Why you shouldn't bring up Northern Illinois around Stoops for a while
Published: 1/14/2013 7:07 AM
Last Modified: 1/14/2013 7:07 AM
When Bob Stoops sat down with beat writers last Friday, I was curious if he felt victimized by bad luck. Think about it for a second.
If everything falls the way it's supposed to on that final Saturday of the regular season, Oklahoma is headed to the Sugar Bowl to play Florida. Did you watch the Gators lose to Louisville Jan. 2? They looked like they'd rather be in dentist chairs.
Sure, the OU defense that lined up against Johnny Manziel had problems. Still has them, as a matter of fact. But do you really think Florida QB Jeff Driskel could have taken advantage of them? He went 16-of-29 for 175 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in the Sugar Bowl. He rushed 10 times for four yards.
Let's compare.
Manziel's total yardage in the Cotton Bowl: 516
Driskel's total yardage in the Sugar: 179
Now, maybe OU's defense helped Johnny Gridiron a little bit with some missed tackles, some busted alignments and some broken spirit. But I seriously doubt Driskel could have gained an extra 337 yards by playing the Sooners instead of Louisville.
While we're at it, how many Texas A&M fans were at Cowboys Stadium Jan. 4? Sixty thousand? Sure seemed like it. It felt and sounded like Kyle Field North even in pregame.
Back in the Superdome two nights earlier, there couldn't have been more than 10,000 Gator fans. That's assuming reports that the university sold just 7,000 of its 17,000 ticket allotment were true.
Florida was a blah team playing in front of blah fans. Would the Gators been more excited against OU? Would their fans have bought more tickets? Sure.
But Texas A&M put on the best bowl-season show this side of Alabama, in front of a sea of twirling12th Man towels.
Until late Selection Sunday afternoon, we figured Manziel, A&M and their fans would be another team's problem. We figured OU was headed to New Orleans, not Arlington, leaving Louisville to face Florida State in the Orange.
So again, the question I felt worth asking Stoops last Friday: Have you considered the back luck of your draw since Jan. 4?
"I'm the luckiest guy in the world, you kidding me?" he shot back. "Why should I think about it? What's it gonna do? In the end, we didn't get that draw. Northern Illinois was up there."
Northern Illinois took OU's BCS bid, leaving A&M to take the Sooners' pride. Stoops was a good sport about it… until, that is, the very next topic came up: strength of schedule, as it pertains to the future four-team playoff.
That gave Stoops the green light to let slip a few feelings. Here's what he said:
"Northern Illinois... I'm not sitting here... It's way after the fact. I'm not at all complaining. They have their place had they beat Iowa, right? (Iowa beat NIU 18-17 in the '12 opener) They weren't undefeated. When Boise went to Georgia to start the year and beat Georgia and goes undefeated? Hey, give it to them...
(Stoops was a little confused here. Boise beat Georgia to start the 2011 season, but didn't go undefeated. The Broncos' unbeaten run to the Fiesta Bowl was in '09, after a season-opening win over Oregon… Still, his point remains)
... "They showed we're gonna beat whoever. But when you…. I don't agree with it. I just don't.
"In the end, Iowa had a difficult year, and here they (NIU) lose to them and go on and play a bunch of teams that we'd all love to play. To me, that's not valuing strength of schedule enough."
And with that, I think you know the answer to my original question.
Yes, Stoops is aware his Sooners weren't any good in the second half of the Cotton Bowl. He's also aware of some rotten BCS luck that put them in that position in the first place. He's not real happy about it either.
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
