OU football: Bob Stoops explains O-line optimism
Bob Stoops has been optimistic about OU’s offensive line, which seems peculiar considering the poor play of the Sooner blockers in 2009.
Not so, says Stoops. Basing 2010 O-line expectations on 2009′s play is “fairly foolish,” Stoops said, and used the previous year as an example. “The year before (2008), we probably had the best line in the country. And lot of those (2009) guys played then.”
Ryan Broyles is helped to his feet by Eric Mensik after a touchdown pass reception during the first half of the college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas A&M Aggies at the Gaylord Family -- Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, in Norman, Okla. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman
But Stoops said off-season commitment plays a huge role in a line’s development. Weight training, size changes, skill development, maturity. Those signs, Stoops said, are much better this season than last season, when Stoops was not juiced about his O-line.
The additions of Eric Mensik and Donald Stephenson, the slated starters at offensive tackle, will help. Mensik was a tight end last season. Stephenson sat out the season for disciplinary reasons.
Stoops says OU’s stated desire to play more offensive line is an indication of increased depth. “Absolutely,” he said. “We have a lot more players there who are ready to play.”
Teams have rotated defensive line for years. Not so much on offense, though OU has done it occasionally. “Not as much (as defense), because you’re not chasing the quarterback,” Stoops said.
Stoops said OU’s rotation plan won’t include wholesale insertions of a new unit. OU will spot a guard here, a tackle there. Sprinkle in guys without removing the entire line.
“That happens when your 2′s are good enough,” Stoops said. “When there isn’t as much separation as between 1′s and 2′s.”
College football: Game week is here
This is one of my favorite weeks of the year. College football is back.
Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore drops back to pass during an NCAA college football practice on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010 in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Idaho Press-Tribune, Charlie Litchfield)
Games in Norman and Stillwater on Saturday night. Games on television Thursday through Monday. I know I harp a lot on the mismatches of September (Ohio State-Marshall, Florida-Miami (Ohio), Texas-Rice, OU-Utah State, I can go on all day), but there also are a good number of watchable games.
Thursday night, Southern Miss at South Carolina (Larry Fedora U. at Steve Spurrier State), Pitt at Utah in a Fiesta Bowl rematch from six years ago and USC at Hawaii (Lane Kiffin goes to the beach).
Friday night, Arizona plays at Toledo (mini-Bedlam: Mike Stoops vs. Tim Beckman).
Saturday, Colorado-Colorado State, Northwestern-Vanderbilt, Notre Dame-Purdue, Michigan-Connecticut, Kentucky-Louisville, Kansas State-UCLA, BYU-Washington, TCU-Oregon State, LSU-North Carolina and Fresno State-Cincinnati.
Sunday, two games of great Oklahoma interest: Tulsa-East Carolina and Texas Tech-SMU.
Monday, Boise State-Virginia Tech.
I have no idea how this ranks as an opening weekend historically, but it will do for me until we get rid of all the arranged victories.
Anyway, here’s what I consider the top 10 games.
1. Boise State-Virginia Tech: A national title contender is eliminated on Labor Day night, on a not-really neutral field (FedEx in suburban D.C.).
2. TCU-Oregon State: Another not-really neutral field, this one in Arlington. Which is 15 miles from Fort Worth and 2,036 miles from Corvallis. But the winner gets a huge boost, the Frogs back into BCS contention and the Beavers stamped as Rose Bowl contenders.
3. LSU-North Carolina: A true-neutral field in Atlanta gives Butch Davis a chance to make a national statement with his Tar Heels.
Virginia Tech's Darren Evans looks on during their season's first NCAA college football practice in Blacksburg, Va., Friday, Aug. 6, 2010. (AP Photo/The Roanoke Times,Justin Cook)
4. Pitt at Utah: The Utes are the most underrated program in America. In the ’00s, Utah went 86-36, including 8-0 in bowl games and 2-0 in BCS games.
