Think Reynolds, Franks and others are getting Bob Stoops message yet?
Published: 5/10/2012 10:35 AM
Last Modified: 5/10/2012 10:35 AM
Bob Stoops said last December that he was putting his foot down.
But some Oklahoma football players apparently didn’t get Stoops’ message.
Whatever the reason for the suspension of four Sooners on Wednesday night — violation of team rules, is what OU called it — it’s either something they’ve done before or something Stoops told them would not be tolerated.
Jaz Reynolds, Trey Franks, Kameel Jackson and Quentin Hayes are indefinitely suspended. A good question for Stoops, if he took phone calls, answered texts or did any kind of unscheduled press events during the offseason, would be are the players suspended from all team activity, such as organized offseason workouts, or can they continue to go to voluntary morning passing sessions with Landry Jones? Or, are the suspensions strictly for that precious September-through-December part of the calendar?
It’s not Stoops’ M.O. to issue suspensions in May. I’ve covered OU football since 2004 and I can’t remember it happening. Stoops usually just suspends a guy (or guys) for a game or two early in the season without saying why or for how long. It’s just sort of noticed (or, perhaps after an offseason arrest, anticipated) that a player isn’t in uniform on game day.
Municipal incident reports from the Norman Police Department and court dockets from the Cleveland County Courthouse turned up no Sooners with arrests or citations, so their transgression appears confined to the OU campus.
Reynolds and Franks — projected to be starting receivers this fall — have been suspended before (the ever-present violation of team rules, again), and more than once. Jackson said Sunday on Twitter he was transferring to Texas A&M (though that apparently was news to Texas A&M), so that’s a mystery.
The list of dearly departed continues to grow. Since last winter, 11 scholarship players have left or have been told to leave. Jackson would be 12 if he goes. Franks’ suspension was first reported as a dismissal, so that would be 13 if he doesn’t return.
Draw your own conclusions. Stoops expressed both before and after the Insight Bowl there are a multitude of reasons for guys to leave.
The day before: “Some want more playing time . . . some have multiple issues that you don’t know about within the program, whether it be class attendance, whether it be workout absences, whether it be drug testing policies. Everything they have to handle, there’s a lot to it. And to be an athlete in good standing here, you’ve got to meet certain standards. And if they’re not, you know, maybe some guys need to find somewhere where they don’t have to meet those standards.
And the day after: “Some of them, like I said, miss way too many classes. Then they're suspended from practice. Then they're suspended from games. Some of them walk into class 30 minutes late, and it reflects on all of us. Some of them won't even show up for (Jerry Schmidt’s) workout, let alone not handle it. Or it gets a little tough and they leave, when 99 other guys don't leave. Usually they're habitual in all of these. Or fail drug tests.
At a certain point, what are you here for? If you're not here for any of this, you're not to be on scholarship. Or go somewhere where they let you fail drug tests, let you not go to class, let you skip workouts. Have at it. I'll bet there's places out there that do that. I'll bet they lose a lot of games.”
Wonder if they’re getting the message yet?
— John E. Hoover
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
