Sports


It’s the day after the NCAA national football championship, and I’m still angry.

You know, it wasn’t so much that OU lost the game — they played hard, and the score was virtually tied until the middle of the fourth quarter — it was the obviously biased commentating that left me so ticked off that I still want to rip someone’s head off. Thom Brennaman and Charles Davis win the award for the worst commentating for a national football championship ever.

Don’t get me wrong; as someone who’s spent my life as a journalist and writer, I understand the need for a hook — that human interest appeal that gets the viewers to stay tuned in — but these guys went to ridiculous levels in their commentary, particularly Brennaman who raised Tim Tebow to the level of messaih. I swear if I didn’t know better, I’d think it was the second coming of Christ!

His most disgusting comment was this one:

If you’re fortunate enough to spend five minutes or 20 minutes around Tim Tebow, your life is better for it.

Oh, come on! I have no doubt the kid is a great guy and a great leader, but I’d put Sam Bradford up against him any day. He, too, is a great guy and a wonderful leader. He’s also this year’s Heisman Trophy winner, and he was virtually ignored by these two horrible commentators. Fox Sports should be embarrassed by their humiliating display of hyperbole and incorrect information.

Other low-lights of their performance:

  • Going crazy about whether OU should go for it on fourth down on a critical play when it was really third down
  • Stating that Trautwein had a false state twice when it was really three times
  • Claiming an OU defender “horsed” one of the Florida players and calling for a penalty when he had clearly not done that.
  • Actually referring to momentum as “Ole Moe
  • Stating that Tebow’s unsportsman like conduct penalty that cost his team 15 yards was “probably the first thing he’s ever done wrong.
  • Not mentioning Stoops’ very strong ties to the Florida team. He *was* their defensive coordinator after all.

There are so many more. Way too many to mention. If you want a real kick, google “bad 2009 NCAA football championship commentators” and read the comments by viewers. I think my favorite was from a guy named Rob who said, “Tebow cured the announcers of their erictile dysfunction.” No truer words were ever written.

I’m not the only one who feels this way about the officiating. Check out this great article by Chris Burke - BCS National Championship 2009: Thom Brennaman Forces Mute Buttons to Work.

Before I go, a few words about the Sooners. This team has been one of the hardest working, hardest playing teams in the country this year. They have proven the ney-sayers wrong again and again. Sam Bradford has 2008 OU Football Team wins Big 12 titlebeen a wonderful, strong, calming influence for the team and has set a wonderful example. The OU coaching team is one of the best in the nation — Brent Venables, in particular, has worked magic with the defensive line. Congratulations to all of them for a wonderful season, and we’ll get them next year!

Let’s just hope to GOD that we have a decent commentary team to do the game justice!

Well, OU trounced the #1 Missouri Tigers last night in the Big 12 conference from the Dallas Morning Newschampionship. It was a great game on neutral ground, and OU still beat them by 21 points. But will the BCS let them be in the championship?

Doubtful.

While I would put our schedule up against any other team’s schedule, and even though the two games we lost were away games — and one was lost in the final seconds to a rogue field goal while the other was lost after our star quarterback left the game in the first quarter with a concussion — I don’t think the BCS votes will go our way.

It’s too bad, too. I think OU could beat anyone right now, and I’d love to see them get the chance. As it is, they’ll probably be in the Fiesta Bowl playing against Kansas.  Don’t get me wrong — that would be a great game. KU was awesome this year, the coach used to be OU’s offensive coordinator, and he’s a great coach and a good friend of Bob Stoops, and OU didn’t get to play them this year, so it would be a great opportunity to show that yes…we’re better than KU this year.

KU didn’t really have a tough schedule until they played Mizzou. Every team they had played but two were having losing seasons and the other two were something like 6-5.

Nothing to write home about.

I guess we’ll find out tonight on Fox’s BCS show.  Whatever happens, OU can call themselves champs again!  And for Sooner fans, they’ll always be number one!

 

UPDATE:  OU will be in the Fiesta Bowl, going up against #3 West Virginia.  It’s too bad we won’t be in the national championship, but it should be a great game. Stay tuned! :D

The only thing I love more than watching a close football game is watching one where we come out the winners. And today, we got a barn burner of a game between 10th ranked OU and 19th ranked Texas.

People who aren’t from Oklahoma or Texas can’t really grasp what a huge rivalry ours is. Both teams are national powerhouses, even in rebuilding years, and with such strong feelings on both sides about the folks on the other side of the Red River, it makes us want to come out on top even more.  (To spell it out, Oklahomans have a bit of disdain – to say the least – for Texans and visa-versa.)

