Ny daily news lupica8/12/2023 This Sooner season was much more singular. You keep playing, you're going to have your ups and your downs." "You play enough games, you're not going to win 'em all," Stoops said of OU's reputation. The Sooners, knocking on the door of Mount Olympus, instead finished below sea level, in the Bayou, with a second straight loss. Thus a team for the ages became just another team. In the last 117 minutes of its season, a virtual two games, OU scored two touchdowns, on drives of 2 and 31 yards. Both KSU and LSU hit White hard and often.Īn offense that reached 50 points seven times in the regular season, a level of prowess unknown even to the great wishboners of the 1970s, by the postseason was static. The foes were tougher, no doubt, but the pinpoint passes of October wobbled in January. LSU sacked White five times K-State and Texas Tech three each.īy season's end, White seemed slow and unsure. the Bears, which became standard down the stretch. White was victim of only a dozen sacks in his first 10 games but went down five times vs. Woeful Baylor fell 41-3 but uncovered holes in OU's pass protection. The Sooners peaked with trounces of Oklahoma State (52-9) and A&M.Īfter that, sores appeared. "It sure makes you feel like a lousy coach, when you've got all that talent and can't win."Įven before Kansas City, OU wasn't the team it was in mid-season. Does it take away your edge? I don't know. "You're trying to recruit, get ready for a national-championship game. "They're out of hand, the number of awards," Stoops said. But a delay also would be reprieve for teams that have higher stakes. Stoops has politicked for the delay of awards and voting. Let him boast who puts down the sword." The message: Prizes should be distributed at the end of the turkey hunt. Pinkerton invoked an old proverb: "Let not him boast who picks up the sword. The Arrowhead Stadium scoreboard became a distant memory as ESPN spotlights again proclaimed the Sooners something extra special. The subliminal message many Sooners received was the opposite. Sports teams sent spiraling to Earth by stunning defeat usually regroup in Spartan ways. A few days after losing 35-7 to K-State, many Sooners were feted in a variety of plush locales. In retrospect, awards week did OU no favors. Sounds like making an excuse."īut Stoops allowed, "In the end, it sure doesn't help you." "I don't know," Stoops said Monday morning from the Hilton Riverside, OU's Bayou headquarters. The Sooners against Kansas State and LSU became primo targets human nature being what it is, the palm branches softened up the Oklahoma heroes.ĭid OU lose its edge, be it physical or mental? Did a season of flowery prose and coveted trophies make the Sooners start believing their press clippings and forget the hunger that got them to the mount top? Uneasy lie the heads that wear the crowns. A month of chicken-dinner banquets, in which young lads are told how great they are, is bound to soften a team on the edge. The Sooners filled a shrimp boat with individual trophies, including the treasured Heisman, but even those honors spoiled. And with their sputtering against LSU, the Sooners did nothing to counter such theory. A college team routinely mentioned, only half-joking, as NFL caliber was deemed unworthy of the national title game. OU, mentioned in dynastic terms in November, instead became a national pariah, believed to be fraudulently placed in the Sugar Bowl. OU went 12-2, the same record as 2002 and a half notch ahead of 2001 (11-2). The Sooners lost 21-14 to LSU in the Sugar Bowl on Sunday night, ending a season that seemed on track for history but instead was not so upgraded from the previous two autumns. 'Twas a bogus charge OU's 77-0 rout of the Aggies was more humanitarian than vindictive.īut Lupica hatched a curse. On that Sunday morning, the New York Daily News' Mike Lupica, on ESPN's The Sports Reporters, blasted Bob Stoops for running up the score on Texas A&M. OU, once an outlaw program, had a pristine reputation.Ĭamelot didn't last. Their coaching staff was the envy of the nation. The Sooners sported a dominant squadron, a team for the ages. 9, the mighty monster of Oklahoma football never stood taller.
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