5. Connecticut at Michigan: Rich Rodriguez will know quickly where his future lies. The Wolverine coach is out on the streets if he doesn’t turn around Michigan in 2010.
6. Cincinnati at Fresno State: Can the Bearcats win the Big East for the third straight season? Will they be a threat to upset the Sooners on Sept. 26 at Paul Brown Stadium. A trip to the Valley will offer clues.
7. Washington at BYU: The Huskes apparently have a coach in Steve Sarkisian. The Cougars, no doubt about it, have a program. BYU never has made a BCS bowl. It’s about time.
8. Purdue at Notre Dame: The Brian Kelly Era begins in South Bend.
9. UCLA at Kansas State: The Polar Opposite Bowl. UCLA will play anyone anywhere (the Bruins also go to Texas and host Houston), while Bill Snyder is trying to get the Wildcats out of playing any team with shoulder pads.
10. SMU at Texas Tech: Alas, no June Jones/Mike Leach matchup. That would have been a gunslinger game for the ages. But Tech is no less interesting under Tommy Tuberville; how much will Tommy T. move away from the Red Raiders’ Leach roots?
OU football: Bob Stoops misguided on scheduling
So Bob Stoops says OU’s ambitious non-conference scheduling is “high risk, low reward.” Stoops is suffering from short-term memory loss.
Stoops clearly still is smarting from two non-conference losses last season, to BYU and Miami. Stoops lost his quarterback, Sam Bradford, to a shoulder injury in the BYU game.
Stoops is right on concerning the “high risk” part of playing the likes of Florida State and Cincinnati, as OU is this September. But he’s misguided on the “low reward.”
Oklahoma football head coach Bob Stoops talks with the media during media day in Norman, Okla., Friday, Aug. 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Has Stoops forgotten the events of 2008? OU came out ahead of Texas and Texas Tech in the BCS rankings. Those three teams were tied for the Big 12 South Division title, so the tiebreaker was BCS. That’s right, BCS. And OU won the tiebreaker, in part because it played a challenging non-conference schedule, including Cincinnati (which went to the Orange Bowl that season) and TCU (which went 10-2 in the regular season).
Both the computers and the pollsters rewarded the Sooners and not Texas, which that season played Florida Atlantic, Texas-El Paso, Rice and Arkansas.
OU also won BCS logjams in 2003 and 2004. In ’03, OU played Alabama, Fresno State and UCLA. In ’04, Oregon and Houston, though the Cougars were not at the status they enjoy today.
This whole discussion is actually sort of funny. No program in America has been treated so well by the BCS, and OU’s non-conference opponents are a big part of that.
That’s one reason the Sooners have remained committed to a good schedule. Florida State in 2011. Notre Dame and TCU in 2012. Notre Dame in 2013. Tennessee in 2014-15. Ohio State in 2016-17. LSU in 2018-19.
And here’s the irony. In the wake of the Big 12 dropping to 10 teams and committing to a round-robin schedule, Texas has grown some fangs and resumed a philosophy of tough scheduling.
The ‘Horns have added series with USC, BYU and Notre Dame, just this summer.
Clearly, OU’s and Texas’ Big 12 schedules are about to get easier. An extra game a year against a North Division opponent, but no more Nebraska.
Hopefully, Stoops is talking out of 2009 frustration when it comes to scheduling. Otherwise, OU would be bucking national trends. As the Pac-10 and Big Ten get with the program and expand to 12 teams so they can play league championship games, the Big 12 contracts and gets out of the league title game business. Couple that with a weaker non-conference schedule — while other powers are beefing up — and OU is flirting with hurting its well-earned national reputation.
OSU football: WSU once was good
Oklahoma State opens its season with perhaps the worst football team in the six conferences that receive automatic berths to the BCS. Washington State has been awful: 2-11 in 2008, 1-11 in 2009. WSU’s only Pac-10 victory was a 2008 win over Washington, which went winless that season.
