Y ou don’t hear it nearly as often any more, what with those losses to Kansas State, LSU and USC, an 8-4 season a year ago, the shenanigans that set the Sooners back at Eugene and a defense that’s played one strong game to date, and that against a team Norman High might give some trouble.
On the other hand, can’t a great football team fall to the Manhattan Miracle, LSU in the Big Easy and Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush? And it’s not like great teams stay great forever. Such is the luck, circumstance and cyclical nature of the college game. It all makes you wonder if the Oklahoma coach has lost the moniker, given it away or had it stripped.
You know the one.
Big Game Bob.
Once there was a day Bob Stoops’ record against the top 10 looked like the rest of the NFL against the Vikings and the Bills at the Super Bowl. Once, not so very long ago, ranked teams playing the Sooners had the same chance as, well, the Longhorns playing the Sooners.
Until last year.
Has Stoops lost the magic?
Has nothing been the same since brother Mike left for the desert?
Has Big Game Bob gone the way of the Big Eight Conference?
From the looks of things, uh … no.
Not saying the Sooners beat the Longhorns Saturday. That prediction may or may not come later in the week. But here’s an observation.
It’s been more than a season since Stoops appeared as relaxed as he appeared Tuesday afternoon at his weekly media luncheon. It’s been many moons since the head Sooner struck as confident a pose.
On the way out of the room, even after making time for every question at the lectern and every question from the stragglers, who regularly wait for him in a slightly less formal format, Stoops noticed Malcolm Kelly, eating a little lunch and answering a few questions.
“Don’t get the big head now,” Stoops told Kelly. “They’re talking like you’re pretty good.”
Though he may struggle with comedy, Stoops appeared not to have a care in the world.
It could be an act. Or, perhaps, he doesn’t have a care in the world.
Listening to him, he has very few questions about his team but plenty of answers.
“Our running game’s better, our passing game’s better, our receivers are much more experienced and are making big plays, the offensive line has protected better and run-blocked better,” Stoops said, finally coming up for air. “Adrian Peterson’s healthy, our tight ends are playing better. Defensively, we’ve been inconsistent but have shown signs against good football teams that we can still be good … kicking game is much better than I believe it was a year ago, our return game is much different,
“Need I go on?”
Doesn’t mean he’ll win, but he’s not blowing smoke.
Defense remains a huge question mark for this team, yet it’s still worth noting the Sooners are 4-0 in every world but the one that handed Oregon the ball when it was Allen Patrick who recovered it … and the last time Adrian Peterson played Texas healthy he ran for 225 yards on 32 carries … and Paul Thompson really is that much better than Rhett Bomar was a year ago at the same time, while inching toward becoming Bomar’s superior at any time last season.
And if Big Game Bob is no more, Stoops may be the last to know.
He digs this game beginning with the bus ride through the Texas State Fair.
And he digs it even more for all that’s on the line.
“The whole atmosphere of it is exciting, but in the end, what charges me up are the ramifications of it,” Stoops said. “What matters about it is more exciting to me than anything.”
And once again it means just about everything.
The winner controls the Big 12 South, while the Big 12 North still looks like some sort of minor league. So just play it out in your mind and ask yourself how far the Sooners can go.
Stoops must have already.
And there he was, walking out of the room without a care in the world.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
Stoops has the swagger that reminds of better days
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