Jenni Carlson NewsOK.com Blogging Community

The Kingfisher Kid is no longer a kid, and yet, I sure hope Curtis Lofton is taking some child-like wonder with him to the NFL. 

Watch my latest video commentary or read below:

There was a day back in December that I’ll long remember.

The Oklahoma football team was having its pre-bowl season press conference, and Curtis Lofton was talking about anything anyone asked him. That included the NFL.

He had yet to declare for the draft, but as the linebacker fielded questions about the NFL, he had the weirdest look on his face. It was either disbelief or wonder. I finally asked him what was up.

Lofton said that he really couldn’t believe he was sitting there talking about being an NFL Draft pick.

He explained it this way: “Just being from Kingfisher, a little small town, and being able to actually think about going to the NFL is just kind of astonishing.”

Lofton isn’t thinking about it any more. He’s going to the NFL. The Atlanta Falcons picked Lofton in the second round of this weekend’s draft, and folks in Georgia are talking about him being the heir apparent to Keith Brooking.

All the Brooking has done over the past decade is anchor the Falcon defense.

Lofton has yet to play a down in the NFL, and yet, he has already started living out a dream. And you know what? I can’t help but be pleased as punch for the guy.

On a weekend when it’s easy to get wrapped up in the big money being thrown at young men or the out-of-control hype machine spitting out one superlative after another, Lofton is a guy who’s easy to be happy for. He is a small-town guy who works hard and keeps his nose clean.

I haven’t had a chance to talk to Lofton since he was drafted Saturday, but I did see him at Mark Clayton’s charity event a few weeks ago. He was running in the same circles with NFL types that weekend, and he still had some of that awe in his eyes. The wonder was there just like that December press conference.

Here’s hoping Lofton takes that attitude with him to the NFL.

Enjoying the ride is never a bad way to go.

Malcolm Kelly set off something of a firestorm with his comments Wednesday after working out for NFL scouts.

No one in the media really and truly knows the athletes that we cover, but still, I’ve had a chance to talk one-on-one with the former Oklahoma wide receiver numerous times during the past three seasons. I’m not ready to vilify him like many have.

Watch my latest video commentary or read below:

Malcolm Kelly is one of the good guys.

I think.

About two weeks ago, I would’ve said that about the former Oklahoma wide receiver without so much as a hint of trepidation, without even a smidge of reservation. Even when injury kept Kelly out of the Fiesta Bowl this year and Sooner fans cried foul, I stood up for Kelly.

Because he’s hurt and doesn’t play makes him a bad guy?

I wasn’t buying it.

Kelly is a quality character guy. Good demeanor. Clean record. Thoughtful. Insightful. Honest. In fact, one of the things that I have long told people is that Kelly has all the skills of an NFL receiver without the attitude of one.

Keyshawn Johnson? Terrell Owens? Chad Johnson? Malcolm Kelly isn’t like that. With him, you get all the catches without any of the crazy.

Then along came Pro Day, Part Deux at OU.

Kelly and a small cadre of fellow NFL hopefuls worked out for scouts Wednesday. And after the festivities, Kelly had some not-so-nice things to say. He spoke ill of the set-up, the medical staff, and the strength and conditioning staff.

Listen, I don’t pretend to know all of what’s gone on behind the scenes. Was Kelly’s leg injury was misdiagnosed during the season? Was his workout moved at the last minute? I really don’t know.

What I do know is this: for starters, Kelly might have thought better about what he said after running so-so time in the 40-yard dash. No need to come off to the NFL types like you’re fishing for excuses. And secondly, Kelly might have given us a little insight into some of the frustrations of college athletes bubbling just under the surface.

Kelly said, “You play somewhere for three years, you give ‘em all you got every summer, every winter, and all you ask for is an hour and a half to have it like you want to have it.”

You know what? I can’t argue with that. College athletes are amongst the most under paid laborers in the country. For the revenue they produce for their coaches, their programs and their schools, they get back a very small percentage of what they’re owed. But they do it because they get a scholarship, a whole lot of coaching and teaching, and a chance to show off their abilities.

What Kelly said Wednesday, though, shows that there is frustration among athletes. They give and give and give and feel like the school doesn’t reciprocate. Hard to argue when you see coaches earning millions and schools building athletic palaces.

Kelly probably said what many athletes think. Does that make him a bad guy? A complainer? An eccentric? I’m not ready to chalk him up into any of those categories just yet, but it’ll be interesting to see what we remember about this episode in a few years. Was it the start of a trend, or was it an out of character moment?

Only time will tell, and even though he might prove me wrong, I still think Kelly is one of the good guys.

Spring football makes its return this week.

Yawn.

Sort of.

Watch my latest video commentary or read below:

It’s heresy to say in this state, but I could do without spring football.

