to dump the coach after one mediocre season. To those fans whose expectations remain high but realistic, support your head coach. Bob Stoops is a great coach. Trust him to do what is needed to keep the Sooners competitive. Keep letting him know what you think, but don’t be so quick to throw a rope over a branch to call for his neck, he has brought the program back to prominence and will keep it there.

By: Don Whitfill

Don Whitfill — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:48:19 +0000

It was a lot of fun reading these comments after the OSU game and knowing the result. I have been watching OU football in person since 1961 and likewise was very disappointed about the Tech game (I was there and had to hear the announcer say – over and over and over- ” A Texas Tech FIRST DOWN,” with a lot of emphasis on first down.
It amazes me just how “stupid” some so-called fans are about expecting to find a coach more successful than Stoups. As the country/western song says; “be careful about what you ask for – you may get it.”

By: Kurt

Kurt — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:52:47 +0000

Why are you arm chair quaterbacks and couch potato coaches on Stoops for? Those coaches don’t stay up there and do nothing all day and half the night for nothing. I can promise you there’s a plan made to win the game. The players have to execute the plan. Coaches can’t play for the kids or they would be out there playing. It’s up to the kids to get it done. Motivation? those players are old enough to motivate themselves. If I was a player, here’s some things to motivate me- 85,000 people cheering me on, the oppurtunity to play in a Sooner uniform, and probably the most important, a scholorship to pay my way through school so my parents,who are financially strapped anyway, won’t have another burden on them. Get rid of Stoops, no way! Get some players with fire in their belly to be a Sooner!

By: David

David — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:53:19 +0000

I still vividly remember watching my first Sooner game. It was the 1963 Orange Bowl. Even though we loss 17-0 to Alabama I have been hooked ever since. Through it all I have stayed a loyal Sooner fan. Nobody or nothng on this earth is perfect. Everyone needs to quit all the crying, just chill a little bit because the best is yet to come. It all starts and ends with the quarterback. Although we have enjoyed a good level of success during the Stoops era. We have not had a truly mobile quarterback. Landry Jones is not the answer. His pocket presence is week at best and he does not seem to be able to improvise. Mark my word, the best recruiting move made by Stoops and company at qb will be Blake Bell. I have followed this kid very closely and he has all the tools. Size, speed, instincts, toughness, and most of all great mobility. Even Sam the Man did not possess much mobility. When we lost to LSU it was obvious. They came with an all out rush all night knowing that Jason White could not run. Huepel paid off because he had great presence and could pull off a great scramble or two even though he was not a really gifted athlete.(weak arm and slow). Bell will easily be the best qb that Sooners have had in a long time. The sky is the limited with this kid and he will make his team mates better. Things are looking up for 2010. Go Sooners

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:00:13 +0000

Regarding possibly inappropriate Biblical allusions, we need a quick fact check here. There were ten plagues, not seven:

1. The water of the Nile was turned to blood (Ex 7:20)
2. Frogs covered the land (Ex 8:6)
3. Gnats throughout the land (Ex 8:17)
4. Swarms of flies (Ex 8:24)
5. Death of the cattle (Ex 9:6)
6. Boils on man and beast (Ex 9:10)
7. Heavy hail and flashes of fire (Ex 9:24)
8. Locusts ate all the plants (Ex 10:14-15)
9. Darkness over the land for three days (Ex 10:22)
10. Death of the first-born (Ex 12:29)

By: Fiesta Bowl a Lock for Iowa (If 50-50 is a Lock) | HawkeyeBowlGame.com

Fiesta Bowl a Lock for Iowa (If 50-50 is a Lock) | HawkeyeBowlGame.com — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:43:50 +0000

[...] and shoving the Cowboys out of the Fiesta Bowl picture. But before that game, Sooners fans wrote a number of letters to The Oklahoman newspaper, mostly suggesting OU Coach Bob Stoops should go. Here’s an [...]

By: Sunday Afternoon Reading Room — Fiesta Bowl is a lock for Iowa (if 50-50 is a lock) | GazetteOnline.com

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:04:03 +0000

By: Cristi

Cristi — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:45:28 +0000

Reading most of these posts really embarrasses me that these people are Sooners. I’d love to hear what they say tonight after the OSU win. What, we didn’t beat them badly enough? Fire Stoops? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? We’re lucky he doesn’t read this trash and leave. Can anyone remember the 90′s???? Why is it that everyone around the country knows Stoops is one of the best coaches in the country but some of our fans (the morons) can’t see it? Who has won more Big 12 championships than anyone else? Who has been to the National Championship game more than anyone else in the last 9 years? I mean, have you been watching? Have you seen the injuries? I say keep Stoops as long as he’ll stay and run these idiot fans out of town. Maybe Notre Dame will take THEM.

