Stoops' prudence runs amok

By Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript

August 05, 2008 12:51 am

— We knew it was coming.
Nobody should be very surprised.
Anybody who’s paid close attention to the annual tap dance that is preseason Oklahoma football drills and how much of them Bob Stoops will allow to be viewed by fans, media and anybody else who might take a note or two and post it for all to see online, can hardly be caught off guard by Monday’s announcement that the public portion of the Sooners getting ready for the season has been whittled down to a pair of practices.
Maybe next year, he’ll kill them, too.
As it is, Sooner Nation diehards, press box regulars and would-be spies can catch workouts Friday and Aug. 17.
Prior to this season and as recent as spring drills Stoops had put the kibosh on just about all practice sessions but left scrimmages open. Even keeping every Sooner out with so much a torn cuticle, it wasn’t the worst idea ever. Though many fans would show to watch the players think about practicing if they did it as a group and outdoors, most prefer something slightly resembling autumn Saturdays, so interest was served.
And not that the media knows a heck of a lot about the game (although reporters have offered far clearer views of every Stoops’ era quarterback race than the coach himself) but being let in for scrimmages at least gave us something to go on beyond the word of several coaches — offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson and perhaps Brent Venables not among them — who’d rather kill a good story than make one.
But those days are done.
Less work for us.
Less information for you.
Yet that’s hardly the most bothersome aspect of it all. Showing up for (also limited) preseason interview opportunities rather than a good portion of practice and the interview period won’t leave reporters crying. Further, for the most part, once Joe fan wipes practice or a scrimmage off the list of things he might attend, it’s likely quickly forgotten.
But three things about it remain so asinine.
One, the quote.
“I wish we could open the scrimmages for our fans, but we are adding a few wrinkles and it’s better for us if we can work on those things in a scrimmage setting without restraint,” Stoops said. “I hope the fans that want to see us before the season begins can take advantage of the open practices. We appreciate their support and I know it’s a lift for our team to see them too during this time of year when our players and coaches are working so hard.”
As much as Stoops wants to do right by the fans (and yes, even I believe he does), if their presence provided the lift he’s talking about, surely their being there every day would be of greater benefit than any potential drawback encountered by some Austin-based spy with Mack Brown on speed dial taking notes.
Two, the paranoia.
You really can’t call it anything else.
Maybe it takes a control freak to be a great football coach and that’s just the way it is. Maybe, as Stephen Stills wrote and Buffalo Springfield performed, paranoia “starts when you’re always afraid” and Stoops really believes, should he step out of line, the man will come and take him away. Or, at the least, facing third-and-2 in the red zone, the defensive coordinator on the other side will have a better clue.
But every team prepares for every team’s best game and putting more on the plate should make things tougher for the other side. Besides, there have been wrinkles here and there that have caught the opposition unaware over the years, yet none of them left anybody saying “that’s the new thing they were running the first week of August.”
Three, not that we’re anything special, but shutting media out along with the fans is really like shutting out the fans twice.
We constitute a small enough group to control. We, though aggravating and a headache, ask questions people want answered and cut through the baloney to get to the real meat. And we’re able to do it because we saw it with our own eyes. Now all we’ll have is what a bunch of people are saying.
It’s better than nothing only because a group of more than 100 players, coaches and assorted personnel can’t possibly all toe the party line. They never have and they won’t this season. But it’s not much because most of them will try.
So we’ll have to wait for Chattanooga for answers?
Right.
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com