One step forward, two steps back…

Berry Tramel reminded me last week of a perfect story for the Jerry Montgomery saga.

From a Happy Days episode, Richie and Potsie buy an old car together that is falling apart.  The only cool thing about the car is an eagle hood ornament.  The car won’t run, so they summon the Fonz.  Fonzie fixes the car.  They tell him that anything he wants is his.  Fonzie pops the hood, jostles the eagle free and walks off with the ornament.

Potsie looks at Richie and says…”He took the best part of the car.”  Last week, the Green Bay Packers took the best part of the Bob Stoops car, Jerry Montgomery.

Let’s cut to the chase here…Bob Stoops and OU took a major step back last week in its restoration process. When Jerry Montgomery left Norman for the frozen tundra of Green Bay it was a huge loss.    About the time I think we are making some headway in our restoration project, we take a step back.

Give Bob some credit for replacing his Edsel with a Lincoln on offense.  Now, he must do the same thing on defense.   Simply put, if Bob messes up this deal it could be his Waterloo.

Don’t get me wrong, Green Bay is a nice gig, but so is Oklahoma.  At least it used to be…What would cause Monty to leave Norman a month after becoming the co-defensive coordinator?  I suspect that it was the same reason that caused Brent Venables to pack his bags for Clemson three years ago…The Mike Stoops factor…

No coach in his right mind wants to play second fiddle to Mike’s ego.  Tying one’s career to a Mike Stoops defense at this point in time has become toxic.   He is like tainted meat.   Everyone with the exception of Bob Stoops seems to get this fact.   Nepotism creates a slanted view of the real world for most people and Bob’s view of his brother’s ability on defense falls into that category.

Where we go from here…

Basically, the OU Regents must keep the pressure on Bob and insist that he replace Montgomery with a big time coach, someone who can stand toe to toe with Mike and bail out the Sooner program.

While the OU offense will be better in 2015 with the Lincoln Riley hire, outscoring teams because of a porous defense will not get it done.    I am not looking forward to going to Knoxville, Waco and Stillwater next year with the same defensive scheme we had last year.  If this happens, the boo-fest we heard at last year’s Baylor game will seem like prayer meeting.

Of course, it is hard to be sympathetic for Bob Stoops at this point, after all he made his bed when he hired brother Mike three years ago.   At the same time as a hard core OU fan, I want Bob to get this one right in the worst way.  If Bob botches this hire, his OU future may be over.   Unlike many OU observers I don’t want to replace Bob Stoops as head coach. Doing so would put the program back five additional years.

Let’s hope Bob Stoops hits a home run with this Montgomery replacement.  After all, this hire will go a long way in determining if OU is back in 2015 and for that matter if Bob is back in 2016…

Boomer Sooner…