Published September 21, 2005 12:19 am -
John Shinn's Oklahoma Football Notepad
Stoops still upset about officiating
The Norman Transcript
Oklahoma thought it created two turnovers against UCLA, yet both were taken away by the officials.
One was a fumbled snap linebacker Rufus Alexander appeared to recover and the other was a pass interference call that overturned an interception by linebacker Demarrio Pleasant.
OU coach Bob Stoops was still miffed at the calls Tuesday.
“Any turnover, regardless of where they are, are game-changing plays and we had two that didn’t get counted,” Stoops said.
Usually, officials from the road team’s conference are used in non-conference games like the one between OU and UCLA. A Pacific 10 Conference crew worked Saturday and the Big 12 supplied the officials when the two teams met at Owen Field in 2003.
From now on, when OU goes on the road Stoops wants Big 12 officials to go with him.
“I believe there’s more pressure here for them to make calls like that with 85,000 people sitting here saying, ‘Wait a second, that isn’t what we saw,’” Stoops said. “I would definitely not want that to be the case ever again.”
Snap problems
Quarterback Rhett Bomar fumbled the snap three times against UCLA. Stoops said two were Bomar’s fault and the other was on center Chris Chester.
Both will spend more time working on them this week.
“We’re getting a million of them in practice and hopefully it comes with experience in doing it over and over,” Stoops said. “Heck, I’m watching NFL games and I see them doing it. It should be that easy, but it happens.
“But it needs to stop happening. We need to get it done.”
Not yet