My (brief) OU rant...

[the_ouskull]

Okay, here's the deal...

I either watched, or attended every game, yet again, this year, so it's not as if I'm speaking completely unfoundedly. Also, being that I know my football, to a pretty decent extent, at least, my opinion should at least carry a modicum of weight...

So, having said that, I say this:

OU lost its "mojo" when Mike Stoops left, and Bob doesn't have the ability to maintain it on his own. When Mike was here, our team made plays on defense routinely, but ESPECIALLY when we needed them. With his defense, even our anemic offense of 2001 was able to compete...

And, don't think that the irony of Mike pulling out the big win for OU (against Oregon) followed by Bob blowing it (against Tech) was lost on me. Stoops is a great x's and o's guy, pre-game. But, during the game, he doesn't seem to have the same feel for managing the game; making calls on the fly, at least defensively, that Mike does. Bob's teams don't come from behind well, mainly because they usually don't stop doing what it was that let them get behind in the first place. Mike's defenses adjusted and beat the sh*t out of people to boot. Bob's are built the same way, but the players aren't. They're better athletes, sure... but they don't have that same "we've gotten our asses kicked and spit on and now it's OUR time" attitude that Bob's first couple of teams, with Mike coaching the D, had. THAT is what OU needs to get back, either with or without Mike, in order for us to be more than a year-in, year-out BCS team with no rings.

Kinda like Mack in Feb, before last year.

the_ouskull

[indyfrisco]

skull,

You can't win it all every year. Winning it once a decade SHOULD be a treat for top tier conferences. Winning it every 25 years SHOULD be a treat for a middle tier conference. Winning it once in a lifetime SHOULD be a treat for a bottom tier team.

Now, I'm not saying teams that have one it only once or never are bottom tier teams. There are teams who are, year in and year out, competitors. It is just that so many things have to go right to win it.

I'd be happy with a win every 10 years or so and at least being super competitive in years we didn't win it. We are nowhere near close to that. OU is. Be thankful. You COULD still be stuck in the 90s.

[the_ouskull]

I hated the 90's, don't get me wrong. It was a shitty way to try to spend college at OU...

...but at least they were exciting. We had Tejas in 1996. And Syracuse, in a precursor to McNabb's entire career, in 1997. Those were games to experience. (I'd add A&M in 1997, but that was a game to experience for the WRONG reasons...)

Now, it seems like we either blow a team out, get the Hell beaten out of us, or it's Texas. We beat a good Texas team, often in dramatic fashion, but then we lose to the random OSU, A&M, or Tech for no reason other than general dumbf*ckery. I'm just saying that, without Mike, Bob seems to have lost some of the "Stoops mojo" that was hanging about the program for the first few years...

I AM thankful for the program that OU is, and I know that it could just as easily NOT be where it is; it COULD be like the 1990's were...

...but we could just as easily be a f*cking dynasty too... It seems as if almost every year we're on the path to the National Championship, only to dumbf*ck it away on one head-up-our-*sses game late in the year. That's a hard roller coaster to ride annually. At least Tejas loses their game early in the year and gets it over with. Hell, the 2005 season that didn't happen was one of the most fun in a while, 'cause you just didn't know what was going to happen.

I don't know. I guess I'm just tired of watching us get to the top of the mountain every year, and then piss on our only foothold.

the_ouskull

[Harvdog]

Nice Bubba reset.......[btls]here's the deal...it's a full on Stoops effect[/btls]

[King Crimson]

i'm neither a fan of nor advocate of the "Mike Stoops" theory. JMO.

if early Stoops era mojo is what you want, get Jonathan Hayes back coaching special teams.

[peter dragon]

Nice Bubba reset.......[btls]here's the deal...it's a full on Stoops effect[/btls]

love the [btls][/btls]