Since Mike Price’s departure in January 2003 — after the Rose Bowl against OU, Price left for Alabama, where because of personal scandal he never coached a game — the Cougars have been a stunning decline.
WSU was 10-3 in Bill Doba’s first year, 2003, continuing a remarkable success story. Washington State made Rose Bowls in the 1997 and 2002 seasons, which is like Baylor winning the Big 12 or Vanderbilt the SEC. Washington State has absolutely nothing with which to compete in the Pac-10. Yet under Price, WSU did it.
WSU's Brandon Gibson is wide open as he catches a touchdown pass in the third quarter during the college football game between Oklahoma State University (OSU) and Washington State at Qwest Field in Seattle, Wash., Saturday, August 30, 2008. OSU beat WSU, 39-13. BY NATE BILLINGS, THE OKLAHOMAN
In that 2003 season, Washington State beat Texas — and Vince Young — 28-20 in the Holiday Bowl.
But check out the Cougars’ slide since then: 5-6, 4-7, 6-6, 5-7, 2-11, 1-11.
New coach Paul Wulff is 3-22, and Washington State has returned to the destitute program it was in the late 1960s, before Jim Sweeney brought hope to Pullman and began a tradition of WSU scratching out victories because of quality coaching.
Washington State’s coaches include a long series of names you will recognize. Sweeney (who went on to Fresno State), Jackie Sherrill (Pitt, Texas A&M), Warren Powers (Missouri), Jim Walden (Iowa State), Dennis Erickson (Miami, Arizona State, Seahawks, 49ers) and Mike Price (who has done an excellent job at UTEP since the ‘Bama scandal).
Washington State’s problems started with Doba, who apparently quit recruiting. WSU panicked during the Rose Bowl preparations. Price accepted the Alabama job and announced half his staff was following him to Tuscaloosa. Washington State, fearing it wouldn’t have a staff with which to compete in one of its biggest games ever, brokered a deal that convinced Price to remain through the Rose Bowl, while also working for Alabama. Price and Doba were named co-coaches for the Rose Bowl.
Washington State lost, both the Rose Bowl to OU (34-14) and its traction in competing with the likes of USC, Oregon and Washington. In the seven years from 1997 through 2003, Washington State, tucked away in far eastern Washington, four times won 10 games.
Since then, WSU is 23-48 and seemingly getting worse before it gets better.
Little League World Series: Why do you watch?
Some guy named Dean (I won’t give his last name, but it’s not Blevins) emailed me Sunday afternoon while I was working.
“Can the strikes being called be any worse in the game between hawaii and japan. every pitch that they call strikes on hawaii is so far outside it is unbelieveable. the kids deserve a break from stupid umpires. if i can see it from home on tv, they should be able to see it from behind the plate. very bad umpiring”
Here’s how I responded: “Dean: I would find something better to watch than the Little League World Series.”
That set off him, for some reason, and he wrote back, “nice reply stupid”
I really wish people would use punctuation, but that’s a different discussion. I wasn’t jacking with the guy. I was serious. Watch something else. “What’s up your butt?” I asked. “You’re watching 12-year-olds play baseball and acting like it’s a big deal or something. Then you start calling names to someone polite enough to respond to your random email. Are you having a bad day or a miserable life?”
Further correspondence convinced me that it was the latter.
But back to the point. Why is anyone over the age of 12 watching this stuff? It’s ridiculous. Sideline reporters and instant replay and massive ceremonies for 12-year-olds’ baseball.
The Little League World Series had some serious issues 30 years ago, before ESPN got its nose in the event and turned it into something more outrageous than King Louis’ court. Wall-to-wall coverage of the entire week, preliminary games from both the U.S. and world divisions, intensive analysis of how kids from Pearland, Texas, can beat kids from Waipahu, Hawaii.
It’s absurd. And a whole bunch of people sit home and watch. Like Dean.