OU has three big rivalries — Texas, OSU (our in-state rival) and Nebraska. In years past, all three of these games would be huge, but with the downfall of Nebraska after their great coach, Tom Osborne retired at the end of 1997, only OSU and Texas are really left, and both are taken equally seriously, because very strong emotions are involved, and when that’s the case, anything can happen and often does.  There have been years when we’ve been unbeaten all season, only to meet one of these teams who wasn’t even ranked that year and then lose horribly.  The simple fact is that strong emotions make for great football.

Today’s game was back and forth all four quarters until OU finally moved ahead and stayed ahead in the fourth quarter, finally coming away victorious with a score of OU-28 and UT-21.

Life is good!!  

 

The bruhaha over OSU coach Mike Gundy’s rant against Daily Oklahoman sports columnist, Jenni Carlson has finally begun to wind down, and I have to say that the entire media circus that ensued after Mike’s initial tyrade proved to be very interesting indeed.

For those of you living in another country or those who avoid the news altogether and don’t know the story, OSU has had a horrible season this year. They haveJenny Carlson from her video blog on NewsOK.com lost every Smart, caring and cute, Mike Gundy is an awesome coach. game except for their latest game, where they enjoyed an amazing win against one of the most talented teams in the country, Texas Tech.  From what I can gather (Sorry, I’m an OU gal, and I don’t know the details that led up to this, so I can only paint with a broad brush.), at some point before or during the Texas Tech game, Coach Gundy chose to replace his quarterback with another man, hoping to improve their results. (It obviously worked, by the way. OSU won 49-45 after an amazing comeback in the second half.) 

Also, at some point prior to the Texas Tech game, the 21 year old quarterback who was eventually replaced was visibly upset after a particularly bad loss, and at some point, maybe his mother fed him chicken. Jenni Carlson then put in her Saturday column that he had been replaced because he had no grit, and she sited the chicken feeding and the crying. The ex quarterback’s mother then took the article to Coach Gundy who became enraged. Soon after, during his weekly press conference, rather than talking about the amazing win over Texas Tech, Gundy went on a tyrade against the article, the author and the media in general. Since then, the radio and television media has gone nuts for the story. And, now, the mother is suing Ms. Carlson and the Oklahoman, saying she did not feed her son chicken (as ludicrous as that sounds). Now, you’re almost caught up.

Here’s Coach Gundy’s lecture to finish the story:

First, let me say that I respect Gundy for what he said and for the way he said it. The media edited what he said to show him in the worst light possible, but if you watch it in its entirety, as I have it here, you’ll see that he was calm during most of his talk. (If you want to see how badly it was edited, check out the YouTube video from Good Morning America.) True, there were times when he raised his voice, but that’s just coach speak.  He’s a passionate man, Stoops is a passionate man, Switzer is a passionate man — any good coach is. That’s how they rally teams and win games.  He also can’t be faulted for having his player’s back. It makes me respect him even more to know that he would get that upset about a personal attack on a player by the media.

The interesting thing about this entire episode, though, is the blatant polarization among the coaches, the media and the fans. Never have I seen an issue galvanize the media against someone the way this one has.  The talk radio pundits have vilified Gundy, resorting to ad hominem attacks against him. The television sports news has played the edited version of the press conference over and over, all the while making subtle digs at Gundy. Even more interestingly, only Good Morning America’s Diane Sawyer saw through all the hype to see the serious question, “What does this say about amateur athletics and the media?” 

The answer is that the media is made up of hungry, man-eating sharks who will do anything for a story. Thanks to the popularity of tabloid television, they have become so zealous in the past 20 years that yellow journalism is no longer saved for the tabloids alone but instead permiates the “serious news.” Because of that, their coverage of amateur athletics has become more rabid than ever before.

I knew this already, but the thing that really surprised me was how viscious the opinion pundits were about the whole deal. I haven’t heard a single one of them say a nice thing about Gundy, and all of them defend Carlson. All of them. What are the odds?

As for the fans and other coaches, I haven’t heard one of them say thatOriginally from: http://www.nodnc.com/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/10002/normal_drive_by_media.jpg they weren’t on Gundy’s side in this matter.  I have heard a few say they thought Gundy was right but went too far, but all of these people had only seen the news stations’ edited version, and after seeing the entire unedited press conference, changed their minds. Even Coach Stoops, in his weekly press conference, refered to Ms. Carlson as “the drive-by media,” which puts her with the dregs of journalism.

Such polarization makes one wonder why. Why was this incedent such a big deal that it made national news? Here’s a hint: Gundy was attacking a member of the media, and the fourth estate didn’t like it and attempted to slam him down. Luckily for Gundy, those of us who aren’t members of the media have his back.

