Oklahoma Football: Can the Sooners get back their swag?
When we talk about swagger, all we had to look at was Alabama when they walked by Notre Dame on their way out of the tunnel. That was the look of a team who had already won the BCS National Championship before they even teed up the football. It was also the look that I’ve seen of every National Championship team of the past, including the Oklahoma Sooners.
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3 thoughts on “Oklahoma Football: Can the Sooners get back their swag?”
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MAXIMIZE YOUR EDGE
GS, a comment from one of our readers on Twitter. @JayhawkingChief says …..
A few things i disagree with, 1. Questioning Stoops as not being a Type A personality is ludacris and unfounded….
2. You can blame being a little down on recruiting on the emergence of OK St, Baylor, A&M and TCU, not Stoops losing an edge..
3. 3. Oklahoma traditionally has let downs in Bowl games, nothing new there and it was against next years title contender.
Also i see them changing the offense to build around Bell this year, so the whole can’t make adjustments thing, we’ll see.
JayhawkingChief…Some of your points are valid. As in there have been other teams emerge in recent years. But OU has also expanded their recruiting base from Texas. The problem is they are no longer attracting the 4 and 5 star linemen, which is the backbone of all championship teams.
As a person who is pretty close to the Sooners program, I can tell you that there is a good old boy network going on down in Norman, along with a little nepotism (OC Huepel married to President Boren’s daughter). Bob Stoops brother is DC. This sort of thing can not only lead to discontent among the staff because people aren’t treated equally, it spreads laziness because these people are basically sheltered from authority, and don’t feel the need to give extra effort. Which was basically the same thing that caused Bobby Bowden and FSU to sink into mediocrity despite getting some of the best recruits in the country. Sometimes past success can be a curse to a program. It’s very easy to become complacent and stale.
Don’t get me wrong about Bob Stoops. I think there are many things he does right, including running a clean program. He is also a great humanitariun. Something that many don’t know about since he keeps his charity work on the down low. But it still doesn’t change the fact he and his staff aren’t the tireless, energetic type A workers they were when they were in their 30’s, and the program was fresh and exciting.
Many of the ex-OU players are even starting to show concern about the direction of the program. You talked about OU changing the offense to build around Blake Bell. But Stoops hasn’t indicated that he’s going to change the offense. And/or that Bell will even start next season. But I can tell you that the offense OU is using right now needs to change. They need to stop trying to keep up with the pass-happy no huddle spread attacks that have become a fixture in the Big 12. This offense hasn’t worked since 2008 when we had 8 players off of that Sam Bradford led team go into the NFL. This attack will also never work without a running game. Another weak spot last season.
One thing I know Stoops needs to do. He needs to really evaluate his personnel and his coaches. They also need to get much much more physical. I don’t care if you are a 9 or 10 game winner, losing the way they did at home to Notre Dame (a team who was dominated by Bama) and Kansas State, and then flat out getting embarassed by the team they beat last year is really unacceptable. And not nearly up to the standards of an elite program like OU.
I’m really not a negative person when it comes to my team. I personally think that Stoops can turn it around. But I believe that changes have to be made to get it done, because if you’re not moving forward in college football, you’re going backwards.. And like Bowden, I’m not sure that Stoops really has the desire to go out and do what it takes to become a top 5 program again. You would think the Texas A&M embarassement would have been the kick starter for a change. But I’m not confident right now that it’s going to happen. I still feel that something isn’t right in Norman. The chemistry simply isn’t there.
Valid points. I do know from experience that nepotism can really crush people not in the “family.” I didn’t know that was going on. I think Oklahoma will be fine. Your guys past success has made sooner fans a little spoiled. I would give anything to have a football program like OU, being a Kansas fan.