Some Tokyo kids beat the Hawaiian kids 4-1 for the title. From what I was was told. I didn’t watch.
OU football: Utah State could use a ballgame
Few college football administrators will look more forward to the opening of the season than Utah State president Stan Albrecht. His Aggies play OU in Norman next Saturday, and Albrecht could use a ballgame to get everyone’s focus back on the field.
You think the drama in the Big 12 was spicy this off-season? It had nothing on the Western Athletic and Mountain West conferences. After the Mountain West lost Utah to the Pac-10, the Mountain West pilfered a team (Boise State) from the WAC. The WAC turned around and courted the Mountain West’s marquee school (BYU) and thought it had a deal. Then the Mountain West countered by grabbing the WAC’s next two best football schools after Boise State (Nevada and Fresno State).
When it was all over, the WAC was left largely void and Albrecht, who was at the center of many of the dramas, including enticing BYU and trying to hold the WAC together, was considered a goat. Some have even called for his job, but the Utah State president apparently has done an excellent job in most other areas, so it would be a hard sell to fire him because conference realignment broke the other way.
But Utah State is in a mess. The Aggies have told their fans that the Mountain West initially invited Utah State to join. If so, Utah State’s first mistake was not accepting.
The Mountain West is a clear upgrade from the WAC, and when a school with such limited football prowess gets an invite from a league that might soon be a BCS automatic-qualifying league, it should jump at the chance.
Instead, Utah State hung with its WAC members and tried to put together a commitment from the remaining nine schools, complete with a $5 million buyout agreement. Fresno State signed it, but Nevada didn’t, so who knows how that will turn out.
When the WAC lost those two schools, BYU gave pause to its plan to go independent in football and join the WAC in other sports.
What a bad league the WAC is. Utah State, New Mexico State, Idaho, San Jose State, Hawaii, Louisiana Tech. That’s what’s left of the WAC. Six football schools, four time zones and not one decent team. That’s a league worse than the Sun Belt.
Who knows what the future holds? Some say BYU might still leave the Mountain West and go independent in football. Some say the WAC might expand. Seems like the most likely scenario could be dissolution. Louisiana Tech belongs in Conference USA. Hawaii might not be financially solvent. This league could die right before our very eyes.
With Utah State right in the middle of it. But first, the Aggies get to play in Owen Field. It will be sweet relief.
Jay Wilkinson: Great White Son
Former OU football star Joe Rector introduced Jay Wilkinson as the “Great White Son” to a group of Sooner football alums Friday. The Sooners of Bud Wilkinson always referred to their coach as the Great White Father, because of his white hair and commanding presence, and Jay Wilkinson, the son of their legendary coach, bears a striking resemblance in both voice and mannerisms to his father.
The old Sooners meet every few months at Hometown Buffet in Oklahoma City for lunch, and Rector asked Jay Wilkinson to speak Friday. The reverence and respect these players, now in their 70s and 80s, still have for their late coach remains evident.
Calvin Woodworth, a 1953-55 Sooner, told Wilkinson, “Thank you for sharing your mother and dad with us. It was a life-changing experience for us.”
Wilkinson addressed the silver-haired crowd and talked about memories. How when he hears the Willie Nelson song “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” Wilkinson consciously reminds himself that his heroes have always been OU football players.
When George Brewer (in attendance) and the ’49 Sooners won the Sugar Bowl, Wilkinson was seven years old. When Claude Arnold (in attendance) and the ’50 Sooners won the national title, Wilkinson was eight years old. When Dick Ellis (in attendance) and the ’52 Sooners of Eddie Crowder and Billy Vessels beat Texas to start a six-game series winning streak, Wilkinson was 10 years old. When the ’53 Sooners began the epic 47-game winning streak, Wilkinson was 11 years old.; he was 15 the next time the Sooners lost.
