Stoops continues to insist he did not conspire against Texas
Published: 7/5/2010 4:45 PM
Last Modified: 7/5/2010 4:45 PM
Remember the buzz Bob Stoops created when he visited Alabama's BCS championship practices last December? Conspirators swore he was helping old pal Nick Saban gameplan to stop Texas in the Rose Bowl.
Not so, Stoops and Saban stated at the time.
"We've had numerous coaches from a lot of different places come to practice," Saban said in USA Today. "When we got together in the summer, he said that he wanted to come to practice some time. They got here right before practice. They watched the practice organization. They watched practice, and they left."
Was it really that simple?
Yes it was, Stoops reiterated on Paul Finebaum's WJOX Radio talk show in Birmingham last week.
"Nick had actually called me several months earlier than that talking about us getting together," Stoops told Finebaum. "Finally, we got down there before we started our summer camps (last August). I really wanted to see some of their facilities because we were redoing some of ours. We went down there with some of our staff and shared defensive ideas. And a couple of our offensive coaches as well went down and visited with some of their offensive coaches. Just sharing ideas on different ways to defend certain formations we're both seeing. Some different styles of offense, how we defended them, how they defended them.
"And then it just carried over. I thought it would be interesting to see somebody else's bowl preparation and how they're practicing. Really that's all that was, seeing how someone else goes about it. We had a little bit of free time at the time, an extra day. It was just an opportunity to watch them work some bowl practice."
Finebaum's follow-up: "Not to state the obvious, but it obviously made you a very popular man in Austin, Texas."
"I don't know that I can be any more popular down there," Stoops remarked. "In the end, that had nothing to do with Texas, and everything to do with the fact that Nick and I have been friends and have known each other a long time. We had already shared ideas before the season. It was an opportunity to just... Really, we didn't have any time to do anything strategy-wise. It was just to watch how they orchestrated their bowl practice. That was all it was about."
Finebaum wasn't quite ready to let it die. "In watching that (Alabama-Texas) game, did you see things that you had talked about?"
"No," Stoops replied. "Whether I talked about them or not, they have our tape. Nick doesn't need to talk to me or anyone else to know what we're doing. Does that make sense?
"Everyone makes such a big deal about it. In the end, that doesn't matter. We have each other's tapes. You can see what everyone does when they're playing someone. What works, what doesn't, those kinds of things. We didn't talk about anything that way that would have mattered in that game.
"The tape shows everything. I don't need to talk to Alabama to pull up their tape and know exactly what they did. It's right there on tape."
Think that'll be enough to satisfy the folks down in Austin?
Me neither.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
