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September 30, 2005

John Shinn's Oklahoma Football Notepad

Snyder's been running some plays forever

By John Shinn

By John Shinn

Transcript Sports Writer

The ties Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, co-offensive coordinator Chuck Long and co-defensive coordinator Brent Venables have to Kansas State coach Bill Snyder are well documented.

Stoops was a defensive assistant at Kansas State from 1989-1995, Venables was a defensive aide there from 1993-1998 and played at Kansas State in 1991-1992. Snyder was the offensive coordinator at Iowa when Long was the Hawkeyes’ quarterback in the 1980s.

Stoops was asked if that gives the Sooners any extra insight into the Wildcats’ offense.

“Yes and no,” Stoops said. “There are some staples of what he does in the passing game, and even in the running game, that have been there since our Iowa days.

“Chuck Long will recognize some plays. We’ll be watching and we were looking at one the other day — and that’s Y-middle — that Chuck used to run back in the days when he was quarterbacking for him.”



There’s more to it

Despite Oklahoma’s 1-2 start, Stoops hasn’t questioned his team’s effort. The word he keeps falling back on is “compete.”

There’s more to it than just trying hard,” he says.

“You can play as hard as you want, but if you’re busting something and you leave a guy wide open it doesn’t matter how hard you’re playing,” Stoops said.

Mistakes like those come with youth and inexperience. That’s precisely the kind of thing OU has spent the last two weeks trying to iron out.

“You still have to understand the game and play it mentally as well and be physical when you get there,” Stoops added. “You run to the ball as fast as you can, you get there and you don’t tackle a guy, the results are the same thing as if you never ran to the ball. It all ties together.”



Eliminating

the negatives

Oklahoma’s offense has been plagued by turnovers, but they aren’t the sole reason for OU’s struggles. Stoops believes negative plays have had a bigger impact.

“We bust a blocking assignment, we’re hit in the backfield and now we’re second and 12. We get behind the chains,” Stoops said. “We fumble a snap, now it’s second and 12. You’d rather have an illegal procedure and it be first and 15 than second and 13. We have to eliminate where we’re beating ourselves in some of those areas. We’ve really just tried to be sharper at everything that we’re doing.”



Looking for a pick

Strongside linebacker Clint Ingram has grabbed both of OU’s interceptions this season. One came against TCU and the other was a 48-yard return for a touchdown against Tulsa.

Ingram suffered a hamstring injury on the runback against the Golden Hurricane and missed the UCLA game because of it. Ingram is expected to return against Kansas State.

Demarrio Pleasant started in Ingram’s place at UCLA and had an interception overturned by a defensive holding call.

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