“Here I am 68 years old, and we’re getting closer in age,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson regaled the old Sooners with memories of them and his dad. He told of visiting coaching legends who came to Norman to learn more football from Bud Wilkinson. Bear Bryant. Darrell Royal. Frank Leahy. Woody Hayes.
Hayes visited the Wilkinson home and met Pat, Jay’s older brother and valedictorian at Norman High School. Hayes went home and asked his son, Steve, why he couldn’t make straight A’s like the son of Bud Wilkinson. “Maybe,” Steve Hayes said, “I’ll make straight A’s when you win 47 straight games.”
Wilkinson spoke about the letters he received from his dad over the years, many of which came while Jay was a football player at Duke, where he made all-American, and the philosophies of life that were apparent in those lessons.
1. Values. 2. Attitude. “What can I give to the group, not what can I take from the group.” 3. Preparation. “Don’t set your sights too low, but make a practical plan.” 4. Perseverance. “Falling short can be beneficial if you go forward in the most trying of circumstances.”
“For my dad, the scoreboard was only one aspect of winning,” Jay Wilkinson said. “His philosophy wat not about the outcome of any single event. It was about a process … winning is a natural extension of that process.”
Wilkinson told the alums what they already knew: Bud’s teams won 14 conference titles in 17 years, three national championships and produced winning streaks of 31 and 47 games.
Wilkinson said those coaches who came through town had “different characteristics, different styles, one common denominator, each had a burning desire to win and the ability to transcend that desire to others.”
Bud Wilkinson’s first question each year to his team. “How good do you want to be?” And then Bud’s answer: “It’s up to you.”
Which led to a funny story, in which Jack Ging, an OU halfback from the 1950s, met with his coach, who tried to calm down the volatile Ging, who was consumed with football. “There are 100 million Chinese that don’t even know a thing about America, much less football,” Bud told Ging. To which Ging said, “Coach, winning might not be important to you, but it is to me.”
But Jay Wilkinson said his dad stuck by his convicti0ns all those years. “He knew everybody wanted to win on Game Day, but he knew only those players who paid the price would be successful.”
Jay Wilkinson related a story about preparation. Jay returned to Oklahoma in 1970 to run for Congress, as a Republican in the heavy-Democrat 4th Congressional district. Against 22-year U.S. Rep. Tom Steed. Not a wise move. An out-of-state marketing company was hired to help Wilkinson with his campaign. A commercial was produced that showed Wilkinson walking through a cow pasture. Steed responded that said Tom Steed might not be as smart as his opponent, but he knows enough that when he walks through a cow pasture, you better be looking down. “We hadn’t prepared well enough,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson went to Duke because his dad didn’t want his sons playing for him. Pat went to Stanford with no opportunity to come to OU, but by the time Jay graduated from Norman High, Bud had left the decision up to him. Crowder, Bud’s assistant coach, convened some players, including Leon Cross, who was in attendance Friday and said Crowder told them to help recruit Jay but don’t let Bud know. “He would be madder than hell.”
Wilkinson ended up going to Duke and making all-American. He said he feared being a distraction at OU. While a junior at Duke, Jay became discouraged. Tired. Long practices during the season, unlike at OU, where Bud tempered practices after the games began.
Jay wrote his dad a letter to complain. Bud wrote back: “You’re probably already doing this, but to perform with total loyalty even with disagreement in your own mind is performing to your utmost best.”
The Wilkinson stories never get old. And they really spring to life when they come from the man who looks and sounds like the Oklahoma coaching legend.
Ford Center: We hardly knew thee
The Thunder announced Thursday that it plans to open negotiations to rename the Ford Center. Which was to be accepted and is a crying shame.
As corporate names go, the Ford Center is quality. Concise. Classy-sounding. Non-jarring to the senses.
By Paul Hellstern, The Oklahoman
We’ve all come to accept corporate names on our ballparks and coliseums. The days of the futuristic-sounding Myriad, Spectrum, Omni, etc., are gone. The days of the regal-sounding Boston Garden, Chicago Stadium, Madison Square Garden are gone.