Oh, I know. It’s football. What’s not to love?

But so often the heroes of spring are never heard from again. If starters are the least bit injured, they will sit out the spring, allowing for reserves to shine. They’re lauded. They’re loved. Then when the fall begins and the starters return, they’re lost.

It all seems worthless.

But not this year. The spring will be worth it if only for one player.

Artrell Woods.

You remember, the Oklahoma State receiver was seriously injured in a freak weight room accident last summer. He needed emergency surgery to repair a dislocated vertebra in his back. That’s every bit as serious an injury as it sounds.

Now, less than eight months later, Woods is on the verge of returning to the football field. He was cleared to start jogging and running again in January. When the Cowboys start spring drills, Woods won’t be allowed to participate in any contact drills, but he will run routes and work with the receivers during individual sessions.

Amazing.

Woods’ return is perhaps the most amazing sports story we’ve ever seen in our fair state. Sure, Jason White came back from two knee surgeries to win the Heisman Trophy. That’s pretty amazing in its own right. Still, Woods had no feeling in his legs after the accident. There was paralysis. But next week, he’ll be back on the football field.

That makes spring football this year more than bearable this year. It will make it down right enjoyable.

Want to know more about the Cowboys and the Sooners as they prepare for spring drills? Check out Sunday’s Oklahoman, then make sure you don’t miss our Main Event on Monday, which will be dedicated to spring football.

Another weekend in January. Another game for Paul Smith.

This has been a busy month for the Tulsa quarterback. After leading the Golden Hurricane to a GMAC Bowl victory, Smith jetted out about two hours after the game, bound for Hawaii and the Hula Bowl. He returned to Tulsa after that senior-showcase game, and a few hours later, he was off again, this time for Houston. Smith will play there in the East-West Shrine game on Saturday.

College football could have no better ambassador.

Sure, Smith is now focused on NFL aspirations and dreams. But the truth is, Smith embodies what’s good about college football. He genuinely seems to have enjoyed the experience, the camaraderie, the campus lifestyle. Frankly, he’s a throwback.

I had a chance to talk to him last week before the Hula Bowl, and here are a few of his comments from our conversation:

About the GMAC Bowl: “Couldn’t draw it up much better. To end it the way we did, you couldn’t have really planned it any better or written it any better in a book. I did as much as I could to soak it in.”

About his emotions playing his final college game: “It was bittersweet for sure. My situation’s been so perfect. I’d love to come back and play some more.”

No matter what happens with Smith in the NFL Draft and beyond, his college legacy will remain. He enjoyed the game, relished the experience and soaked in the life. College football could stand a few more players like Paul Smith.

It’s not every day you get to opine about sports figures and their enviable hair.

Today, I have.

Watch my latest video commentary or read below:

I am in awe of Kurt Budke’s hair.

Really. I am.

I came to this conclusion Wednesday night at his post-game press conference. His Oklahoma State women’s basketball team had just defeated Missouri and pushed its record to 15-1, the best start ever in program history, and yet, I found myself mesmerized by Budke’s hair.

Part down the middle. Feathered back from there. The comb marks above his ears visible.

It makes Budke look a little bit like a televangelist, but in a good way. If that’s possible. It is Budke’s signature look.

All of this got me thinking about other sports types in our fair state with distinctive hair. Let me tell you, it’s amazing what you find yourself thinking about on a late-night drive back from Stillwater. And heck, it’s never bad to pull occasionally from the off-the-wall file for a video commentary.

So, without further ado:

Sherri Coale. Could you imagine her with anything other than her curly blond hair? What if she dyed her hair black or straightened it out? That’d just be weird.

Mr. Spiky Hair. Mike Gundy could fund a small country with what he spends on hair product.

Doug Sauter. It’s not the hair on his head, but rather the hair on his face. The Blazers coach has a beard that Rip Van Winkle would’ve died for.

Phil Loadholt and Duke Robinson. The dreaded duo was more than a nuisance to opposing defense. The Oklahoma offensive linemen have some of the coolest dreadlocks around.

Larry Fedora. I know, I know. He is no longer in our fair state, having left OSU for Southern Miss, but his hair was a regular topic of conversation in our office. I chalk it up to jealously. Who wouldn’t want Fedora’s abundant locks?

At the end of the day, all those looks are good and fine, but the one that still gets me is Budke’s. I’m almost hoping that his team wins the conference or something so someone will muss up his hair like Arizona’s players did to Lute Olsen at the Final Four.

Talk about a hair-raising experience.

Has the California sun baked Pete Carroll’s brain?

Watch my latest video commentary or read below:

Pete Carroll has it made at Southern Cal.

He wins games by the dozen. He holds La La Land by the tail. And he lives in a place where it’s always sunny and 78.

Why would he want to leave?

