Bob Stoops
Berry Tramel posted yesterday an excellent analysis on why Oklahoma University Head Coach Bob Stoops keeps answering questions sure to crank-up controversy.
Tramel writes: Bob Stoops stands alone. Tiananmen Square alone. Stoops stares, defying the monster, with dozens of other coaches cheering him but only with whispers. They support him from the shadows, from behind pulled shades.
Stoops dares take on the SEC. No, that’s not right. Stoops dares take on SEC hype. Dares suggest that the Southeastern Conference, while playing some mighty fine football, also plays a mean game of propaganda.
He actually used the word. Propaganda. May 2013, when Stoops opened the window, leaned out and said something along the lines of “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
OU quarterback Trevor Knight carries the ball
And what gets the SEC’s goat is this. Stoops isn’t sorry about it. Isn’t the least bit sheepish that he questions SEC football’s depth and questions SEC football’s scheduling. Just the other day, when asked about the outcry from SEC fans and mouthpieces, Stoops’ response was succinct. “Oh, get over it. Again, where am I lying?”
There’s little mystery at Stoops’ strategy. The new football playoff is a PR (propaganda?) battlefield. A 13-person committee will decide who gets in and who gets out of the four-team playoff, and Stoops believes that all minds are impressionable. So he’s busy making impressions.
The current college football culture is one of capitulation. The SEC gets to dine first, and other conferences are expected to scrap for the crumbs from the table. Nonsense, Stoops believes. So he’ll challenge the notion that the Big 12’s lack of a title game is a symbol of sissification. Challenge the belief that any SEC schedule is rugged simply because it’s an SEC schedule. Stoops is planting seeds. Seeds of doubt that the SEC rules unopposed in the campus kingdom.
Trevor Pardula’s punt is blocked by OU’s Matt Dimon
Here’s what Stoops means when he ribs the SEC on its nothing-special second division or Texas A&M’s schedule or its dominating defenses when the league’s quarterbacks are so-so: SEC football is overrated, even if it is the best conference in the nation.
You can be both. The best and overrated. Duke basketball? Excellent, and overrated. A great rib-eye? Excellent and overrated. Robert De Niro’s acting? Excellent and overrated.