Don't let Stoops fool you
Published: 8/27/2008 3:42 PM
Last Modified: 8/27/2008 3:42 PM
Bring up Oklahoma's problems in their recent BCS bowls, Bob Stoops raises shields. He talks about the success his Sooners have had in getting into those games, i.e. winning three Big 12 Conference championships over the past four years. And, he's quick to remind you, with three different quarterbacks.
Nothing wrong with Stoops' defense mechanism. He is one of the most positive, confident and determined people I have ever encountered, and it would be out of character for him to present anything resembling a woe-is-us attitude about OU's BCS bumbling.
Still, there are clues that the Sooners enter the 2008 season with more than another league title in mind. The most obvious is the sign in the OU locker room with Pat White's post-Fiesta Bowl declaration that West Virginia was the hungrier team that night in Arizona.
Then there was something running back Mossis Madu let slip back on the Sooners' Media Day a few weeks ago: "We haven't won a BCS game in a loonnng time. We're trying to prove we don't have the hype for no reason. Every year we're out there trying to win a national championship."
This year, more than ever.
And in case anyone buys the idea that Stoops is truly all right with settling for Big 12 championships, read this account from the New York Times' Pete Thamel:
"There are only two locker rooms I’d ever seen where the players were devastated. One was the U.S.C. locker room after Matt Leinart and the Trojans lost the national title to Texas in the Rose Bowl. I remember Leinart sitting alone on a bench, eating a turkey sandwich and a chocolate chip cookie and drinking a Gatorade. It was kind of surreal that his whole senior year had come down to that.
"The other was the Oklahoma locker room after the Sooners lost to Boise State in what many consider the greatest finish to a college football game. That would be the Ian Johnson, Statue of Liberty, hook-and-ladder game. The most bizarre scene from that locker room was Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops just standing by himself, staring off into the ether. It’s rare to see a head coach alone anywhere, anytime. But Stoops could have been on Pluto, and no one at that second was going to visit."
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