That’s the question I’ve been asking myself after news surfaced last week that Carroll was talking seriously with the Atlanta Falcons. These are the same Falcons, by the way, who have lost their starting quarterback to the federal pen in Leavenworth and lost their first-year coach to Arkansas. These are the worst of times in Atlanta.

And still, Carroll wants to leave the best of situations for the Falcons.

Heck, this is a guy who’s big-time in Hollywood. How many people can honestly say that?

So, what gives with Carroll wanting to bolt from USC? I suppose it could be that he wants the challenge of coaching in the NFL again. He had decent success in the league before, but why the Falcons? Why now?

Carroll has entertained other overtures from teams. It’s difficult to believe that if he really wanted to coach in the NFL again that he couldn’t do better than the Falcons. Right now, Miami is in better shape than Atlanta, and the Dolphins won all of one game this season.

Perhaps Carroll is intrigued by the chance to be the coach and the director of player personnel. Falcons owner Arthur Blank has dangled that carrot in front of Carroll. Being able to control roster moves is a perk many NFL coaches want but few receive.

Still, that seems a shaky reason to go back to the NFL.

All that leads to one question: what’s different now compared to times when the NFL temped Carroll before?

The biggest thing that comes to mind: possible NCAA sanctions hanging over his program’s head. I wrote a bit Saturday about the allegations swirling around Reggie Bush, which are detailed in the new book, “Tarnished Heisman.” The former Trojan star may have taken as much as $300,000 in illegal benefits during his final year at USC. It’s a story that’s made headlines but flown largely under the radar, considering the seriousness of the violation.

Carroll’s interest in the Falcons, though, may signal that this is a bigger deal than most folks think. He might want to get out before things get bad.

Leaving USC seems silly, but leaving USC for Atlanta seems down right crazy. Just maybe, though, a situation that’s been so very good for Carroll is about to turn so very bad.

Perhaps this is sacrilege to say in our fair state, but what the heck, I’ll say it anyway.

I’m happy for Les Miles.

The former Oklahoma State football coach snagged himself a national championship on Monday night. His current squad, the LSU Tigers, took it to Ohio State in the BCS championship game and won going away, 38-24. The coach who Sooner fans came to loathe and Cowboy fan came to loathe worse is riding high today.

Watching LSU is always a bit weird for me. Seeing Miles all decked out in purple and gold, not orange and black. Catching occasional glimpses other familiar faces on the sidelines.   

Josh Henson, the tight ends coach, is a Tuttle native and an OSU alum. Running backs coach Larry Porter was on Miles’ staff in Stillwater. Ditto for defensive backs coach Doug Mallory and assistant athletic director for football administration Mack Butler.

Defensive coordinator Bo Pelini is familiar in these parts, too. About to take over as the head coach at Nebraska, Pelini spent time on the staff at Oklahoma.

Maybe all that means I’m not just happy for Miles but also for all of those guys.  They were always good folks to deal with, and when good things happen to good folks, it’s easy to feel good for them.

QUICK HITS

* Roger Clemens is all in. If he did what the Mitchell Report said he did, he is absolutely going to bust. His denials about steroid use and his lawsuit against his former trainer are like a poker player going all in. Is the pitching great holding aces? Or is he bluffing? The answer will either restore Clemens or leave him broken.

* Keep those nominations for unsung heroes in sports coming. E-mail me at jcarlson@oklahoman.com.

* Two years ago today, I went on my first date with an amazing man named Ryan. Now, he is my fiance. But please, don’t ask when the big day is. We haven’t got that part figured out just yet. We’re thinking perhaps the first or second Saturday in October or the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

(Just kidding, boss!)

Tired of hearing about Oklahoma’s Fiesta Bowl loss?

You might want to look elsewhere, then.

If you can’t get enough about the Sooners, watch my latest video commentary or read below:

Oklahoma needed DeMarcus Granger.

And Reggie Smith.

And Lendy Holmes.

The Sooners needed all of them Wednesday night with the 11 other defenders already playing in the Fiesta Bowl. Give OU 14 guys against West Virginia. Maybe then, the Sooners could’ve tackled someone.

The Sooners’ night in the desert was a total disaster. The Mountaineers were supposed to be the team in disarray, the program in peril. Instead, the Sooners were the ones who looked discombobulated.

Another big game for the Sooners.

Another big loss.

Granted, OU has needed to win its share of big games just to make it to six BCS bowls in the past eight seasons. But after winning in their first two BCS appearances — the 2000 Orange and 2002 Rose – the Sooners have lost four consecutive BCS bowls. They’ve lost them by an average of 16 points, too.

Not good.

Not good at all.

Before the Fiesta Bowl, some thought Oklahoma had a legitimate argument that it should’ve played in the national championship game. After the way the Mountaineers stuck it to the Sooners, though, it looked more like West Virginia was the one with the should-been-in-the-title-game argument.

