OU football: Stoops likes attitude

Bob Stoops likes the work ethic of his 2011 football team. Don’t dismiss that. Stoops doesn’t always endorse his off-season Sooners. Recall that Stoops in early 2009 warned us about his offensive linemen, in particular. Said that he saw the 2005 disaster coming.

during the first day of spring practice at the University of Oklahoma in Norman on Monday, March 21, 2011. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman

The 2011 team doesn’t compare. And that’s a good thing.

“These guys have played a lot,” Stoops said. “They do know what it takes. Their maturity, their attitude, is much like it was a year ago. I’ve liked their competitiveness. They’ve done a lot of that through the winter.”

When Stoops has said he doesn’t like the off-season work of his team, it’s been an attitude problem. Guys who hadn’t played, or hadn’t earned high expectations, seemed to have an entitlement attitude. “A lot of it is immaturity,” Stoops said.

That doesn’t seem to be the case with the 2011 Sooners.