“Obviously, I need to do things differently as a head coach,” Stoops said.

Not too differently. Maybe not even during the regular season, although, when you stop and think about it, some of the same issues popped up in OU’s losses to Colorado and Texas Tech.

It’s only an observation, but the view here has always been one of Stoops’ great strengths is his ability to, sort of, be all things; not to everybody, but to the players.

It’s always appeared they feared him enough to be disciplined, liked him enough to play hard for him and respected him enough to believe in him. That’s no easy trick. Some of the greatest never achieved the triad.

Was Bill Parcells loved?

Was Barry Switzer feared?

Stoops has some tinkering to do. Overhaul is not required, yet there must be some formula to get the Sooners believing bowls count rather than being a useless exhibition.

One measure of success is championships. But another is how the faithful are left feeling. And once again they’re feeling sick over what happened in another January meltdown.

A fine season?

There’s no sneezing at winning the Big 12. It really matters and defines success. Just like Wednesday night defined failure.

A good year?

Well, 2007 was a peach.

It just seems like so long ago.