Stoops touches on expansion, a playoff and his freshman WRs
Published: 5/24/2012 6:48 AM
Last Modified: 5/24/2012 6:48 AM
Bob Stoops appeared on a radio show called "3 Guys in a Garage" on WHB in Kansas City this week. The first batch of comments covers material you've probably heard/read before, but is relevant to the dominant topics of the day.
Speed through it if you please, but make sure you slow down for the stuff toward the end…
Stoops on the Big 12 Conference staying at 10 teams vs. expanding:
"I don't really care. I think if we stay at 10 that's fine. If we go to 12 that'll be fine. When you look at the rankings and the quality of teams in our league, it's still one of the better ones."
Stoops on the forthcoming four-team college football playoff:
"I like the idea. I strongly believe it needs to be held inside the BCS bowl games, so that the players do get a bowl experience, and all the people at the university who are used to experiencing a bowl game, that they can continue to do that.
"This way, if you're playing in the Orange or the Sugar with the four teams, you get a five- or six-day bowl experience. And then after that when you go down for a national championship, you're not interested in a bowl experience. You go down a couple days before the game and you're ready to play."
Stoops on the 10-team Big 12 round robin vs. the two-division/Big 12 championship format:
"Either way is fine. I thought last year was good in that you do play everybody. We've had some years when we had a Big 12 championship game where you're undefeated and you're playing a team that has two or three losses. Is that a championship game? Of you're playing a team that you already beat during the year and has another loss. And you don't have any.
"The fact that you play everybody and have one true champion in some ways can be even better. It was legitimate last year."
Stoops on the incoming group of freshman wide receivers:
"We're excited about these guys. They are talented. They've got size. Hopefully they have the work ethic when they get here."
(Theory: If Durron Neal, Sterling Shepard and Derrick Woods show up this summer and work as hard as fellow freshman Trey Metoyer did last spring, you can pretty much forget about the trio of suspended receivers contributing anything more to OU football. It's quite possible that's the case regardless of the freshmen, Stoops being as fed up with disciplinary issues as he is. But this could/should be the clincher.)
Stoops on his younger brother's return to the staff:
"Mike has a great track record and has had great success with us here as a defensive coordinator. We're excited to have him back, of course. He's got great experience and understands what we're trying to do. We've always been familiar with each other's schemes. Heck, we developed our scheme together at Kansas State and here at Oklahoma. I've got great faith that we'll come back and play better defense.
"A large part depends on how players play. We haven't made a play on the field as coaches in a long time."
(File away that last statement. Mike Stoops' return is encouraging, but he can't wage a magic wand and make last year's problems go away. If several players in Brent Venables' lineup don't perform better, OU won't make the defensive gains so many observers expect.)
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