As for Carlson, maybe it’s time for her to start giving her opinions on high school sports. Then she can scar players during their formative years and kill two birds with one stone. Sounds like a career right down her alley.

Disclaimer: As an OU alumnus, Maggy is a fan of OSU whenever they aren’t playing OU. She also beleives that both Cale and Mike Gundy are fine gentlemen, terrific football players and just all around great guys.

I was born to be an OU football fan. Crimson and Cream is in my blood. From the time I can remember, game day was an event that brought our family together, and even after I’d moved away from home, it was OU football that kept us in touch. Most of my phone calls to Dad were made on Saturday just after another amazing play, and because OU’s team has always been pretty spectacular, those calls were usually made at least once a week.

When Barry Switzer left in 1989, the Sooner nation moaned in unison. As one of the winningest football coaches in American history, he led our team to 12 conference championships and three national championships, and we knew that it was his coaching that had taken us to such heights.

For the next several years, OU’s team floundered, and it was obvious to fans that it was because of a lack of leadership. Switzer’s first replacement was Gary Gibbs, a nice guy who had a decent record at OU (44-23-2), but who had zero charisma. We called him the Dan Quayle of football - he just wasn’t comfortable with the fans, the media and most of all, his team. It was obvious that the team didn’t give him the same respect they had given Coach Switzer.
Next was Howard Schnellenberger. Besides being a poor spokesman for the team we loved (He once ordered that OU records were thrown away, but they were secretly archived instead.), Schnellenberger was cocky and overconfident. He was even quoted as saying that movies would be made about his time at OU. In the end, his record was 5-5-1. Yawn. We were so glad when he left.

Coach John Blake was next. Another nice guy who wasn’t able to get the team to play. After three years, his record was only 16-22, and he moved on to a collective sigh of relief from all of Oklahoma. Those were dark times for OU fans, and we were ready for a change. We knew we couldn’t have Switzer back, but we wanted someone like him who would make the players want to play hard again. After ten dismal years, we were ready for a winner.

In came Bob Stoops. A 38 year old defensive coordinator at Florida, Stoops looked like your average Joe…a husband and father from the midwest who didn’t seem bigger than life at all. Still, when he spoke, it was easy to tell that there was more to him than just a pretty face. Obviously driven by a passion for the game and a need to win, he took the mediocre team the Sooners had become and immediately began turning them around. With him at the helm and his brother Mike as the defensive coordinator, the team began playing as if they cared again. His winning attitude became their winning attitude, and by the time his second year ended, OU was national football champion.

Over the years, Bob has fought as hard as his players. As a national powerhouse, OU is used to having a target on its back, and Bob is the first to defend his team against inequity and unfairness. The 2006 game against the University of Oregon is a case in point. During the game, officials awarded an onside kick to the Ducks when it should have been Oklahoma’s ball. Though we ultimately lost the decision, and consequently the game, Bob fought during and after the game to have the bad call overturned. Once the decision was made, he was gracious about it, but we all knew where he stood. All the officials were suspended for one game, and one left officiating for a year. The world knew that Bob had been right to defend the team.

The rest of the year was punctuated with hard knocks. Rhett Bomar, the team’s starting quarterback, and another player were kicked off the team for violating NCAA rules, and our star running back, Adrian Peterson, broke his collarbone, taking him out for the remainder of the regular season. Still, the team excelled and went on to win the conference championship.

Last night, the 2007 season began with OU playing against North Texas State University. Known more for their music program than for football, North Texas was completely outplayed, its players left standing in amazement as OU barreled over them to end with a score of 79 to 10. (The score after the first half - when the first string was still playing - was 56 to 0, which means our second string beat them 23 to 10 in the second half.) So, it looks like we’ve got a pretty good team again this year, though next week’s game against Miami will tell the tale.

No matter what happens, Bob Stoops will always be my hero. Strong, loyal and respectable; he has become beloved by an entire state. He gives our kids someone to look up to and emulate. He shows us all what it means to be passionate about your calling. No matter what the scoreboard shows, Bob Stoops is a winner, and I’m proud to be one of his biggest fans.

Championships:

  • 2000 National Championship,
  • 2000/2002/2004/2006 Big 12 Championship

Awards:

  • 2000 Walter Camp Nat’l Coach of the Year
  • 2000 Paul “Bear” Bryant Award
  • 2000 Home Depot Coach of the Year
  • 2000 AP Nat’l Coach of the Year
  • 2003 Walter Camp Nat’l Coach of the Year