No emotion.

No passion.

No nothing.

Or, is that know nothing?

Compared to Gundy the other night, Dennis Franchione is Abbie Hoffman or that character Al Pacino played in “Dog Day Afternoon” screaming “Attica, Attica, Attica.”

That’s not Stoops.

For good or ill and his track record says good, Stoops is in players’ faces, coaches’ ears and officials’ mugs, involved from start to finish on game day, from shaking the hands of his Sooners as they stretch to telling Sam Bradford “Don’t be cocky,” as the freshman quarterback walks into the frame live, from the Owen Field turf, for his very first post-game before-signing-off interview.

Clearly, Stoops has the emotion, passion and fire, but just as clearly it is more than that. He’s grabbing a player, running to an official or quizzing a coach not only because he’s completely aware of everything going on around him, but just as aware of how everything going on around him should be going on around him.

The best coaches, of course, like Steve Martin on Let’s Get Small, can juggle in their minds.

At best, Gundy was in denial.

Even ESPN’s sideline reporter was taken aback by the lack of the Cowboys’ being taken aback.

OU could always lose a game like that, even embarrassingly so. But Stoops would never go quietly.

Probably why it won’t happen.

Clay Horning

366-3526