So we’re in a hope-they-don’t-embarrass-us mode. Ford Center, Staples Center, Pepsi Center, we can live with. Quicken Loans Arena, Energy Solutions Arena, Jobing.com Arena, we have to hold our noses.
Who knows what we’ll get in OKC? Chesapeake Center or Devon Center would be acceptable. Express Personnel Center would not.
The problem the Thunder faces is we’re still going to call it the Ford Center. I hope no one takes offense. Ford Center has name recognition. The other day, I played golf in Stillwater, the Mitch Jones Memorial Tournament, and you can see Travis Ford’s new house from the No. 5 green. The guys in my group were all from Stillwater; they nicknamed Ford’s gorgeous new home “The Ford Center.”
So the “Ford Center” marketing has worked. In its nine years of existence, the Ford Center brand has become as established as the Myriad once was.
The Myriad name gave way to the Cox Center — initially, the Cox Business Services Convention Center; ouch — eight years ago, and lots of people still call it the Myriad, though lots others have come around to Cox.
What you first name a building is the name that will stick longest. So I hope the Thunder is patient with everyone. It’s going to remain the Ford Center in many minds for many years.
Bobby Bowden: A sad ending to a glorious career
Bobby Bowden says he was pushed out at Florida State and doubts the relationship with FSU president T.K. Wetherell can be repaired, even though 50 years ago Wetherell was a Florida State wide receiver whose position coach was … Bobby Bowden.
As for the push out, no kidding. I know Florida State painted Bowden’s departure as his decision, but no one was buying that. We all knew Wetherell finally found the gumption to make a much-needed change.
Florida State produced one of the nation’s greatest college dynasties; 14 straight years placing in the top four in the nation, 1987-00. Bowden won national titles in 1993 and 1999.
Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden, left, shakes hands with running back Jermaine Thomas during the third quarter of the Gator Bowl NCAA college football game against West Virginia after Thomas scored a touchdown, Friday, Jan. 1, 2010, in Jacksonville, Fla. Florida State won 33-21, in Bowden's last game. (AP Photo/Phil Coale)
Before Bowden’s 1976 arrival as head coach, Florida State was a so-so program with no status in college football. He turned the Seminoles into a power the way Bud Wilkinson turned Oklahoma into a power.
Bowden coached 34 Florida State seasons, going 316-97-4, counting some victories in 2006 and 2007 that the NCAA has stripped from the Seminoles. Overall, Bowden’s coaching record was 389-129-4. If you want to make the argument that Bowden is the greatest coach in college football history, you will have some ammunition.
But that doesn’t mean Bowden deserved to remain the Seminole coach. Since losing to OU in the 2000 national title game, Florida State reeled off the following records: 8-4, 9-5, 10-3, 9-3, 8-5, 7-6, 7-6, 9-4 a nd 7-6. All that in an era when the ACC was not great; the first half of those records came with Virginia Tech and Miami still in the Big East. And FSU’s greatest rivals, Florida and Miami, had a couple of dips, which the Seminoles did not take advantage.
There absolutely was no doubt that Florida State’s program was slipping quickly, and Bowden’s assertion that he wanted just one more season was not worthy of belief. It also was not warranted.
College football programs function as fiefdoms. Coaches are allowed to reign and rule as monarchs. Except they serve at the pleasure of higher authorities, who if pushed enough by lack of success are compelled to make a change.
Florida State was compelled to make a change and hand the program to Jimbo Fisher.
Bowden’s sour-apples attitude now belies his decades-long class. Bitterness does not become a man who espouses the Christian life. Bobby Bowden was very good to Florida State football. And Florida State football was very good to Bobby Bowden. All good things must come to an end, and sometimes some not-so-good things.
Power Lunch Chat Recap: Berry Tramel
