By Clay Horning, Sports Editor
Not that Bob Stoops and Vince Neil have anything in common, or that Oklahoma’s coaching staff or even the Sooners themselves represent any kind of a motley crew, but when it comes to today’s foray into Arrowhead Stadium, OU once again finds itself, with apologies to 80s metalheads, in the “Same Old Situation.”
Really, it’s like some kind of broken record.
Or, should we say, some sort of forgettable broken record.
This is where OU was following TCU, wondering about its quarterback, its offensive line and all that talent the Sooner Nation was certain was on this team.
This is where OU was following UCLA, wondering if it could run the ball, if its defense could hold up for four quarters and turn the opponent away on third down.
This is where OU has been pretty much the whole season, one in which watching the Sooners inevitably seems to break one of two ways: they’re a fraud, or there’s got to be a good team in there somewhere and sooner or later it will show itself.
The same old situation extends to the head coach, too.
To demonstrate, here are three soundbites.
“We’re fighting through it, trying to find some consistency.”
“We’ve got to have some guys step up and be accountable and be responsible on the field.”
“We’ve got to be, I think, more than anything, more productive in the passing game.”
Now, after which game, or in advance of which game, did Stoops say these things?
The first one could have come at any time but after Kansas State. Ditto for the second. The third works after every game but UCLA and Kansas State.
Of course, each was uttered Wednesday, a day even Stoops himself might have been thinking, “Geez, I keep saying the same stuff every week.”
It’s because this dark cloud will not go away. It’s like every day is opening day. Somewhere in here there has to be a Bill Murray movie.
Remember what everybody was saying after Tulsa?
The Sooners wanted to establish an identity as one tough customer. That’s why they didn’t throw the ball in the second half. That’s why they force fed Adrian Peterson. They grew up that day. They got physical. They turned a corner.
It was all bull, either what was said or the conclusions drawn.
They ran the ball because they couldn’t throw it and Tulsa has one of the few defensive lines these Sooners can still push around.
Five games in and in only one may the Sooner Nation really take some pride.
That was Kansas State, which may have played its worst game in 10 years that night at Owen Field, but OU was still dominant for a good three quarters.
That was also Kansas State, which beat Kansas, which is today’s opponent, which could be the best news Sooner fans have heard outside of basketball practice starting yesterday.
It’s almost a sports cliche, or a sportswriting cliche:
The reporter tells the coach or the player, hey, this is quite task, this has to be difficult, what are you going to do? And the coach or the player, if seasoned as so many are, explains how the team will approach the task as a challenge and an opportunity.
Well, if Bob Stoops and the boys had any less of a winning history since coming to town, they might have blown the same sunshine. Of course, they don’t, so they didn’t. It was all about plowing ahead.
And so they will try again today, to plow ahead rather than dig the same hole that much deeper. Staring at their fourth loss in six games, they best look at today as an opportunity and one they best cash in.
The same old situation, this team has been here before.
But it will not be here again.
Today the Sooners pick their path.
Today, they start heading in the right direction or …
What’s that?
Basketball practice started yesterday?
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
