Tulsa World: Past success is a blueprint for new guys

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Past success is a blueprint for new guys

By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Published: 9/22/2008 2:10 AM
Last Modified: 9/22/2008 3:19 AM

OKLAHOMA and Nebraska are winging the football around this millenium. That makes me think not of Sooners or Cornhuskers, but Hoosiers.

Hoosiers? In the 1986 movie about an Indiana high school hoops team, the new coach arrives and gets unsolicited advice from natives — something along the lines of "we play zone defense here."

It was a veiled ultimatum. Want to stay employed? Do what has always been done.

Running the football is what Oklahoma did best before Bob Stoops was hired. From 1946-91, OU was among the nation's top 10 rushing teams 37 times and captured 11 rushing titles.

Stoops has ample job security even though he permits his quarterbacks to throw the football forward instead of pitching it backward.

In Stoops' first nine seasons, the Sooners completed more passes than in the 32 years prior to his arrival. And no one is screaming bloody murder to bring back the wishbone, like they did when the program fizzled under Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake (who attempted to revive the option).

Was Stoops — asked to recall his mindset as a rookie head coach in 1999 — concerned that a shift to a pass-heavy offense might not sit well with diehards?

"No, not really," he said. "I felt confident that as long as we were successful that it would be embraced and it would be exciting."

In Stoops' first game— a rout of Indiana State — Josh Heupel broke or tied school passing records for completions (31) and yardage (341). He completed passes to 12 receivers and seven players scored touchdowns.

"The ball was going all over the place," Stoops said. "Anyway, I felt the people accepted it pretty quickly."

Stoops is an advocate of throwback football. He just threw way, way back. In his debut season, OU was a top 10 passing team for the first time since 1937.

Now no one blinks when Sam Bradford leads the nation in passing efficiency, as he did last season, and throws five TD passes, which he has done four times.

It's not like OU forgot how to run. The Sooners ranked 17th nationally in rushing two seasons ago. But do you want to know the bottom line reason why Sooner fans gave a thumbs-up to passing?

Because Stoops won a national championship in his second season and has won five league titles. Fans don't care whether trophies arrive by land or air just as long as they get delivered.

And that explains why Nebraskans might be, or should be, skeptical about passing. Running produced national championships. Throwing has led to low-stakes bowls.

The Cornhuskers have a running tradition that rivals Oklahoma's. The Huskers finished among the nation's top 10 rushing teams every year from 1977-2003, ranking in the top three 21 times and capturing 13 rushing titles.

Then Bill Callahan arrived. He installed a west coast offense and vowed to "flip the culture."

Nebraska threw like never before, but Callahan was fired with a four-season record of 27-22. Raised anew was the question of whether man was meant to fly.

"We were born and raised on running the ball," ex-Husker running back Mike Rozier said last summer.

"It wasn't broke before (Callahan) got there. I don't know why he was trying to fix it or revamp it."

But doesn't every team have to throw nowadays?

"If everybody else wants to jump into it, let them go ahead," Rozier said. "Some people it works for and some people it doesn't."

New coach Bo Pelini will have to figure out how to make the Big Red machine run (or pass) smoothly again. Nebraska's ground game emerged after so-so outings in Pelini's first two games. Pelini wants balance and said you can't be one-dimensional in this day and age. If his Huskers major in running, it won't be because he wants to satisfy the masses.

"I'm not real concerned whether it's embraced or not embraced to be honest with you," he said.

"My job is to win football games. But I also have the understanding that to win consistently, you have to have a consistent running game. That's going to make you better on offense. That's going to help you control the clock and it's going to make you better on defense at the same time.

"But by no means if somebody is loading the line of scrimmage against us am I going to keep pounding my head against the wall trying to figure out ways to run it just to run it and please the fans. They are going to be pleased at the end of the day if we have more points at the end of the game."

Stoops' teams have outscored opponents 100 times. Run or pass, that merits a passing grade. By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer

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