Sports Extra - Blogs - Fans have Stoops back win or else

OU | OSU | TU | ORU | HIGH SCHOOLS | THUNDER | COLLEGE FOOTBALL | COLLEGE BASKETBALL | NFL | OUTDOORS | GOLF | PROS | ALL

@TWSportsExtra

HOMEPAGES

SPORTS EXTRA BLOGS

FOR THE RECORD

Scores, statistics and standings for local and national sports.

LOCAL PROS

ALL SPORTS

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

OUTDOORS

FIND A STORY

Search the World's archives

EMAIL ALERTS

SOCIAL MEDIA

RSS FEEDS

CONTACT US

Editors
Michael Peters
Sports Editor
Patrick Prince
Asst. Sports Editor
Columnists
John Klein
Sr. Columnist
John E. Hoover
Columnist
Writers
Eric Bailey
OU sports, Big 12 sports
Guerin Emig
OU sports
Jimmie Tramel
OSU sports, ORU sports
Kelly Hines
OSU sports
Bill Haisten
TU sports, Thunder
Barry Lewis
High Schools, Drillers
Mike Brown
High Schools, Shock
Kelly Bostian
Outdoors

BUY PHOTOS & PAGES

Buy a published photo by clicking the "Order this Picture" link on the photo. For a full-color page reprint, call 732-8198 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday or order online.

ADVERTISE ON SPORTS EXTRA

Learn more about the site.

Fans have Stoops' back, win or... else
Published: 7/27/2012 8:09 PM
Last Modified: 7/27/2012 8:09 PM

Bob Stoops and members of the Oklahoma football team made the media rounds this week, first at Big 12 media days in Dallas on Monday then on the ESPN campus Thursday.

If you haven't seen it, Guerin Emig has a great play-by-play of the Stoops vs. Skip Bayless showdown. (Read the blog here)

John Hoover also has an interesting take on Stoops' obligations to the media. (Read the blog here).

While it would make our job easier if Stoops was more available, he's well within his right to talk as little as the OU administration will let him.

I have less of a problem with Stoops' reluctance to do interviews than with Mike Gundy's refusal to let his starting quarterback meet the press.

At least Stoops is a man (sorry, I had to work that in) who is making his own choices. Gundy saying Wes Lunt is mature enough to start but not mature enough to fulfill interview requests seems somewhat counter to the educational mission many coaches profess.

No matter who talks or when they do it, we'll be around to cover it. It's what the fans expect.

And if more than 20 years around athletics has taught me anything, it's this: Fans care about one thing -- winning.

Fans will put up with almost any level of NCAA impropriety -- and even a certain threshold of criminal activity -- if the win column grows large enough.

So taking away access hardly moves the needle -- unless of course your coach starts to lose.

Some TU basketball fans were all too eager to point toward former coach Doug Wojcik's abrasive personality and less-than-cordial relationship with the local press as reasons he should lose his job.

Had Wojcik made a couple of recent NCAA appearances, well that same behavior would have been greeted with cheers of, "You tell 'em, coach."

Now, that's not to say playing nice with the media doesn't have its public relations benefits.

By many accounts, former Oklahoma State football coach Pat Jones was able to stick around an extra year or two, few wanting to pile on the amicable coach as the loses mounted.

Could Stoops' public persona damage his legacy? Perhaps, but I can't imagine, 15 years from now, Stoops yucking it up on local media like Jones, Barry Switzer and Billy Tubbs do now.

Somehow, I'm guessing Stoops isn't too concerned. And neither are Sooners fans -- as long as another national title isn't too far in the offing.

Reader Comments

1 Total

Show: Newest First

Learn About Our Comment Policy

Blue Max (6 months ago)

You're misrepresenting. Gundy is not saying Lunt can't talk to the press. He is saying NONE of his freshmen is allowed to be interviewed by the press. Not only this year, but every year he's been a head coach.

1 comments displayed

To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.

To sign in to your account, go to tulsaworld.com/signin.
To activate your print subscription for unlimited digital access and to post comments, go to tulsaworld.com/activate.
To purchase a subscription, go to tulsaworld.com/subscribe.

The Editor's Desk

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

Follow Michael Peters on Twitter

Subscribe to this blog

2/2013	1/2013	12/2012	11/2012	10/2012	9/2012
8/2012	7/2012	6/2012	5/2012	4/2012	3/2012
2/2012	1/2012	12/2011	11/2011	10/2011	9/2011
8/2011	7/2011

Your bookmark will appear on your Profile page. Please give it a title, and short description so that visitors to your page will understand where the bookmark leads.
Bookmark Title :

Bookmark Text :