That’s one snapshot to discuss in a moment. Here’s another.

This was yesterday, after it came to light the players had asked him out of the room prior to playing Washington. It was the dreaded “players only” meeting, yet OU was 2-0 and playing very well.

It was unusual.

Stoops acknowledged the novelty, but took it in stride.

“Players have to have some accountability for the team and whatever’s going to be said, you’ve got to trust that it’s going to be positive for them,” Stoops said. “So you remove yourself and you let them have at it.”

n n n

It seems so simple, but the list of coaches who can’t pull it off is long.

Begin with the no-huddle logic.

Think John Blake ever thought about the game in such a complete and clear way? Gary Gibbs was likely too wooden to roll with new rules or think about them in the context of all the game’s aspects in concert. Ditto for Dave Wannstedt and Dave Campo and Herm Edwards and Gunther Cunningham and Phil Fulmer and Mike Leach and hundreds of other high school, college and pro coaches who’ve been handed the keys to the program at five-, six- and seven-figure price tags.

Stoops went to the no-huddle, in part, to better his defense.

Beautiful.

As for the players-only get-together in Seattle, last year’s Sooners’ road woes must have had something to do with it. That they came together behind closed doors speaks well of them; that their coach took it so well and got out of the way and felt no fear concerning his powerlessness to affect anything during his banishment from the locker room speaks well of him. Even that the players felt comfortable enough to cut him out in the first place speaks well of him.

They’re only a couple of snapshots.

OU won’t win it all this season because of the no-huddle or a single meeting. Yet it takes the right guy and the right environment fostered by the right guy to be in a position to win it all; and, yes, the Sooners are in that spot, in part, because of their no-huddle offense and that meeting.