Berry Tramel

Thoughts from The Oklahoman Sports Columnist Berry Tramel

Miguel Cabrera: Chasing Triple Crown history October 01, 2012 | Comment on this article

Baseball doesn’t capture our imagination much anymore, which explains why the nation is not nightly glued to the television, awaiting the results of Miguel Cabrera. The Detroit Tigers star has a shot at the Triple Crown, which hasn’t been accomplished since 1967, when Carl Yastrzemski led the American League in... Read More

West Virginia-Baylor numbers are startling October 01, 2012 The numbers from West Virginia’s 70-63 victory over Baylor are outrageous. Yardage is sort of beside the point. Frankly, the yardage — West Virginia’s 807, Baylor’s 700 — is not the craziest math to come out of this Defense Takes a Holiday Bowl. West Virginia scored 10 touchdowns and posted 33 first... Read More

Oklahoma football: Stoops says 70-63 a “nightmare” October 01, 2012 Bob Stoops was bemoaning the fate of defensive coaches in college football, especially in the Big 12, where we had a 70-63 final the other day. “It’s a nightmare,” Stoops said. Stoops said he’s constantly asking the rules committee to check the obvious offensive advantage. He gave an example from last... Read More

Big 12 football: K-State remains atop rankings September 30, 2012 Another week of Big 12 rankings, and conference play starts to provide a little clarity: 1. Kansas State: The victory in Norman remains the most impressive accomplishment by a Big 12 team, and KSU’s win over Miami keeps looking better. 2. Texas: The win in Stillwater was big for the Longhorns, who now are 2-0... Read More

NFL officiating: Quality control is back September 28, 2012 I’ve said it many times. The NFL is all about quality control. The quality of its franchises are exquisitely controlled. The competitiveness of its games are wonderfully monitored. Down to what its coaches wear on the sidelines, the NFL is a finely-tuned organization. Then the league locked out its officials.... Read More

Oklahoma State football: Bad omen about Big Fox September 28, 2012 For the Friday Oklahoman, I wrote about the Big 12′s contract with Big Fox. You can read it here. It’s a good thing for the Big 12. But is it a good thing for OSU and OU? The Cowboys and Sooners have played a combined six games on Big Fox. They are a combined 0-6. That’s a stat courtesy of Joe Spadea, who... Read More

NFL Predictions: Week 4 September 27, 2012 The NFL’s Week 4 arrives, and hopefully the real officials will be on hand. Browns at Ravens: Baltimore 33-14. Not a good spot for Brandon Weeden. The Raven defense, particularly its pass rush, has been questioned. Baltimore’s proud D smells blood. Panthers at Falcons: Atlanta 30-17. Anyone else put off by... Read More

College football predictions: Week 5 September 27, 2012 College football’s Week 5 arrives, and most of the non-conference dog games are gone. Cue the hallelujah chorus. Texas at OSU: Longhorns 27-23. I was picking the Cowboys before Wes Lunt went down. But not now. Stanford at Washington: Cardinal 28-21. Great Thursday night matchup. The Pac-12 is deeper than we... Read More

Power Lunch Chat with Berry Tramel: 11 a.m. September 27, 2012 Power Lunch Chat with Berry Tramel 1 Show / Hide Archive Comments The following comments are archived from the original publication of this post Jason on Sep 27, 2012 @ 3:59 pm Any word on when the OSU game at Kansas will kick off? Read More

Oklahoma football: Don’t give up on 2012

September 26, 2012 A theme has emerged from a good number of OU football fans: Start playing for next season. Bench Landry Jones, insert Blake Bell and start planning for 2013. Of course, it’s madness on many fronts, starting with this one. 2012 remains a land of opportunity for the Sooners. They didn’t play well at UTEP, and... Read More

NFL officiating: Lessons to be learned

September 26, 2012 Looks like the NFL officials will be back on the job soon. That’s good news for every football fan, not to mention the coaches and players of the NFL. Too late to help the Green Bay Packers, but better late than never. When the officials return, they will be greeted with thunderous ovations. Of course, the... Read More

Oklahoma State football: Running the ball paramount

September 26, 2012 Rarely have I approached a football game so sure of the key element as I am of the OSU-Texas game. If the Cowboys run the ball effectively, they will win. If Texas stunts the OSU run game, the Longhorns win. It’s not that complicated. Texas’ offense, and quarterback David Ash, appear to be much better than... Read More

Oklahoma football: Stoops says no leadership void

September 25, 2012 When OU loses a football game, fans search for reasons why. Much of the time, they settle on the correct areas. Turnovers, defensive breakdowns, stale offense, plus all the many reasons that lead to such developments. But sometimes fans invest problems. And here’s one. Lack of passion, notably in Landry Jones.... Read More

Oklahoma State football: Texas D-ends don’t catch a break

September 25, 2012 We’ll find out Saturday if Texas caught a break with Wes Lunt’s injury. The Longhorns play OSU on Saturday, and the Cowboys will go with backup quarterback J.W. Walsh. And Lunt and Walsh are two vastly different quarterbacks. Lunt is a classic dropback passer with a big-league arm. Walsh is a rollout,... Read More

NFL officiating: Roger Goodell’s decision

September 25, 2012 Roger Goodell could have overturned the verdict in the Green Bay-Seattle fiasco. The NFL commissioner is given broad power to protect the integrity of the game, and a blown call on the last play of the game would seem to qualify. But no way would Goodell have been allowed to do so. Lost in all the drama over the... Read More

Oklahoma football: The fans speak September 24, 2012 I wear many hats in my job. One of those hats is being a sounding board after Sooner football defeats. People need somewhere they can go to vent and get some feedback that is part understanding, part counseling, part correction. I’ve had to talk fans off virtual cliffs, educate them, comfort them and often agree... Read More

Oklahoma football: Bob Stoops doesn’t necessarily disagree with you

September 24, 2012 OU fans have a list of, oh, 10,000 grievances. Good thing Festivus is a mythical holiday or we’d never see the end of it. But at the airing of grievances, Stoops’ weekly press conference, Stoops didn’t exactly dismiss all of the fans’ concerns. Here are three schematic issues that fans are... Read More

Big 12 football: A new No. 1 September 23, 2012 The weekly Big 12 rankings, based not on what we think a team will do, but what a team has done. And no surprise, there’s a new No. 1. 1. Kansas State: Let’s see, a win in Norman, a rout of Miami. No Big 12 can match that. The ‘Cats have struggled against lesser foes, but there’s not many lesser foes in... Read More

Oklahoma football: Bob Stoops’ Kent State year September 21, 2012 Sometimes, like Hollywood, we condense the Bob Stoops story. For the purpose of conciseness, we make the Bob Stoops/Iowa/Bill Snyder connection uninterrupted. But there was a nine-month period when Stoops worked for neither Hayden Fry nor Snyder. When Stoops was 27, he took his first full-time job, at Kent State.... Read More

Oklahoma football: Bob Stoops talks straight September 21, 2012 We hear often from readers who wonder why Bob Stoops is so combative in press conferences. And I really don’t get it. I never see Stoops as combative. Seems to me he answers most questions in a perfunctory fashion, gets riled up occasionally at what he considers bad questions and gets animated occasionally at... Read More