Emails in on Sun Bowl, OSU schedule & Oklahoma Bowl

The new emails are in, and there’s a healthy dose, even for a holiday week. Let’s get to it.

Frank wrote about my column that stated Bob Stoops is in a no-win situation in the Sun Bowl: “Why did you write this very negative article? Do you want to destroy Stoops? He’s had to play the very best teams in the country so many times. Just getting there is rare for any coach. Are you angry that OU trounced OSU? That great win and beating Stanford will propel us into 2010 in a big way. STOP the negativity!”

The answer to your original question is, because it’s the truth and because it was fair. That was an easy one to write.

Wayne:”I have enjoyed reading your articles for many years. However, there is one area where I do not like what you say so boldly in big print. Not many days pass that you do not knock Bob Stoops for his record in BCS bowl games. You make it sound like he is a no-good coach in major bowl games. The fact that he gets his team to the game in the first place is a great accomplishment that most coaches would be glad to be able to do as well as he. The Sooners had terrible luck this year with injuries but still salvaged a winning season. Why not build our coach up and encourage him? I think if a poll were taken in Oklahoma on how many people would trade Bob Stoops for any other coach in America, you would find that Stoops is loved by Oklahomans and would trade him for none. It sounds like you have sour grapes or something. Did Stoops say or do something to you that causes you to write the kind of articles I am talking about? You belittle yourself with each story of this kind. I would like it if you printed a response to my email on the sports pages.”

Not on the sports page, but here’s a response on the blog. You’ve got to be kidding. Bob Stoops gets paid $4 million a year yet needs encouragement? Needs my encouragement? If a poll were taken of OU fans, the majority would say they love Bob Stoops but it’s about time he won a BCS game, and the majority would agree that the Sun Bowl doesn’t count.

Larry: “Normally I agree with you, Berry, but I have to disagree with your article regarding no-win situation in the Sun Bowl for Bob Stoops. It would be a great success for Bob if he brings a team that is disciplined and plays in an efficient and productive manner. It would give us fans something to look forward to for next year. I am pretty disgruntled with our Sooners. I don’t have to tell you that we expect them to be well coached and to play as if they had some discipline. I believe if the Sooners go to El Paso, play well, show discipline and win a game that they should win it will set a tone for these young guys for next year.”

I don’t see it. If the Sooners go to El Paso and beat a Stanford team playing without its quarterback, what does that prove? And even if it does propel the Sooners for 2010 (I never buy that theory; the Sooners lost the 1999 Independence Bowl), that doesn’t erase Stoops’ BCS stigma.

Jim: “Can’t you find anything good to perpetuate, like success in the Big 12 and owning OSU. If OU beats Stanford, that’s a big deal to me, given the way this seasons has gone and hopefully bodes well for next year. Remember this; Stanford beat USC, whom the media loves.”

Sure, it’s better to win than to lose. But again, folks, beating Stanford won’t improve Bob Stoops’ bowl status one iota. Losing would hurt Stoops, but winning won’t help.

Bill wrote about El Paso memories: “I reading your piece on the earlier Sun Bowl and thinking how I would not likely go to this one and how a lot of other people probably have the same reaction. Too bad. I had one of the greatest times of my life in El Paso. I was at a school at Fort Bliss for three months at the end of a longer school at Fort Sill on my way to Viet Nam in 1965. Absolutely perfect spring weather. About half of the class was in the same category as me, on our way to Viet Nam, and another third were just back. The course, something about air defense in the counter-insurgency role, had a real hard time holding our attention, so we looked for other things to do, especially at night, instead of studying. Juarez supplied part of the answer. We spent several afternoons at the race track (dogs in the daytime and horses at night). We went to the bull fights on Sundays. Some, who were so inclined, heavily cruised the Juarez clubs and bars. At night my crowd mostly stayed in El Paso. There were more bars than you could count, and 100% of them had live music, even the military clubs, and not just the usual bar music but really great music. As far as I could tell, 100% of the musicians arrived from Mexico around 7 p.m. and stayed later than I did. They were a wonderful way to pass the time with our families mostly in Lawton or having been sent home to wait out Viet Nam, and we hit them just about every night. Which brings me to the Bar Seville. It was right downtown, fairly small, L-shaped with a little six inch high stage at one end of it where the musicians stood/sat. The wait staff were a mix of young men and women. The first time this happened to me it was unexpected and I was dumbfounded. A waiter brought our drinks, set them on the table, took a step back and broke into an operatic song in a fabulous tenor voice. Then I noticed the women doing the same thing; breaking into a short aria after delivering the drinks. This went on and on all evening, and, in fact, every evening that we went there for the entire time we were there. It turned out that they were all music students at (what was then) Texas Western College. They were just like college kids all over who waited table to work their way through college except that they all had splendid voices and the whole act was coordinated with the musicians. Once an hour or so they would go up with the band and do a couple of real songs. Even allowing for the amount of beer we were drinking, they were very, very good. I never saw anything like it anywhere before or since. Except for being on my way to Viet Nam I loved El Paso. I’m sorry the folks now can’t enjoy El Paso, and certainly not Juarez, like I did 34 years ago.”

