By Clay Horning
No doubt about it.It’s Bedlam.Really. Listen to this.
“Big week,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said.
“The last regular season game. Excited again,” said Bob Stoops.
Just listen to these guys go.
“We want to be eligible for postseason play, we want to win the South and we want to beat OU,” Gundy said. “I don’t think there’s any secret in that.”
“It’s just another rivalry,” Stoops said.
You can almost hear the blood boiling.
Which of course is a big lie.
Bedlam Schmedlam.
Not that a fan here or there won’t trade a punch or two Saturday afternoon at Boone Pickens Stadium. It’s still Bedlam to them. But Bob Stoops and Mike Gundy have taken the gloves off and not because bare knuckles deliver a harsher blow.
Gundy is just downright playing nice.
“Am I a bold comment guy?” he said Monday. “You’re wanting some good dirt, aren’t you? Doesn’t Bob have his media day tomorrow? He’ll give you some dirt, won’t he?
Well, only if you look really, really, really deep.
Asked about the possibility the Pokes might have priced themselves out of a Saturday sellout, Stoops reserved comment on the wisdom of Oklahoma State’s ticket prices, but added his desire Sooner fans gobble up any remaining seats.
Asked about Gundy’s comments that Sooner running backs have overcome their coaching to perform so well this season, Stoops even played along, saying, “I agree with him,” getting his own jab in at Mike’s younger brother, Cale, who coaches the Sooner backs.
“We all got a big laugh out of that,” Stoops said. “That was pretty good.”
Indeed, there was only one moment Tuesday in which Stoops might have said anything to offend the in-state Aggies. And it wasn’t so much what he said, but what he didn’t.
The question was, given the Sooners historic domination of the Cowboys, what’s to account for the rather evenness of Bedlam Series over the past several years.
Amazingly, the Sooner coach appeared stumped.
He talked about parity in college football. He talked about, get this, scholarship limits. Sure, that’s part of it, but it’s so cliché. He talked about the changing nature of the college game and how it’s just so darn competitive these days, top to bottom.
That is, if anybody cared to listen, he gave OSU no credit whatsoever.
He probably didn’t mean not to. But that might be even more telling.
Stoops might have mentioned that he took over for a bum (who took over for a bum) and for four of the last dozen seasons, the Sooners could hardly tie their shoes. He might have mentioned that even during the waning days of the Bob Simmons’ era, the Cowboys gave the Sooners all they wanted, or that Les Miles’ sarcasm and biting tongue aside, he raised the Pokes’ game, their talent level and actual had them believing why the heck shouldn’t they beat the Sooners. He might even have said, for crying out loud, it’s hard to keep Rashaun Woods and Josh Fields and Tatum Bell down forever.
But he didn’t.
Really, this may be one of those hidden sides of the Sooner coach. One he’s not so proud of, that he tries to keep out from public view. It’s the side that would make him short and terse and difficult should the Pokes win Saturday, and celebrate it for a whole year, the next time this game comes around, even if Mike Gundy was nothing but gracious.
That is, I think Stoops feels the Bedlam.
But you’ve got to go deep.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
