Dean Blevins: Stoops was Stoops, Mack was Mack

Originally Published: Jul 28, 2010 1:3 PM CDT

Dean Blevins
Oklahoma Sports Sports Director - Oklahoma City

DALLAS -- Just wrapped up with Texas meeting with local TV stations. The Horns were schooled up to provide appropriate answers to questions that were not overly probing. I mean, how can you ask a new QB something controversial when summer workouts aren’t even done? Give the kid a break.

For the record though, UT QB Garrett Gilbert was quite impressive. Young behind the ears as a true sophomore, it was easy to see how his demeanor combined with his remarkable talents have led Mack Brown and his players to feel comfortable in the shift Colt McCoy to the new kid on the block.

Gilbert said he’s 6-4, 215 pounds, learned leadership more than anything from Colt, is looking forward to the switch to being under center much more and emphasizing the run game, and that the biggest thing he learned in playing much of the national championship game when McCoy went down was to protect the football.

Mack was Mack. Congenial, engaging, pragmatic. And devoid of any controversial comments, steering—pun intended—clear of any bulletin board material. I asked Mack the same question I’d asked of Stoops an hour earlier: What’s the feeling of Texas and the coach having overturned the series from being a five-in-a-row run for Bob Stoops to a four-in-five game winning streak by Mack? What are his thoughts on the two schools coming at it from different perspectives?

I told the likable coach that Stoops emphasized the fact that OU played for conference championships and during this period had won three of four (six wins in seven games overall). His diplomatically safe response was that the two programs are after the same thing. That they are great programs. That what they’ve achieved is remarkable. Period. End of sentence. End of story.

The chances of any other response were slim and none—and I just saw Slim Pickens leave the building. In the end, Stoops was Stoops and Mack was Mack.

Fans don’t want it any other way. The countdown to October 2 has begun...