TULSA WORLD HOMEPAGE | Tuesday, February 09, 2010 | WIRELESS
CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBER SERVICES | SIGN IN SIGN OUT | MY PROFILE PAGE | MY ACCOUNT

Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on RSS
Sports Extra!
Follow us on ...
OU | OSU | TU | ORU | HIGH SCHOOLS | COLLEGE FOOTBALL | COLLEGE BASKETBALL | NFL | FANTASY | OUTDOORS | GOLF | PROS | ALL




SPORTS EXTRA BLOGS
    Sports Editor
Mike Strain
Sports Columnist
Dave Sittler
The Picker
Entertaining & Infuriating

LOCAL PROS

ALL SPORTS

PHOTOS & VIDEOS

OUTDOORS

FIND A STORY

EMAIL ALERTS

SOCIAL MEDIA

RSS FEEDS

CONTACT US
BUY PHOTOS & PAGES

TULSA WORLD

ADVERTISE ON SPORTS EXTRA



Newspaper View Newspaper View      Print this story Print      Email this story Email     
Share      Bookmark Bookmark

Stoops' hesitation on Jarboe justified

 
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
Published: 8/2/2008  2:06 AM
Last Modified: 8/2/2008  2:24 AM

 What took him so long?

That's a fair question being asked of Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops. Many raised it Friday afternoon when Stoops announced his decision to dismiss freshman wide receiver Josh Jarboe from the team.

A lot of people thought Stoops should have sent Jarboe packing immediately after he learned Thursday about a video of Jarboe's that was on the Internet. The 74-second video showed Jarboe performing a profanity-laced rap song that included words about shooting people.

That was my reaction after I watched and listened to Jarboe. But it was a knee-jerk reaction, fueled by my knowledge of Jarboe's history with guns and the zero-tolerance policy he accepted when Stoops gave him a second chance.

Fans of rap music, who don't know Jarboe was on an OU football scholarship, would ask, "What's the big deal?" In the world of gangsta rap, which is defined as music "associated with urban street gangs and characterized by violent, tough-talking, often misogynistic lyrics," Jarboe's spiel would be considered normal instead of outrageous.

Stoops probably felt the same disgust as he watched the performance of his prized recruit.

Why he waited a day to announce his drastic decision is left to speculation, because Stoops' only comment on the incident came in the release issued by the school that Jarboe was no longer a Sooner.

My speculation is that Stoops knows a lot more about Jarboe's background than any fan or media person.

His staff did extensive research on the player after Jarboe was initially charged in March with a felony when a principal at Cedar Grove (Ga.) High School caught him carrying a loaded .38 caliber pistol in the school's parking lot.

Stoops elected to honor the letter of intent Jarboe signed with the Sooners in February after the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor and OU's investigation convinced the coach that this was an isolated case.

I'm guessing that Stoops needed time to take all that into consideration before making Friday's decision. He also had to weigh the right Jarboe has to freedom of speech against OU's right to kick him off the team.

There was also the knowledge that Stoops would forever change the teenager's life if he dismissed him. Sources said Jarboe was emotionally crushed when Stoops informed him Friday morning that he was yanking his scholarship and sending back to his Decatur, Ga., home.

Given all that to consider, Stoops did the right thing by taking his time and not overreacting with a decision he might later regret.

Stoops also make the right decision. Even someone as talented as the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Jarboe, whom ESPN ranked as the nation's 13th-best high school player last season, is not bigger and more important than a team and a school.

Some critics of Stoops' decision will undoubtedly ask how he could justify reinstating Dusty Dvoracek to the team and not giving Jarboe the same opportunity. The answer to that is obvious — Stoops knew what Dvoracek was all about.

Stoops had been around Dvoracek almost daily for three years when he decided to suspend the defensive tackle for the 2004 season after allegations of violent behavior. Stoops knew enough about Dvoracek that he didn't consider it was a gamble when he allowed Dvoracek to return for his senior season.

Dvoracek justified Stoops' faith in him with exemplary behavior off the field and in the classroom in both his year on suspension and when he had an outstanding senior season.

As I mentioned, Stoops knows more than most about Jarboe. But that insider information isn't even close to what the OU coach knew about Dvoracek. Because of NCAA rules on recruiting and not allowing coaches to work with players in the summer, Stoops hasn't had a chance to establish a relationship with Jarboe.

So, in the end, Stoops apparently decided Jarboe was simply not worth the risk. Stoops has invested nine years of work in rebuilding OU's national image both on and off the field. He also has to consider the coaching reputation he's spent 25 years building as an assistant and head coach.

Perhaps Jarboe would have had an unblemished, All-America career at OU. And there is no reason why that still can't happen for him elsewhere. Heavily recruited out of high school, Jarboe should have little trouble finding another Division I program willing to take him in.

