About last night, dear
Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops invited some second-guessing with a couple of third-quarter decisions in last night's 48-28 loss to West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. It was the second year in a row that the Sooners left Phoenix on the short end of the score. Last year, they were upset by Boise State in overtime.
This time, the fourth-ranked Sooners trailed all game but managed to rally briefly with a field goal and touchdown in the first 10 minutes of the second half. But after the TD and the Mountaineers leading, 20-15, Stoops opted for the two-point conversion. Obviously, he was trying to get the game down to a field-goal differential and didn't convert the deuce. But that one was arguable. Then, Stoops tried an onside kick that failed to go 10 yards. West Virgina took over at the Oklahoma 39-yard line, quickly scored a touchdown of its own and Oklahoma was finished.
The onside kick is the one that they'll be chewing over back in Oklahoma. You would think the coach of the No. 4 team in the country would believe he could beat the other guys straight up and not put his defense in that kind of spot.
With Oklahoma dispatched, it's left to No. 3 Virginia Tech to make its statement tonight against No. 8 Kansas. The championship game is Monday between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 LSU.
Comments
Why is Bob Stoops getting paid more than $3 million a year to coach the Sooners? Look at his bowl record for the last five seasons: Jan 04 -- lost to LSU, Jan 05 -- destroyed by USC, Jan 06 -- victory forfeited because of NCAA penalty, Jan 07 -- lost to Boise State, and Jan 08 -- lost to West Virginia. He also has a bad habit of using talented quarterbacks to run up the scores to call attention to himself while preparing for the ultimate negotiation for an NFL coaching slot. Along the way, the reserve quarterback gets very little experience. Bradford was injured at the Texas Tech game and, lacking an experienced quarterback, OU was destroyed.
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Michael,
Obviously, you make a good point but I guess winning a national championship in a state without an NFL team is worth a lot of cash. And by the way, I'm not sure he could do better in the NFL, as far as salary is concerned.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Michael Wright | January 3, 2008 3:50 PM
I think it's about time all sports writers and commentators start giving West Virginisa credit for winning the game, based on what THEY did. All I hear is how WVU won because of what Oklahoma failed to do.
WVU beat OU on the feild with talent, guts determination and class and coaching. They out-skilled them,out played them, they beat them with speed on the line and in the running game.WVU is a top ranked team that deserves credit for the win.
Read the press releases about that game........All that is talked about is Oklahoma. WVU won ! Let's discuss the victors and praise them for what they did to defeat Oklahoma.
Posted by: John Grubb | January 4, 2008 7:49 PM