I’m headed to El Paso in a couple of days. I’m not optimistic. Sounds like a place that lost its greatest tourist attraction (Juarez) and has a chip on its shoulder. I was on an El Paso radio show the other day, and the hosts were upset with my video, which suggested that OU fans aren’t excited about the Sun Bowl. These guys kept talking about what a great place El Paso is in which to live. Maybe so. But no one from Oklahoma is going there to live. Oklahomans are going there to visit.

Chris wrote about my column concerning OSU’s lack of an annual game in Dallas, in the face of every other Big 12 South doing so. “I enjoyed the OSU-Georgia series, attending both games, as well the OSU-UCLA series a few years back. I am not against scheduling good competition. I am concerned about locking into games outside of Stillwater. The only reason OSU played eight home games this year was because Mike Holder thought OSU would be playing Texas Tech in the Dallas area this year. Didn’t happen. OSU has played 11 games in Texas since Mike Gundy took over…12 with this year’s Cotton Bowl. Have you checked out OSU’s recruiting verbals? Why must people want to fix what isn’t broken? I am thrilled that Texas Tech/Baylor is in Dallas; (thrilled because OSU will not have the opportunity to play them in Dallas anymore during this contract). Don’t make too much about the Dallas area. We have signed Tatum Bell and Byron Eaton under the same conditions. Don’t compare us to OU and Texas. That takes time; this year proves we are not there yet. OSU is not missing the bus, we have our own bus, courtesy of Pickens and others. We will continue to rise. OSU faced a lot of adversity this year and still finished 9-3. I remember Sept. 5, basking in the warm sun after beating Georgia and just soaking up that great win.”

Great points. I guess my strongest thoughts are this. I’m all for a Dallas game if it means an upgrade to OSU’s schedule. If the Cowboys can upgrade their schedule without Dallas, then who cares? But I’m convinced the Cowboys can’t significantly make a dent nationally playing a steady diet of Troys and Louisiana-Lafayettes. Chris is exactly right. Think what that Georgia game did for OSU.

Craig also wrote about the issue: “Good article, I agree. But I will never sit in the very top row of JerryWorld. I am an experienced climber and I could not believe how steep the upper section is! At the BYU game, one of the ladies in our group got dizzy and scared because of the steepness. She and my wife got up and left. I also wish we could play one game in Houston each year. That would be fun and get good exposure.”

I don’t like the Houston idea. Dallas is centralize and easy to get to. Houston is not.

Danny: “I thought about this off and on through the year and wanted to get this idea to you. The NCAA would schedule the last two weeks of the season based on the power rankings after the bowl games. The teams ranked 1-30 would play 2 games each, one home and one away. You might have to switch a team if they are in the same conference, but 1 would play 11 and 21, 2 would play 12 and 22, and so on. You would do the same thing with teams 31-60, 61-90, and 91-120. This way teams like TCU, Boise State, BYU, etc. wouldn’t be able to say the BCS teams won’t play us and it would help ease scheduling. You could have a couple of easier games to start the season to warm up and adjust, or to play a rivilary series. It doesn’t bring the meaningful games to the beginning of the season like you would like, but conference play would begin earlier and everyone would have a more equal schedule. You wouldn’t have teams scheduling four easy wins any more. I like playing at least one easy game first to try to work out the kinks in the offense and figure out what you are doing with your players.

Look, I know college football needs fixing. Some believe the postseason is an absurdity, some of us believe the regular season is the outrage. But can we please stay sane? Play regular-season games after the bowls? Why not schedule by drawing out of a hat?

Tommy wrote about my Oklahoma Bowl column: “At one time in the early and mid ’60s, an All Sports Bowl in Oklahoma City did exist. The All Sports Association sponsored it. The home team was the winner of the regional college system. They would invite sundry same-sized teams from the U.S. I am not sure how long it lasted. I saw one game at Taft, the venue. Slippery Rock (Pa.) vs. Northeastern. Northeastern smothered them. I remember the wind blowing so hard out of the south that Slippery Rock punted into that wind and the ball hung in the air and then drifted back behind the line of scrimmage. I remember a small attendance that got smaller as the game progressed.”

Speaking of wind, can you imagine a football game played in the kind of wind we had Thursday, the day of the blizzard? Forget the snow or the cold. That was 40-50 mph wind consistently. That would have been a wild football game. No one in their right mind would pass into that wind. Pass? Heck, no one would punt into that wind. When you had the ball, you would run three plays up the middle, milk the clock as much as possible and try to hang on til the wind came your way.