Monday Morning Quarterback: OU-Texas Q&A

Dean Blevins leads the Monday Morning Quarterback Club in a look back on the Red River Rivalry.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:58 am

By: News On 6

Monday Morning Quarterback: OU-Texas Q&A

Originally Published: Oct 4, 2010 11:55 AM CDT

Dean Blevins
Oklahoma Sports Sports Director – Oklahoma City

Hear Ye, hear Ye. The Longhorn Look-back session of the Monday Morning Quarterbacks is hereby open for business.

Oklahoma beats Texas 28-20. The chairman will make some brief remarks followed by comments from our members. Any thoughts are welcome, but before slings and arrows head toward the 5-0 Sooners, keep in mind your team handled the Horns by eight when last week the club said it would gladly take a one-point win.

Mind you your beloved coach relieved and good-humored yesterday when we taped his TV show. He joked on the way out the door that “someone out there will be upset we didn’t win by 10.” He also said something that should settle any doubts about Bob Stoops leaving the Sooners anytime soon. Bud Wilkinson and Darrell Royal were two of the several that chose to take the pea out of the whistle and head off for retirement in part because of the enormous pressure to beat the other. Each had runs of winning. But it was the losing that disgruntled the faithful and gnawed on the gut making sleep a looming ghost.

I asked about the pressure on coaches that must surely wear on one’s soul. Stoops earnestly replied, “There’s nothing like the feeling leading up to the game—the rush of being on the field—the anxiousness and the adrenaline. You know you’re living life to its fullest. That type of approach is something you might expect to hear from a coach after winning five in a row and running a program after six seasons. Not from a coach who’d grinded through the angst of losing four of five to his biggest rival. I know the guy pretty well and can tell you he embraces mano y mano more than anyone I’ve ever known. Teams play best when they have that same feeling. When they have that positive feeling of playing with an “edge.” No question why winning is expected and so often achieved.

One of the greatest things coaches I’ve been around savor is the liquid-led fun after wins. Stoops chose to do something else on Saturday night. He and his wife Carol spent the evening with an Ohio friend in a local hosptial battling the late stages of cancer. One thing that separates Stoops from most of us is the exceptional balance he has in his life. The kind of example that surely inspires the players and leaves a lot of us pondering why we don’t do more.

All right, enough from your commish. Let’s open up this little mixer. Bundy, thanks for driving down the turnpike.

Bundy: “We’re the luckiest 5-0 team in America (remember the Stoops comment about expectations of OU fans?). Why when we take leads in all these games can’t we put our foot on their throats and quit backing off and holding on to win?”

Bond from Dallas: “Texas talks about being young and how great they’re gonna be in the next few years. We have as many great young kids coming back and will have the best quarterback in the OU-Texas game the next two years. I like our chances.”

Commish: Stoops beamed to me yesterday that this is definitely the best freshman class he’s ever had. I love Jefferson. Wort may be a redshirt freshman but with that bad knee injury last year he’s really like a true freshman because he’s not been in the field. Stacey McGee is becoming a great player and Stoops love true frosh Daniel Noble. I expect Travis Lewis to come out early but Ryan Broyles to stay—he and another rookie, Kenny Stills will be a deadly duo. Jeremy Beal and Quinton Carter will definitely be missed, but there’s a ton of young talent at end and the secondary. Replacing DeMarco Murray will be the toughest replacement. Roy Finch and Brennan Clay are good, but not the north-south gamer like Murray. If Landry Jones becomes a star—quite possible—OU will be a force the next two years.

Coach Richardson from Dallas: Commish, glad to see you can finally quit playing devil’s advocate. Why do you do that?

Commish: Coach, why would I not want my alma mater to win. I invested more blood, sweat and too many tears to do anything else. There’s a delicate balance in being a journalist and hoping my team wins. But I don’t see it as being that hard. It’s my job. I did it at the networks just like guys like Herbstreit, Blackledge, Fouts. Get a life. Turn the channel. Turn on the radio. You’ll find what you’re looking for there.

P-Dog from Nichols Hills: Of all the years to stop going. I’ll never miss another one. And why didn’t you throw me the ball in flag football?

Commish: Because we won all the time. Go play catch with Hard Knox. He’ll toss it to you all day long.

Carey, a Texas diehard: Why did the refs throw so many flags on us when they didn’t affect the play?

Bubbles from Tulsa: What happened? Headed to buy coupons. I always get thirsty in Dallas. Or Tulsa. Or OKC. Birdies and brewskies. Doesn’t get any better. And I heard we won. Toast!

John, from?.let’s say Stillwater: I give OSU a 15 percent chance of winning the South. Schedule really tough but I don’t see any great team out there.

Commish: Agree. I can see OU losing one before going to Stillwater. And even if OSU has two losses, if they beat the Sooners they would have a great chance of winning the tiebreaker. But believe it or not, Texas could slip in the side pocket, even with two conference losses. I give OSU a 20 percent shot playing Nebraska for the Big 12 Championship. What I’d really like to see is OU and Nebraska meeting. One of those won or shared the Big 8 title from EVERY season from 1970-1988 and 24 of 26 through 1995. How fitting would that be that the final conference game be played between those two, especially with Stoops and Bo Pelini being lifetime close friends.

Coach Richardson: I agree with Stoops faking that field goal. But after the penalty it was not so clear. But he didn’t think we could make that 45-yard FG. If we missed they’d have it on the 33. We usually don’t punt inside the 10 so that was no easy call. The holder had options on that play. But not the option of taking a sack. If he just gets rid of it for an incompletion, that’s okay. But the sack was a killer. Another fact was I don’ think Texas would take it and go score a touchdown and a two-pointer. They settled for two FGs and gave up eight points by not scoring TDs. And the Sooners won by those eight points. Agree Commish.

Commish: I see your point, Coach. But I don’t think after the penalty that it was the best call. But OU took control of that game early and I don’t think very many people in that stadium felt Texas would win after it was 14-0. OU has led by at least 15 points in all its games. But they’d better find a way to finish games or they won’t get through some of those road trips to College Station, Columbia and Stillwater. But coach, enjoy the 5-0 start. OU’s not played dogs.

Dean Blevins