Sunday’s Daily Oklahoman attempts to spin the Sooners’ running up the score with a cheap passing touchdown at the end of Saturday’s game:
Oklahoma took two shots at the end zone in the final moments of its blistering of Kansas.
And there was nothing wrong with it.
Such is the state of college football. With a BCS formula geared toward human polls — or so we’re told — appearances are important for highly ranked teams like the Sooners. Score padding is not just acceptable but necessary. Who knew college football would ever have anything in common with beauty pageants.
Looks matter.
So, the Sooners threw into the end zone in the last minute Saturday even though they led Kansas by four scores. Jason White connected with Mark Bradley and scored what might have been the most important touchdown of the day in a 41-10 victory.
Crazy? Most things are when the BCS is involved.
Rest assured, the system influenced the Sooners’ decision to throw the ball and try to score at the end of the game.
“It’s not fair to say that it doesn’t,” Sooners coach Bob Stoops said. “As opposed to just sitting on the ball the last minute of the game, it forces you to play.”
I don’t believe Bob Stoops has ever intentionally run up the score on another team until Saturday (unlike his mentors Steve Spurrier and Bill Snyder). And I don’t think Stoops believes in showing up the competition. But clearly, the pressure of being third in last week’s BCS rankings (the Sooners are second this week) affected his decisionmaking on Saturday. That’s the only explanation for thinking this cheap touchdown actually mattered. And sadly, maybe it did — to East and West Coast sports hacks who probably didn’t even watch the game and look only at scores each week (of course, that’s one part of my argument that human polls aren’t infallible).
Still, as I said in answer to TP’s comment here, I wish they hadn’t done it throwing the ball. I would have preferred Jason White Tommy Grady take a knee and run out the clock. Or let Adrian Peterson have a crack at the endzone with the defense stacked up to stop the run. But don’t tell your sixth-year Heisman quarterback to pass into the endzone against a defeated team whose defense is ganged up to stop the run.
It’s even worse because it came against former Sooner offensive assistant Mark Mangino, a good guy who’s done a hell of a job building Kansas into a respectable program, just as he did a hell of a job helping Bob Stoops get Oklahoma turned around. Here’s a little reporting on Mangino after the game:
On the field afterward, Mangino sought out Sooners defensive ends Dan Cody and Jonathan Jackson, hugged them and said, “Look at you guys, kicking our (butts). I’m happy for you.”
OU fans lingering in the south end zone gave Mangino warm applause as he walked to his locker room.
“This place is special to me. I’ve never tried to hide it,” Mangino said afterward. “The people here have always been very kind to me and my family, and the feeling is mutual.”
No complaints: With style points and margin of victory constantly looming in the BCS, late touchdowns can become a little touchy.
Mangino had no complaints with the Sooners throwing an 8-yard touchdown pass with 35 seconds left to set the final margin.
“I don’t fault Oklahoma; I’d do the same thing,” Mangino said. “They didn’t make the rules with the BCS, but they have to live with them. We’re not complaining. It’s our job to keep them out of the end zone.
“In the quest for a national championship, there are going to be some casualties along the way.”
You don’t run up the score that way on this guy. I don’t care what lame spin you put on it afterwards.
Bad move, Bob.