By Clay Horning,Sports Editor
Listening to your fellow media can be an education. And barring that, a sort of litmus test on where everything stands.
With that in mind, the first question put to Bob Stoops at his weekly luncheon Tuesday inquired whether or not the coach had noticed a renewed and growing confidence among his players.
Stoops gave the sort of answer he often gives. No real commitment, but yeah, sure.
The very next question asked the Sooner coach if he’d noticed a “swagger” returning to his team, which happens to be 5-3 on the season and 4-1 in the Big 12’s South Division, alone in third a half game back of Texas Tech.
Without getting into Stoops’ answer, which was more a comment on the semantics of one man’s confidence vs. another man’s swagger, dig a little deeper into the questions.
Basically, there’s this idea the Sooners have turned their season around. How did it happen? Well, OU has won three straight games after winning just two of its first five. That, and 4-1 in the conference is pretty good any season.
It makes sense, but look at it another way.
The Sooners knocked off a Kansas team, 19-3, that at the time looked like it might give Norman High a pretty good game. OU allowed Baylor to come back from a 24-13 deficit in which it managed just three second-half points before adding 10 more to win in overtime. The Sooners stopped Nebraska 31-24 after leading 24-3 early in the third quarter.
Is that a turnaround?
Sure it is.
Even as OU has yet to put four quarters together, has yet to dominate anybody on both sides of the ball, only recently started putting together back-to-back quarters offensively and still has its fans petrified it will get beat deep with the game on the line, as Baylor’s Sean Bell burned the Sooners and Nebraska’s Zac Taylor would have if not for a gale blowing at his back.
So this team still has a long way to go And that’s kind of exciting.
“We’re not as consistent as we want to be,” Stoops said. “We’re more consistent that we had been earlier in the year, so that’s progress.”
It is, and so is what the Sooners have done to win games despite the inconsistency. Like Garrett Hartley bouncing back from inaccuracy to kick three field goals against Baylor, the last an overtime gamesaver. And Rhett Bomar, in the same game, hitting Juaquin Iglesias with a perfect game-ending strike after doing almost nothing in the second half.
Against Nebraska, OU put together its most impressive drive of the season — 12 plays, 85 yards — to answer 14 quick points from the Huskers. It was a winning statement.
A while back, OU was a second-half team, finding itself just in time to stave off defeat or something close to it against Kansas State and Kansas. Since, the Sooners have given themselves room to relax and have done exactly that against the Bears and Huskers. But they have also refused to lose.
“For us to have a complete team, we have to put two halves together,” linebacker Zach Latimer said. “As soon as we do that, I think we’ll be right where we need to be.”
Why the letdowns?
“I have no idea,” Latimer said. “I guess we just want everybody to have a better game. We just say, ‘Come on back in’ … But as soon as we can put it together, I know it’s going to be real special.”
That day may come. Maybe this season and maybe next.
“We feel like we’ve come a long way,” offensive coordinator Chuck Long said
Indeed, the Sooners have.
They’ve gone from 2-3 to 5-3 with a very beatable Texas A&M; arriving in Norman Saturday, followed by a tough trip to Texas Tech before playing host to hapless Bedlam opponent Oklahoma State. Right now, 7-4 appears near certain and 8-3 remains a possibility.
And this team is still so far away. Only now, that’s a very good thing.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