But OU and Stoops had already given Jarboe another opportunity to prove that the gun incident in March was a one-time occurrence and not a pattern of behavior. Once the rap video became public, even if Jarboe never meant for it to go out on the Internet, Stoops had to decide if a second mistake made it impossible to justify a third chance.

Given those difficult circumstances, it's understandable why Stoops took one more day than most of us would have to wrestle with this matter before making up our minds.

So he deserves 24 hours worth of slack. It allowed him to make a tough but correct decision.



TOP 25 COACHES POLL



The Top 25 teams in the USA Today college football coaches preseason poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, 2007 records, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote, and final ranking:

Record Pts Pvs
1. Georgia (22) .11-2 1,438.3
2. USC (14)11-2 1,430.2
3. Ohio State (14)11-2 1,392.4
4. Oklahoma (3) . 11-3 1,329 8
5. Florida (5).9-4 1,293. 16
6. LSU (3) .12-2 . 1,1631
7. Missouri12-2 . 1,143.5
8.West Virginia.11-2 1,008.6
9. Clemson9-4 .999.22
10. Texas 10-3 .979.10
11. Auburn9-4 .888t14
12.Wisconsin .9-4 . 747. 21
13. Kansas12-1 714.7
14. Texas Tech9-4 644.23
15. Virginia Tech.11-3 .568.9
16. Arizona State . 10-3 560. 13
17. Brigham Young.11-2 .547t14
18. Tennessee .10-4 506. 12
19. Illinois.9-4 .422. 18
20. Oregon9-4 .399 24
21. South Florida 9-4 .350NR
22. Penn State 9-4 313.25
23. Wake Forest.9-4 .203NR
24. Michigan.9-4 .112. 19
25. Fresno State.9-4 91NR


Others Receiving Votes: Alabama 83, South Carolina 64, Utah 60, Rutgers 53, Florida State 53, Boston College 47, California 41, Pittsburgh 34, Boise State 25, Oregon State 23, Nebraska 17, Cincinnati 13,Virginia 12, Connecticut 9, Michigan State 9, Mississippi State 6, Kentucky 5, Notre Dame 5, TCU 5, Maryland 4, Texas A&M 3, UCLA 3, North Carolina 3, Louisville 2, Georgia Tech 2, UCF 2, Tulsa 1, Oklahoma State 1, Arizona 1, Colorado 1.
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist

Newspaper View Newspaper View      Print this story Print      Email this story Email     
Share      Bookmark Bookmark


COMMENTS 
      Add your comment Show: Most Recent Comment First

6 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!
Report Comment Reporting Comments

If you see a comment that violates our terms and conditions, please help us by clicking the "Report this Comment" link next to a comment. That will alert the web staff to review the comment. Thank you.  -- Web Editor Jason Collington
 

 
Report Comment
Michael Phillips, Tulsa (8/2/2008 7:03:52 AM)
My opinion of Stoops may have risen a bit. Maybe, and only maybe, a second chance was justified. I am sure he wanted to give the young man a third chance, but Stoops knew it was wrong. When you have such a serious decision to make there is nothing wrong with sleeping on it.
Report Comment
xyz123, (8/2/2008 7:50:47 AM)
Stoops goes from essentially saying "what's the big deal?" in the initial interviews to kicking the player off the team on Friday. Appears Boren and the higher ups made this decision, not Stoops. Spin it Dave, spin it.
Report Comment
bdh911, North Richland Hills (8/2/2008 11:10:03 AM)
If Gundy had hesitated like this, you'd be calling for his head. Your bias is really sad and obvious.
Report Comment
Stogdiddy, Broken Arrow (8/2/2008 1:48:30 PM)
exactly, bdh911.. No doubt Stoops did the right thing, but I doubt sittler wrote a similar article about Gundy when he hesitate* to boot Chris Collins (*by hesitating, I mean Gundy waited until Collins was back on Campus so he could do it in person, out of respect). I do believe Gundy got a lot of grief from the media over that, even though he was trying to show respect to a young man...
Report Comment
T Bone, (8/2/2008 6:53:19 PM)

Believe most oklahomans and even OSU Fans like Stoops, even though some OSU Fans call him visor boy. After the gun on the high school campus and the rap about killing people, believe he was extremely slow in calling the shot. Maybe he got prompting from Boren.
Report Comment
KBarrow, (8/4/2008 12:10:21 PM)
I believe that Stoops is a man of integrity and character and wants that out of his players as well. I am sure he wanted to have a face-to-face meeting with this young man and deal with it personally and humanly.....not in a cold-hearted way. No reason to criticize Stoops for a "day" in making this decision or making it public.
 

 
Add Your Comment 
In order to post a comment on this article, you must sign in to Tulsaworld.com. If you do not have a site account, you can create an account for free.

 
Post Your Comment
 



Home | About Tulsa World | Advertise With Us | Privacy | Usage Agreement | FAQ and Help | Contact Us | Today's Headlines
Copyright © 2010, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.