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Graham Saying the Right Things
Published: 8/27/2007 2:28 PM
Last Modified: 8/27/2007 2:28 PM

There is a difference between being boastful and being confident.
Many Tulsa fans felt former football coach Keith Burns was just being confident, when he kept opening his mouth and inserting a foot.
We all know how that turned out. There was plenty of talk but no one to walk the walk.
Some have compared Todd Graham to Burns.
The comparison doesn't fly with me.
Here's why.
Graham's bold talk is about his own team. He wants his team to know he expects a lot out of his players.
That's different than saying some other team isn't any good or that fans should make plans for the conference championship bowl game because the league will be no problem.
Nope, Graham would appear to just be blunt. He wants his team to undertstand. He expects to win every game. Otherwise, why even think about playing the games.
He expects to win conference championships. He espects TU to win the games it is supposed to win – such as this week's game at Louisiana-Monroe.
Coaches can't do a thing about their opponents. All they can do is something about their own team.
Graham has spent his first eight months on the job working, worrying and talking about his own team.
Winning games will definitely end the comparisons with Burns.




Reader Comments 1 Total
Blair (5 years ago)
John, I have no clue who made this comparison, but whoever did, I would like to point out that person has not one clue as to the type of man nor the type of coach TG is. The comparison stops because TG has already won, AT RICE!!!!! He won at Rice, a place twice as hard to win at then Tulsa (maybe not five years ago, but today I think that is valid). That comparison should have never been asserted.

Just my .02.
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Klein's Korner

Tulsa World senior sports columnist John Klein is in his fourth decade of covering sports. He started his newspaper career at The Daily Ardmoreite in 1977 and moved to the Tulsa World in 1978. He served 10 years as sports editor for the Tulsa World before being named to his current position in 2005. He also spent five years as the Southwest Conference beat writer for the Houston Post. He has won many writing awards and is a former Oklahoma Sports Writer of the Year.

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