Hardly unique among coaches, Bob Stoops’ controlling ways often make for head scratching and he was at it again Tuesday when asked for his reaction to TCU’s reaction to the rumors Oklahoma believes open practices served to compromise its 2005 season-opening 17-10 loss to the Horned Frogs.

Stoops said that kind of talk didn’t originate with him or his program, that TCU kicked OU’s butt that day, even on the sideline and inside the headsets and, as an aside, everybody should now realize the reasons he closed preseason practice this year were clearly sound.

He referenced the no-huddle offensive scheme the Sooners were getting ready and that explaining in painstaking detail every little twisted ankle simply wasn’t worth it.

Of course, Tennessee-Chattanooga might not beat Norman North, even with a sneak peak, and by the time Cincinnati met OU the no-huddle was out of the bag and just why can’t the highest paid public employee in the state explain every little twisted ankle?

Only today’s entry is not about that.

Because even as there will always be a madness to Stoops’ method, there is a brilliance, too, and last week and this week, in that midday Tuesday space in which OU serves those who cover its football program a hearty meal and too often very little insight, evidence of the coach’s high skill came to light.

Everybody knows he’s a stunningly good football coach if only by pointing at the program now in light of where it was then, yet it’s always refreshing to witness some of what goes into it.

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Two Tuesdays ago, Stoops was asked about the no-huddle and how it came into being.

“We’ve always done it to some degree in our 2-minute drills and our 2-minute drills in the past have been really good,” he said. “More than anything, I just brought it up to Kevin (Wilson) after the season last year that we needed to really look at going to it.”

He had his reasons.

OU figured to have a very good offense so he wanted to maximize snaps in the face of new game-condensing rules. Yet the flip side of the equation makes a greater impression.

“I felt with more and more teams doing it that it would help us defensively,” Stoops said. “We would see it in practice on a regular basis. It would even allow us to advance defensively in some way by seeing it regularly.”