Another Stoops perspective
Thursday, August 4, 2005 at 11:08PM Talked to the always-interesting and informative HeismanPundit today about the Mike>Bob entry.
He had a more simple reaction to Mike Stoops' recent quotes-"its evidence he's in over his head".
Perhaps.
But as I argued, at least he recognizes as much! Whether he's
equipped to adapt a style of play that can compete with what he's up
against in the Pac-10 is uncertain. I think the mere fact he
knows what's going on, that there isn't this huge blind spot when it
comes to recognizing style of play that so many of you out there
apparently have, gives CFR hope that he may in fact piece together a credible coaching career.
I'm hoping HP will provide some comment soon about other thoughts in
our discussion related to coaching, he had an interesting perspective
about coaching blind spots worth talking about.
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Reader Comments (6)
You take one statement from Mike Stoops and extrapolate 5 or 6 paragraphs to support your PAC 10 bias.
Mike Stoops has made similar statements before, it's not just a one time thing, otherwise I wouldn't have commented on it.
This is what kills me about doing commentary---if you so much as threaten the wrongly held notions of superiority of certain teams or conferences people charge you with bias.
The bias is actually held by those who blindly assert these notions without backing them up.
Look, Bob Stoops is a fine DC, but what I said about him is perfectly correct---he has mastered the Big 12, inside that little bubble, he can't be touched, for the most part. There aren't any offenses strong enough and balanced enough to get by against his defense consistently.
That's because the Big12 doesn't have any extraordinary offenses. Some are pretty good, and he can stop those or at least keep them in check. That's what a fine defensive coach does.
But when he heads outward, he starts to get in trouble. In fact he got slaughtered by the rare super offense. It proved his defense is incapable of defending those Big Six elite offenses I've talked about.
So while he has accomplished so much in his career, something we can't overlook, he's found a better opponent and everything about his behavior before and after that game tell us he simply doesn't get what happened and will continue going about things the way he always has.
Which means he's S T U C K. He has to pray to the CFB Gods from here on out for an opponent who is your typical quasi-elite, like themselves, if he is to win another title. Because there's just no getting around a USC, or a Cal or a Louisville, because they'll just keep doing what they're doing and he'll keep doing what he's doing and nothing will change.
Oklahoma figured out Texas Tech's offense (as have many Big Twelve teams). Thats part of what we've argued, familiarity. Big Twelve teams are familiar with each others schemes and styles and over time hierarchy returns.
When an odd team (such as Texas Tech) takes its show on the road, an opponent unfamiliar with its offense can get blitzed. That's what happened to Cal.
I don't disagree that defenses adjust, but the Big Six right now are kicking tail (as HP noted, 55-2 record last year and a championship).
I don't think Georgia is going to be able to adjust to Boise. We shall see now, won't we?
I don't think Bob Stoops is competent to adjust to USC or the other Big Six. So far I'm right.