Used to be, pundits and prognosticators thought OU was one of the four or five elite teams in the country. Now, the Sooners are bound to be lumped in with a much bigger group of teams that are still very good but aren’t those chosen few. That perception change matters as long as humans are involved with the BCS formula.

Look at Ohio State. The computers liked the Buckeyes this season, but the thing that propelled them to the BCS championship game were the humans. Ohio State finished third in the computer rankings but was first in both of the human polls.

If OU’s in a similar situation next season, will the voters be as generous? It’s impossible to know, of course, but continuing to lose BCS games signals at least in part to the voters that you have a soft regular-season schedule, that you struggle to keep up with elite teams, that maybe you don’t belong.

Not good for the Sooners.

Not good at all.

Oklahoma’s opponent in the Fiesta Bowl lost its coach over the weekend.

Why did Rich Rodriguez bolt from West Virginia?

Watch my latest video commentary or read here:

It’s hard to blame Rich Rodriguez for leaving West Virginia for Michigan.

No doubt you heard the news over the weekend that Oklahoma’s opponent for the Fiesta Bowl is without a coach and Les Miles is official off the hook. Rodriguez has decided to become the next coach of the Wolverines.

In doing so, he leaves a program that lately has been better than the one he’s going to. The Mountaineers played in a BCS bowl two years ago and are back for another this year. The Wolverines have slipped a bit from such lofty pedestals.

Rodriguez is also leaving his alma mater. When he gathered his players over the weekend to tell them he was leaving, the emotions overflowed.

But at the end of the day, Rodriguez had to go.

Why?

The reason: even though there are more and more programs that can derail a contender’s national title hopes, there are still few programs that can actually win a championship.

These past few months, parity fueled one of the wackiest, wildest college football seasons ever. And yet, look who’s playing for the title.

LSU and Ohio State.

Could there be two more traditional, more storied powerhouses?

Granted, the likes of Kansas and Illinois and West Virginia are playing in BCS bowls, too, but they aren’t playing for the title.

More than ever before, there are teams who can compete with the big boys. I’d guess there are 40 or 50 teams in college football that you could line up against LSU or Ohio State and think they’d have a pretty good shot at winning. The talent would be comparable. Ditto for the coaching and the facilities.

But competing with a team like LSU or Ohio State is entirely different than becoming a team like them. Look at the title game match-ups over the past few years. Ohio State-Florida. Texas-USC. Oklahoma-USC. OU-LSU. Ohio State-Miami.

Despite increasing parity, very few programs are still in a position to actually play for a title year in a year out. That number is sure to grow, but it isn’t there yet.

Rich Rodriguez knows as much. That’s why he left West Virginia for Michigan. That’s why he left a place he loves for a place he can play for a title.

Celebrate the season.

The college football season, that is.

Watch my latest video commentary or read below:

I thought long and hard about today’s subject. I considered the BCS mess. I figured I could talk about the screwy computers or the whacked-out voters, the travesty of the system or the need for a playoff.

But in the end, I decided against it.

Enough with the downers, at least for now. This has been a college football season worth celebrating, so let’s celebrate.

Three cheers for the underdogs. For Appalachian State, which set the tone for this wacky, wild season by beating Michigan in Ann Arbor. For Stanford, which beat USC despite being a gazillion-point underdog. For Pitt and Arkansas and every other team that threw a wrench into championship plans.

And what about the out-of-nowhere teams that made it into the national championship hunt at one point or other?

There were teams like Boston College and Arizona State. These are programs that have won a few games over the years, but really, who thought they’d be in the chase for the championship?

Then, there were teams like Kansas and Missouri and South Florida. You’d be more likely to see those three teams at the top of the basketball polls. Instead, they became powers in the football polls.

Go figure.

Then there were the players. Darren McFadden did a little bit of everything. Tim Tebow rewrote the record books. Glenn Dorsey dominated on defense.

The locals were pretty darn good, too. We marveled at Malcolm Kelly’s hands and Dantrell Savage’s toughness. We wondered how it was that Curtis Lofton always made big plays and Brandon Pettigrew always seemed to score a touchdown every time he caught the ball.

But, of course, the greatest thing about this college football season is the thing that’s great about every college football season.

The games.

Who could forget LSU going for it on fourth down five times against Florida and making it every time? What about woeful Pitt going to West Virginia, beating the Mountaineers and ending their national title hopes? Arizona knocked out Dennis Dixon, then knocked out Oregon. Hawaii beat Boise State and touched off a wild celebration.

Every week there’s been something else to cheer, something else to celebrate.

So, why not look on the bright side? Sure, college football has its foibles and its flaws, but hasn’t there been enough moaning and groaning already?

At least for today, I’m going to see the positives.

Tomorrow? Who knows?