Bob Stoops walked into the Everest Center, the Oklahoma football team's indoor practice facility, one day a couple of weeks ago and could sense that something was different.
Then he noticed it.
The Sooners' 2006 Big 12 Championship banner had been added to the growing list of accolades represented on the indoor facility wall.
No ceremony. No celebration. Stoops just showed up one day and there it was.
"It's probably been up a week or two and I didn't even know,” he said. "In our locker room, we have two that are missing — 2004 and '06. It's not like we sit there to have ceremonies to update everything.”
But don't think Stoops' lax attitude about banners equates to a lax attitude about Big 12 titles — last year's especially.
For purposes of comparison, here's how Stoops responded last week when asked whether he had put the emotional Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State behind him.
"What's to put behind you?” Stoops asked. "Was it the Big 12 Championship? No, we already won the Big 12 Championship. If it was the Big 12 Championship, I'd probably still be trying to figure out how I'm gonna change that.”
In fact, that Big 12 Championship banner — while he might not have noticed its arrival — represents what Stoops calls "one of the more gratifying, more satisfying” seasons he's been a part of.
"I know 11 other teams that would love to have that banner,” he said. "Last year was probably as difficult of circumstances as we've had.
"You deal with adversity; you deal with problems. You fight through them. And when you do and you still end up in that position, it doesn't get much more satisfying.”