By: Randall

Randall — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:56:17 +0000

I meant to mention that the win over OSU today was an impressive defensive and special-teams effort. I don’t think it changes my previous analysis, though.

By: Randall

Randall — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:55:16 +0000

OU fans should not desire or expect that Bob Stoops be fired. However, they (we) have a right to be unhappy. Most of us don’t have the expert knowledge to second-guess whether the backups should be playing more or not, or whether OU should recruit differently, but we can see by the results that all is not well, and has not been well for awhile.

Since the Orange Bowl collapse against USC, there has been something wrong that the three subsequent conference championships and the national championship appearance last year can’t disguise. The “something” is made up of the following components.

1. Little ability to come from behind. Perhaps I’m missing one or two, but I can only remember one game since then in which the Sooners came back in the second half to win–the Holiday Bowl win over Oregon. Meanwhile, our opponents have come from behind to beat us on several occasions, including the losses to BYU, Miami, and Texas this year.

I don’t know if letting leads get away from us, and being unable to overcome a deficit, in the second half is due to the other team consistently making better halftime adjustments, or whether our players physically run out of gas, or whether our players lose confidence in their ability to play their best, leading to poor execution, or some other reason. But there IS a pattern, and it’s a troubling one.

2. Related to the inability to come from behind is the inability to get a defensive stop with the game on the line. We’ve seen this against Texas Tech (2005), Oregon (2006), Colorado (2007), Boise State (2007 post-season), Texas (2008, 2009), Florida (2008 post-season), BYU (2009), Miami (2009), Nebraska (2009).

3. Poor record in “Big Games.” Before the season, OU can circle a few games as big ones. The major non-conference game (if there is one), Texas, the conference championship game, and the bowl game.

In 2005, our big non-conference game was against UCLA, and we lost it. We lost to TCU for good measure. In 2006, our major non-conference game was against Oregon, and we lost it. In 2007, it was against Miami, but the Hurricanes were mediocre, and we won in Norman. In 2008, we didn’t really have a “big game” non-conference opponent. In 2009, we had BYU and Miami, and we lost to both of them.

Since the 2004 season, we have lost to Texas 4 out of 5 times. We were out-talented by the Vince Young-led 2005 Longhorns, but the talent has been roughly equal ever since. So, it seems reasonable to suspect that either our players aren’t playing as well as they are capable, or our coaches are getting outcoached by Texas’ coaches, or both.

Since the 2004 season, we have won 3 out of 3 in conference championship games. We have beaten a weaker opponent every time.

Since the 2004 season, we have lost 3 of 4 bowl games. It SEEMS apparent that Bob Stoops doesn’t take bowl games very seriously. From my perspective, it shows in the newspaper coverage of bowl preparation, when the progress of next year’s starters is reported far more than is how the players who are actually going to be in the bowl game are
doing. Berry used different evidence to arrive at the same conclusion a few days ago.

So, aside from the conference championship games, where we have played an obviously weaker North Division champ every time, we haven’t won our share of big games since the meltdown against USC.

4. Poor record away from Norman. The poor record vs. Texas and in bowl games relate to this. But we have also lost to an Oregon team (2006) that went 7-5, a Colorado team (2007) that went 2-10, to BYU, Miami, and Nebraska (2009), and to Texas Tech the last three times we visited Lubbock. We HAVE beaten some good teams. Not with talent equal to ours, but good. We beat Nebraska (2005, 8-4), Missouri (2006, 8-4), and Oklahoma State (2008, 9-4). But the record is not an impressive one. Not for a team with the talent that the Sooner have, and for a coaching staff that gets paid as much as the OU staff does.

It’s not all doom and gloom. The home-field dominance is impressive. The number of conference championships is impressive. But there are those areas that are worse than mediocre, that can’t be explained away by “bad breaks.” This year, they’ve been more visible than before, because the talent and experience have been lacking. But I think it’s reasonable for Sooner fans to expect better.

And if they don’t see better, then they should do as Berry says–vote with their pocketbooks and stay home, especially from the bowl games.