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Handle with care: Questions about Penn State situation
Published: 7/23/2012 5:56 PM
Last Modified: 7/23/2012 5:56 PM

Observation from day one of the Big 12 football media days: Some coaches absolutely dodged (or talked around) questions about Penn State.

And I don’t blame them a bit.

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel was asked about Joe Paterno during the SEC media days last week and, in defending Paterno, left with the public relations version of a black eye. Courageous? Or goofy?

Emotions (sadness, outrage) run high regarding the Penn State issue, and rightly so.

Those who talk about it should tread carefully because you can easily offend if you say the wrong things or if words are misconstrued or taken out of context.

A newspaper reporter asked one of the players attending the Big 12 media day about the Penn State situation and the kid said something vanilla and followed it by saying it was “not my problem.”

I knew what he meant when he said “not my problem.” He was saying he wants to concentrate on his own business and not answer questions about a scandal far away. But I also now how those words would look (insensitive) if anyone happened to read them in print.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops was pitched a few Penn State-related questions. Here’s how he handled them:

Question: I assume you heard about the Penn State penalties. What’s your initial reaction to them and your thought on the NCAA getting involved, and then just the severity of the penalties?

Stoops: My expertise is just in coaching football. So administrators, presidents and (university officials), you trust they understand what needs to happen. And that’s not really up to me to judge.
The whole situation is just incredibly tragic. That’s the only way I can use to describe the whole thing. I’m not one to -- I don’t know all the facts. I’m not one to judge. But in every way, in every way possible, children should always be protected by adults. And that’s all I would say about it.

Question: There’s talk about the culture of a program leading to the Penn State situation. What is it about Oklahoma’s culture that would help something like this ever happening:

Stoops: The bottom line is that I’ve always been aware of who I answer to. That is my athletic director and president, Joe Castgiilone and David Boren and, ultimately, our board of regents. I’m in contact with our athletic office and our president’s office. There’s a lot of communication there and, again, I’ve always been very aware that I work for the university. I learned that, quite honestly, (from Steve Spurrier). Coach Spurrier was that way. Here’s a guy that really brought the success to Florida before they had much. Here’s a Heisman Trophy winner and, as popular and as strong a figure that he was, he always made us, his assistants, aware that he answers to his athletic director and he president. The university is always going to be bigger than any of us.

Question: Has the Penn State stuff made you take pause in anything that you do?

Stoops: I can’t say specifically, but as an athletic department and as a university, we’re always aware of anything else that is happening and what are better ways that we can communicate. We’re constantly looking to do that, so I can’t say anything specifically. There will be different policies through the university that are looked at.

Question: Given the severity of penalties, will Penn State be the same football-wise?

Stoops: I don’t know. I’m just caught up with how tragic the whole thing is. I haven’t thought about what it’s going to do to them.



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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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