For all the odd little things Bob Stoops occasionally insists upon, one thing need not be questioned.
The Oklahoma coach can close a practice with you. He can play coy with injuries. He can keep his freshmen off limits even during those small windows of time media is let through the door to give you, the fan, a look inside your favorite team.
He can do a lot of things that drive folks like me nuts. But the man can really coach.
As for Mike Gundy, well, the jury best be out for the Poke Nation. Because if not, if it’s already in, it’s over. Might as well go hire somebody else.
The conundrum for Stoops when it comes to pleasing the press box crowd is there’s not a lot he can do any more that’s anywhere near his wheel house. After winning a quartet of Big 12 titles, a national championship and playing for two others, it becomes hard to impress the knights of the keyboard.
We’ve seen it all before.
That leaves schtick and Abe Lemons Stoops ain’t. So it’s a good thing Gundy’s around to give everybody a little perspective.
“I never read the paper or watch TV or go on the Internet,” the Oklahoma State coach said at his weekly press conference Monday in Stillwater. “When I go to work it’s dark and when I go home it’s dark.”
Well, good thing for me, because I don’t need Gundy hunting me down. But from the looks of it, bad thing for the Pokes, who might have benefited from some life, any life, from their head coach the other night.
If all that going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark and the lack of sleep it’s causing is what had Gundy on the sideline in geography only at Troy, by all means, sleep in.
Against Troy, and I can only speak for every last moment the camera was trained on him, Gundy looked like he was on another planet, one that had invented head gear and microphones but not yet football.
He looked like it was some other team than his Cowboys that was getting schooled by the Gulf Region Trojans. He looked like the game was being played around him, but he had no role to play in it. Like it was happening to somebody else.
It’s a look I know well.
It was John Blake’s look.
No fire.
No emotion.
No passion.
No nothing.
Or, is that know nothing?
Compared to Gundy the other night, Dennis Franchione is Abbie Hoffman or that character Al Pacino played in “Dog Day Afternoon” screaming “Attica, Attica, Attica.”
That’s not Stoops.
For good or ill and his track record says good, Stoops is in players’ faces, coaches’ ears and officials’ mugs, involved from start to finish on game day, from shaking the hands of his Sooners as they stretch to telling Sam Bradford “Don’t be cocky,” as the freshman quarterback walks into the frame live, from the Owen Field turf, for his very first post-game before-signing-off interview.
Clearly, Stoops has the emotion, passion and fire, but just as clearly it is more than that. He’s grabbing a player, running to an official or quizzing a coach not only because he’s completely aware of everything going on around him, but just as aware of how everything going on around him should be going on around him.
The best coaches, of course, like Steve Martin on Let’s Get Small, can juggle in their minds.
At best, Gundy was in denial.
Even ESPN’s sideline reporter was taken aback by the lack of the Cowboys’ being taken aback.
OU could always lose a game like that, even embarrassingly so. But Stoops would never go quietly.
Probably why it won’t happen.
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
Related Photos
Discussion
The difference between Stoops and Gundy
Commentary
- OU Sports
-
-
It’s a recipe for success
Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso was answering questions Saturday after her Sooners clinched another return to the Women’s College World Series when, without really meaning to, she began to make it clear her job has, sort of, become ...
-
Tigers deny Sooners’ Big 12 title hopes
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma wanted to win its first Big 12 tournament in 16 years on Sunday. Missouri needed to win it to get in the NCAA Tournament. Need topped desire at Bricktown Ballpark....
-
Sooners make winning look easy
As Oklahoma’s players locked arms around the pitching circle, coming together for what passed as a celebration following Saturday’s 7-1 NCAA Super Regional-clinching victory over Arizona, three gloves remained near second base....
-
There are no easy outs in the lineup
Looking for a gameplan to stop Oklahoma? Well, one may or may not be available, but walking two of the first three Sooners you face certainly isn’t part of it. Just ask Arizona’s Kenzie Fowler....
-
Sooners will play for Big 12 championship
OKLAHOMA CITY, — It’s been 16 years since Oklahoma won the Big 12 tournament. It’s closer now than its ever been to ending the streak. The Sooners rolled through Baylor, 7-2, on Saturday at Bricktown Ballpark to advance to the tournament’s ...
-
Sooners send five more to nationals
AUSTIN, Texas — Oklahoma track and field teams had five more individuals qualify for the NCAA Championship on Saturday evening at the NCAA West Preliminary. The men’s 4x100-meter relay team also advanced to the national semifinals....
-
OU sophomore Jao-Javanil wins NCAA golf title
FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Oklahoma’s Chirapat Jao-Javanil made Oklahoma golf history Friday, becoming the first Sooner, man or woman, to win an individual NCAA national championship....
-
Pitching staff is exactly where Golloway wants it to be
When the Big 12 tournament began, Oklahoma felt like it had the pitching staff to make a deep run. Dillon Overton, Jordan John, Jonathan Gray and Damien Magnifico gave them four quality starters and a closer — Steven Okert — capable of ...
-
Sooners shut out Wildcats, need one more win for WCWS entry
Oklahoma might have scored more runs, not committed an error and starting pitcher Keilani Ricketts could have been just a little more efficient along the way....
-
Sooners send 4 more to NCAAs
AUSTIN, Texas – Oklahoma’s track and field teams added four individuals to the list of Sooners advancing to the NCAA championship Friday at the NCAA West Preliminary. In addition to the four new qualifiers, Brittany Borman advanced to the ...
- More OU Sports Headlines
-
It’s a recipe for success
