Have OU fans all grown up?
Published: 1/29/2009 7:02 PM
Last Modified: 1/29/2009 7:02 PM
As the clock ticked down on Oklahoma's latest BCS loss Jan. 8, I approached the host of a Norman sports talk show on the Dolphin Stadium sideline. I said something to the effect of: "Boy are you going to have a fun next few weeks," remembering all of the talk-show/message board madness that overcame OU fans the past four BCS cave-ins.
Well, it's been three weeks since Florida dumped on the Sooners' national championship dreams... and I'm still waiting for that "fun" to start.
But for a very few isolated cases, OU fans have handled defeat gracefully. They haven't unloaded on Bob Stoops, Kevin Wilson or Brent Venables. They haven't set fire to their season tickets. They haven't canceled subscriptions to those recruiting services that can tell you what sixth graders the Sooners are in on.
Basically, they've done what the ones my friend Jay Upchurch observed doing on their way back home from Miami.
"They calmly discussed the consequences of opportunities lost in the red zone of OU's 24-14 loss," Upchurch wrote in his Oklahoma Gazette column. "They broke down various aspects of the game where they felt the Sooners could have played better and lamented the fact that Gator quarterback Tim Tebow was albe to get his game untracked in the fourth quarter...
"I just listened, waiting for the moment someone called for Bob Stoops' head on a platter. It never came."
Now that fans have had time to digest better news about the return of Sam Bradford and all those underclassmen, and with National Signing Day arriving next week, it doesn't look like it ever will come. Not this year, anyway.
And isn't that refreshing.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
