OU's kicking struggles continue as Tress Way misses 3 field goals

Sheesh, we are terrible. I feel sorry for D. Murray, C. Brown, G. McCoy, T. Williams, and all the other good players that have to endure such a sh*t season. Bummer sooners. Can we pleeeeeease finally win a damned bowl game for a change?!? CFB sucks this year, I hate this season.

OU has recruited the top kickers in Oklahoma the last two years and has the top kicker in Oklahoma in this years recruiting class. By the way, the kid for Kansas who kicked a 57 yarder against us is from Lawton Mac. So you never know about kickers, they are a strange bunch. Remember the #1 kicker in the country (from Montana)who committed to OU several years ago only to decline when school started because his girl friend didn't want him to move away.

At the end of this year Stoops will do something he hasn't done since coming to OU. He is going to fire some coaches. And they deserved to be fired. Starting with the receivers coach, and the o line coach. Their units preformance has been despicable. And they should have seen it coming. OC needs a hard look also. Saying that trent Williams is better than Jamal Brown is just plain BS, and he should be nailed for that. The game he called in Lubbock after Sam went down was terrible. He should be called on that. He is arrogant. And that arrogance is why we are being out coached.

That was a good post by Mike. I really believe he is on the mark with the strength being an important asset for our players. He (Mike) made some good points, and if you didn't want to read it all, just move on to the short posts. Come on Coaches, something is not working. Try something different, even if it seems wrong at the time. Last nights game was painful to those of us who expected more after the two Kansas wins.

OU hasn't prioritized getting a primo kicker for quite some time. Funny when kickers are essential in the kinds of games OU knows it will be in against Texas, OSU etc. Gee guys maybe you can actualy ACTIVELY RECRUIT a kicker, instead of feeling good about having 3-4 nationally-ranked rbs on your roster and only using 2 of them.

Mike from Irving, these are posts, not books.

Why is it I watch Florida, Houston, Alabama, Ohio State etc.. have kickers hit the netting behind the goal posts when kicking a FG over 40 yards? Why can't we find someone who can kisk it straight and far?

The conditioning program. Good points, Mike from Arlington. OU, even when they are as good as last year and the year we got rolled by USC, seem to come up short when a play comes down to being stronger than the opponent. Take the Florida game. Also, I have often wondered why so many OU players get hurt in the NFL. I say so many. Maybe it's not as many as I make it sound. But it seems to happen often.

Tress may be the best punter we've seen at OU in 20 years. Heck he may be the next Ray Guy. Placekicking however is not his forte'. I guess finding a kicker who can kick a ball straight for more than 35 yards is more difficult than we thought.Placekickers are headcases and you have to find one who can manage the demons during a game.

This is Business 101. You NEVER fire anyone until you have a replacement groomed. Otherwise you look like an idiot when the replacement fails! This article does not even address the issue of short kick offs. Get someone who can put the ball in the end zone on kick offs. (even if its a linebacker or some walk on that plays soccer). There are plenty of strong legged kickers at small schools in oklahoma and texas that would love the chance to walk on at OU. Talk it up! Just remember one thing....we never saw the Blake/Schnellenberger years coming....we must be ever vigilant! Giving away close games with poor special teams is a great way to get back in that 5 loss, 6 loss rut! BOOMER SOONER!

Fans are frantically looking for the solutions to our problems but one that is always overlooked is the failure of our strength and conditioning program. The problem now is two fold. One most all other programs have cautht up to us and many frankly have passed us. Plus, Schmidt’s philosophy is extremely dated and really doesn’t work in today’s advance college programs.

As one who as studied and participated in this field for 40+ yrs I have repeatedly told friends to pay attention to what our players look like just before the season starts then watch as their bodies slowly deteriorate as the season progresses. Apparently Schmidt is about 25 years older than he appears. Because that philosophy (the one where your 1960 HS HC (and “strength & conditioning coach) which your coach said, “ya can’t pump iron during the season because that will get too bulked up and slow you down). Well all you have to do is look at 70% of the NFL teams (the ones who win titles) and you can clearly see that this is absolutely not the case.

The two glaring examples are our OL and Defense. Our OL are constantly get pushed around even on the few plays that our coaches have them in the right positions. Just look at their arms. Even golfers would not brag if they had those arms. I remember reading a comment that Trent Williams made regarding OU’s preparations for our Championship bowl game last year. I was following OU a little closer last year because I was praying we wouldn’t get humiliated again. During Trent’s interview, he commented that they were preparing for this game unlike any of the previous games that he had attended. He said that OU was even lifting weights that year (2008) something they hadden done in any of his 4 previous bowls. Does that tell you something? It should. Remember the great teams that Nebraska fielded back in the 60’s and 70’s and 80’s. I remember reading about them taking two semi’s loaded down with weighting lifting equipment for their bowl games. And I never remember them getting humiliated in a bowl game. The average fan likely has now idea how rapidly the body loses strength. You would be shocked if you did. But somehow, Schmidt has convinced Bob that he knows all. And that there is only one way and it’s his way. I remember Tommy Harris being the top DL recruit and (to me) what really impressed me about Tommy was his strength. The reports that when he showed up at OU he could bench 315…20 times. That’s like REALLY impressive to those of us who know the science. But what is sad is that Schmidt just doesn’t believe that one should continue to left once the season starts. And it shows in many ways.

