How Quickly They Forget The John Blake Error
Oklahoma isn't OK just yet (Brian Davis, Dallas Morning News)
Bob Stoops is just as perplexed with Oklahoma's 1-1 start as OU fans and the rest of the college football world.
After years of playing for national championships and winning Big 12 titles, how could this Oklahoma team be so mediocre?
It appears Stoops, in his seventh season at OU, faces his first major rebuilding project. He's trying to teach young players how to play tough, winning football. The 45-year-old openly admits this is the toughest challenge he's ever had as a head coach or assistant.
First major rebuilding project?
What the hell would would the writer call that mess of a program that Stoops inherited from John Blake?!
The rest of the article is a decent look at the state of Soonerland, but that third paragraph is goofy.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/15/05 21:17 | Big 12 Football | Technorati
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I'm admittedly getting into ground I don't know a whole lot about here, except in a peripheral sense (UT grad and fan), but I don't think either would actually count as a rebuilding project. Both instances seem to be more about attitude adjustments. John Blake didn't exactly leave the cupboard bare; as I recall, Stoops had them being "OU" again really quickly. One thing Blake could do was recruit, so there wasn't the dropoff in talent that UT had under John Mackovic, who had pissed off every high school coach in Texas.
Count me in there with "the rest of the college football world." I'm perplexed, too, but I have every confidence that Bob Stoops will bring them around. I just hope to God it's not until after October 8.
Posted by another precinct chair @ 09:19 on 09/16/05
John Blake has been running his mouth the last couple of years saying he's responsible for OU's most recent national championship, but the fact is he was a terrible head coach, a terrible administrator, and an average recruiter as head man at OU. He barely managed Top 30 recruiting classes. Stoops has regularly finished in the Top 10, sometimes the Top 5.
Yes, Oklahoma was really really down when Stoops took over. He and Leach found a gem in Josh Heupel, and there was some talent (but not Top 10 recruiting class talent) when he got there, but anybody that thinks he didn't pull of a major rebuilding job of a program that had more punts blocked in one of John Blake's seasons than in Barry Switzer's entire coaching career at OU is just mistaken.
The rebuilding job Stoops did turning around John Blake's mess -- from improving attitude to getting players in the right positions to upgrading talent to boosting the conditioning program (Blake's players were soft in comparison, not unlike the big tub of goo himself) with Jerry Schmidt -- shouldn't be discounted by anybody. It was a massive turnaround, although Stoops' first team still went 7-5 (six losses with the bowl game).
With the talent Stoops has recruited, it will and should raise questions if he has a five/six-loss season this year.
Posted by Kevin @ 13:38 on 09/16/05
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