Tag: Chris Plank

‘We’re not as far off as it may look’: Bob Stoops confident that Oklahoma’s in good hands

On with Chris Plank and Gabe Ikard, Bob Stoops shared his thoughts on Oklahoma’s 2022 season and why the Sooners aren’t far off.

Nobody likes losing and nobody is satisfied with how the 2022 season went for the Oklahoma Sooners. 6-6 is a far cry from the expectations of Oklahoma Football.

Still, in just his first year with the program, optimism remains about the program’s future under Brent Venables. One staunch supporter of the Oklahoma Sooners’ head coach and his staff is former head coach and the last guy to win a national championship, Bob Stoops.

Stoops joined Chris Plank and Gabe Ikard on SiriusXM College Sports to discuss Oklahoma’s 6-6 season and whether or not Sooners fans should be worried.

 

“I’m not going to be the guy to sit here and talk about major issues,” Bob Stoops shared. “Brent (Venables) and his staff are great, and they can tell you what can be better, and they will. I never overreact to anything; never have.”

With everyone reflecting on what went wrong for the Oklahoma Sooners, Stoops chose to look deeper into the losses and provide a little context.

“We lose our last three games (Baylor, West Virginia, Texas Tech), Stoops said. “They were all by a field goal and all at the last drive of the game. So, you get one stop or make another first down or don’t have a dropped pass or whatever it may be, all of a sudden. It’s different. The two games we don’t play very well in, we don’t have Dillon Gabriel. For most of the game in one (TCU) and the whole game in the other (Texas). And then I look a year ago, and we win five games less than a touchdown. So point being, I get it, I’m not acting like it’s okay, but you just gotta make a couple more plays. Literally, one or two more plays either side of the ball… and you know, you’ve got a couple more wins, and we were able to make em a year ago, and we haven’t this year.”

And while everyone looks to lay blame on one facet of the team or another, Stoops explains there’s plenty of that to go around.

“You could say it’s coaching, or you could say it’s players, it’s both,” Stoops said. “You’ve got to be able to make a play or two more to change the script. And those guys get it. The coaches get it, the players get it. But we’re not as far off as it may look.”

While nobody is happy with the outcome, the reality is that they were just a few plays from potentially being an eight or nine-win team in 2022. That’s no consolation for Venables and his staff as they work to return the Sooners to perennial playoff contention.

As they prepare for their bowl game, the coaches are also tasked with managing incoming and outgoing transfers and making their final push toward the early signing period in just a couple of weeks and national signing day in early February.

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Luginbill on how NIL may change after this season

On College Sports Sunday on SiriusXM Radio, there was an interesting discussion about name, image and likeness and the investment companies made before the season in endorsing athletes such as Clemson quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei who have struggled …

On College Sports Sunday on SiriusXM Radio, there was an interesting discussion about name, image and likeness and the investment companies made before the season in endorsing athletes such as Clemson quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei who have struggled so far this season.

You can read the question from Tom Luginbill, an ESPN analyst, and the full response from Chris Plank, a sideline reporter for the Sooner Sports Radio Network who hosts multiple national shows, in the transcription below.

Luginbill: “If you are an endorser, if you are a company, if you’re a CFO, if you’re a CEO and you’re watching college football unfold, and you’re one of those folks that have pushed your chips to the table and you said, we’re investing in this guy. Where does this all go from here?”

Plank: “You’ve got to be more patient, and I know that that’s not in anyone’s DNA. I think for marketers or business owners … You think about (Wisconsin quarter) Graham Mertz and (Miami quarter) D’Eriq King, those guys who immediately, when NIL was announced, were patted on the back. It’s like hey, go get your money, kid. But then you realize, if things don’t go well for them during the season, you can’t get out. It’s not like Tom Luginbill’s Chevy could get mad at (Oklahoma quarterback) Spencer Rattler because he’s not playing well. Well, the contract, when you’re in, you’re in. So, you’ve got to I think be a little bit more calculated. Maybe a challenge is them to be a little bit more creative in developing that relationship. I don’t know. But I have been thoroughly impressed with how quickly fans will use that to say hey, wait a minute here, you tell me I can’t boo or I can’t do that. Meanwhile, this guy’s getting paid to sell me a car or this guy’s getting paid to sell me a service.

“So, I don’t want to say it’s blurred those lines by any stretch of the imagination, but it has kind of opened up that whole Pandora’s Box, that conversation of do we treat them like we would treat a pro athlete, do we treat them any differently. Because I’ll tell you what, there’s some dudes that are making a lot of money. And again, not all of them are struggling. (Alabama quarterback) Bryce Young, even though they lost last night, he’s had a nice season. But you focus on the two guys in Spencer and D.J., and Graham Mertz and D’Eriq King, who aren’t necessarily out there crushing it and you’re like oh, as if every single NFL player that endorses a product has had an incredible season or never struggled. So, I think it’s going to be interesting to see now how companies … I was thinking about some of the people — there’s a restaurant that endorses Spencer, and you’re like so, how is that handled, what can they do. Well, nothing, they’re in. So, I can’t wait to kind of see how businesses and marketers react to this and if it gives them a little cause for pause in the future.”

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