My theory of Schmidt started formalizing several years ago when I heard Tommie Harris dropped out after the fall semester and went to train with some guy in AZ. What does that say about the program you’ve been in for the last 3 years?

Take Stephen Good. Fantastic prospect out of Paris TX with great character, work ethic and strength (I’ve read the stories)…BEFORE he got here. I watched the youtube video of him benching 565 which is a monstrous amount. (not to be too picky but I would say that the “helpful” spot he got was worth 20-30 pounds, but regardless anything over 500 is darn right fantastic. But when I started watching for him in the line up I struggled to find him without close ups with jersey numbers and names showing. Why? Well he no longer looks like the Stephen Good that was a recruit. That young man was a monster. The “new” SG is just another big OL who looks like he once dabbled with weights but it was a long time ago. If he’s playing against inferior talent then our guys do pretty well MOST of the time. But that means that we will lose many battles when the opponent is better coached and the players are better motivated. And for those teams who have equal or superior talent then we got a problem best identified by Nebraska, Texas and BYU.

Our problems are exclusive to SG, just look at Trent Williams or for that matter all the OL we have except Brodie. Notice what’s different about Brodie? Yeah, he’s got arms and chest. Impressive ones. Notice how the entire coaching staffing just drools over Brodie’s ability and effort? Yeah, amazing what having strength, ALL season long will do for you. In fact I would be willing to bet that Brodie is cheating (he and Chris Brown). I think they are secretly pumping iron without Schmidt knowing it. Is that sad? Travis Lewis. When he burst onto the seen last year he had some serious guns on him. Guns that even impressed me. But as the season wore on I could tell he was no longer even moderately pumping iron. And his dominance on the field showed this. I remember him really being pumped (emotionally only) for the Florida game and then missing several tackles and the ones he made most all were without authority. I pretty much knew this would happen because I read arms. The arms tell a lot about the character of the player especially at OU. Because our program under Schmidt nearly ignores arms (I’m speaking biceps and triceps and forearms). Schmidt does produce some very impressive deltoids (shoulders) but the game of football requires the entire package and there are many important ones that I can guarantee you that OU’s program is missing.

Returning to my premise about the Defense having problems. Let me give the team credit for the last couple of games. They improved dramatically. And I can see improvement in the arms of our safeties and cornerbacks. Because if you will recall sure tackling was not something we excelled at. In fact it was darn right scary how many OU tacklers would “happen by” before someone would finally bring the opponent down. Oh I almost forgot our likely best example of Schmidt taking a too long of a “vacation”. Example: James Hana the TE from Flower Mound TX. 6-5 advertised a 4.5 forty and weighed 215 (very little of it muscle). He’s been in Jerry’s program for two years and maybe he’s up to 230 but not much of that is muscle. And he’s getting pushed all over the field and thus has become very unreliable / nonproductive. Uh, is there something I’ve missed about our TE. Like Gresham was for sure going to stay or like we have many other Gresham clones so that is not a concern? Yeah, I didn’t think so. So what the hell are we doing with a one time great prospect who has developed the body of a shooting forward and we need a powerful tight-end who can block, catch, and run?

Adron Tunnel – what a great kid – I live in Irving and followed his accomplishments. Always wanted to offer some strength advice to him but wasn’t sure of the rules. Anyway 4-5 years in the “Program” and he honestly doesn’t look any different than when he came. I know the injuries are generally beyond his control. But I absolutely believe that if Adron had about 20 pounds of muscle on him that he would be the key guy to go to. The strength really does make a difference in some players ability to focus and maintain control of the ball. In the Nebraska game he was clearly, but cleverly held by his jersey and then “redirected” buy the corner jerking his jersey. Obviously the refs missed it our didn’t want to call it, but I wasn’t really upset. I thought Adron had at least 4-5 years to add some bulk so that he wouldn’t be whipped around on the field by some 5-7 175 corner…but I was wrong. Did someone forget to tell some of our coaches and players that this is football and power and strength does play an integral roll?

Anyway, I could go on and on but those who criticize the OL are actually not seeing the real problem. And the problem could be solved but it would mean replacing a guy who Bob loves and whom Bob places total faith in his program. Believing that Bob really does like to win and that Bob is reasonably intelligent makes me believe that Jerry has some compromising photos of Bob…any way that’s the only way I would keep him if I were in Bob’s shoes.

Continuing on the Stoops’ Sloop with the same crew will produce a minimum 3-4 loses here on out with loses eventually climbing to 4-6 a year after we start getting the 2 and 3 star recruits. That’s the funny thing about kids and winning.

Read more: http://newsok.com/article/3415707#ixzz0WFky7nTz

Mike Cole

Recruit our tails off. Apparently, we forgot that we'd need some WRs and TEs eventually. And WHAT ON EARTH is that abomination we trot out every week? I know it isn't an o-line. Maybe some computer nerds masquerading as one, but come on! This is the best Oklahoma can get? Wow. Our recruiting focus must be seriously off...