Hardly unique among coaches, Bob Stoops’ controlling ways often make for head scratching and he was at it again Tuesday when asked for his reaction to TCU’s reaction to the rumors Oklahoma believes open practices served to compromise its 2005 season-opening 17-10 loss to the Horned Frogs.

Stoops said that kind of talk didn’t originate with him or his program, that TCU kicked OU’s butt that day, even on the sideline and inside the headsets and, as an aside, everybody should now realize the reasons he closed preseason practice this year were clearly sound.

He referenced the no-huddle offensive scheme the Sooners were getting ready and that explaining in painstaking detail every little twisted ankle simply wasn’t worth it.

Of course, Tennessee-Chattanooga might not beat Norman North, even with a sneak peak, and by the time Cincinnati met OU the no-huddle was out of the bag and just why can’t the highest paid public employee in the state explain every little twisted ankle?

Only today’s entry is not about that.

Because even as there will always be a madness to Stoops’ method, there is a brilliance, too, and last week and this week, in that midday Tuesday space in which OU serves those who cover its football program a hearty meal and too often very little insight, evidence of the coach’s high skill came to light.

Everybody knows he’s a stunningly good football coach if only by pointing at the program now in light of where it was then, yet it’s always refreshing to witness some of what goes into it.



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Two Tuesdays ago, Stoops was asked about the no-huddle and how it came into being.

“We’ve always done it to some degree in our 2-minute drills and our 2-minute drills in the past have been really good,” he said. “More than anything, I just brought it up to Kevin (Wilson) after the season last year that we needed to really look at going to it.”

He had his reasons.

OU figured to have a very good offense so he wanted to maximize snaps in the face of new game-condensing rules. Yet the flip side of the equation makes a greater impression.

“I felt with more and more teams doing it that it would help us defensively,” Stoops said. “We would see it in practice on a regular basis. It would even allow us to advance defensively in some way by seeing it regularly.”

That’s one snapshot to discuss in a moment. Here’s another.

This was yesterday, after it came to light the players had asked him out of the room prior to playing Washington. It was the dreaded “players only” meeting, yet OU was 2-0 and playing very well.

It was unusual.

Stoops acknowledged the novelty, but took it in stride.

“Players have to have some accountability for the team and whatever’s going to be said, you’ve got to trust that it’s going to be positive for them,” Stoops said. “So you remove yourself and you let them have at it.”



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It seems so simple, but the list of coaches who can’t pull it off is long.

Begin with the no-huddle logic.

Think John Blake ever thought about the game in such a complete and clear way? Gary Gibbs was likely too wooden to roll with new rules or think about them in the context of all the game’s aspects in concert. Ditto for Dave Wannstedt and Dave Campo and Herm Edwards and Gunther Cunningham and Phil Fulmer and Mike Leach and hundreds of other high school, college and pro coaches who’ve been handed the keys to the program at five-, six- and seven-figure price tags.

Stoops went to the no-huddle, in part, to better his defense.

Beautiful.

As for the players-only get-together in Seattle, last year’s Sooners’ road woes must have had something to do with it. That they came together behind closed doors speaks well of them; that their coach took it so well and got out of the way and felt no fear concerning his powerlessness to affect anything during his banishment from the locker room speaks well of him. Even that the players felt comfortable enough to cut him out in the first place speaks well of him.

They’re only a couple of snapshots.

OU won’t win it all this season because of the no-huddle or a single meeting. Yet it takes the right guy and the right environment fostered by the right guy to be in a position to win it all; and, yes, the Sooners are in that spot, in part, because of their no-huddle offense and that meeting.

Stoops can be maddeningly narrow-minded. Maybe it’s how he minds the details. He can be a visionary, too; a big reason why his team is ranked No. 2.

Clay Horning

366-3526

cfhorning@normantranscript.com