John Blake…

From all accounts John Blake was a stand up guy who was respected by all. You can’t do much better than that. It’s unfortunate that his football life was characterized by his days as the Head Coach at OU. It was to say the least ugly. A three year period without a winning season… the only time in OU history.

Unlike many, I feel badly for John Blake because he deserved better. Most importantly, this should never have happened. You can’t blame John Blake for applying for the job with no experience. We have to believe in ourselves and John Blake was given the opportunity of a life time and he took it.

OU fans were desperate after the Howard Schnelenberger debacle and we wanted to believe that John Blake would be the answer. We were sucked into this thought by people we trusted. Barry Switzer had campaigned for Blake to get the job the first time around and when it came open a year later, he would not he denied.

Al Eschbach, the Sports Animal loud mouth saw John Blake as his ticket to the big time, not to mention a way to buddy up to the King. Neither Barry nor Al considered the ramifications to John Blake if he got hired. Between Barry and Al and starved OU fans, the Regents were outnumbered and hiring John Blake was the only way for them to stay in town. This ended up being bad news for OU fans and bad news for John Blake. He was in over his head.

John Blake was mercifully relieved of his duties three years later. Good news for OU fans and if the truth be known, good news for John Blake. Fortunately, there is a good ending to this story.

Unknown to most OU fans, John Blake won a National Championship in 2000. Yes, Bob Stoops was the Head Coach, but Bob won that trophy with John Blake’s players. You see, John Blake was one heck of a recruiter.

Every OU coach has a legacy and in John Blake’s case helping make that 2000 National Championship season happen will be his…

Boomer Sooner…

Same old story…

You gotta love it…OSU decides to conduct an internal investigation into Mike Gundy’s behavior and as expected he is cleared of all charges. That’s right, he talks and walks like a racist, but he’s going to take sensitivity classes and get all better. Being a fly on the wall in those sessions would be fun. Teaching Gundy to spell sensitivity should take at least two or three sessions.

Thankfully, the NCAA did not leave it up to OSU to investigate OSU’s latest “pay for play” basketball scheme. They asked the FBI to step in and as you might imagine the results were decidedly different.

In a nut shell, the NCAA with the help of the FBI lowered the boom on the OSU basketball program. OSU’s near-death penalty will include sanctions for three years, a loss of scholarships for three years and a ban from post season play for this year.

OSU fans should be excited…their beloved athletic program has made history again. The Ags who were already the most penalized athletic program in NCAA history out did themselves this time. OSU is now the only school in NCAA history to suffer a near-death penalty in both football and basketball. That my friend is hard to do.

Oh well, nothing will ever change in Stillwater…they screw up in reverse every time they try to outdo big brother. This year’s OSU recruiting class was on paper their best ever. With NCAA sanctions in place, those recruits are free to enroll somewhere else. Granted their big dog will spend some time in Stillwater, but he’s a one and done guy so his stay will be short lived. With no post season play, having this year’s recruiting class around will lack any bluster.

OU on the other hand had one of their worst recruiting classes ever as OU and Lon Kruger basically took the year off knowing that they had a solid team returning. For next year, the Sooners are on the verge of one of their best classes in a while. I’ll have more on that later, but the bottom line is that OU will end up having the last laugh in this deal.

Hopefully, OSU fans will remember last year’s game against OU when they rushed the court. Hopefully, these same fans recorded that event because I don’t I expect that to happen again for a while.

Boomer Sooner…

Crazy summer…

This has to be the craziest summer on record and if last week is any indication, things are about to get even crazier. The latest Vegas odds for playing football this fall now stand at 50-50. The Vegas guys have been hanging out with the NCAA Commissioner who can’t make a decision on this matter either. He has abdicated his role to the Power Five Conference Commissioners. Right on cue, they appear to be split on the matter.

The Big Ten and Pac 12 announced last week that they will play only conference games this fall and the ACC will apparently make that same announcement by the end of the month. Even though southern states have experienced a sunami-type surge in covid 19 cases the SEC is not the least bit interested in calling off the season. That leaves the Big 12…

With only ten teams to play nine games, the Big 12 is in a box when it comes to playing a conference only schedule. The Big 12 also has another problem that no one else has. How do you stay local as health experts have suggested when you have one conference team located just this side of Outer Mongolia? Let’s call it like it is…The Big 12 has no leg to stand on when it comes to this issue. At this point, it would be best for the Big 12 to call it like it is and forge forward with a full regular season schedule.

Let the academic conferences play an abbreviated schedule and allow the football boys have a full slate of games. This will make everybody happy and give OU a huge advantage. To elevate the status of the Big 12, OU will play an SEC team in Norman and Texas will play one in Baton Rouge. These games will give the Big 12 a huge leg up in the race to the top when it comes to strength of schedule.

As a result, if OU can run the table and then beat Texas in the Big 12 Championship game, it would come down to OU and the SEC champion for that coveted top playoff spot. OU would have no less than a two seed which is critical to winning a National Championship.

That’s right OU would go from today’s Vegas odds of no chance of winning a National Championship to a an excellent chance. Ohio State which currently reigns as the top Vegas team to end up on top will come in at 3^rd or 4^th in the seeding process due to its weak schedule. Playing a conference full of Big Ten patsies won’t do much for a team’s strength of schedule resume.

Like they say…if you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch. In this scenario, Ohio State may be staying on the porch. I think Ryan Day should ask for a recount.

Boomer Sooner…

Crazy summer…

With only ten teams to play nine games, the Big 12 is in a box when it comes to playing a conference only schedule. The Big 12 also has another problem that no one else has. How do you stay local as health experts have suggested when you have one conference team that resides just this side of Outer Mongolia? Let’s call it like it is…The Big 12 has no leg to stand on when it comes to this issue. At this point, it would be best for the Big 12 to call it like it is and forge forward with a full regular season schedule.

Let the academic conferences play an abbreviated schedule and allow the football conferences play a full slate of games. This will make everybody happy and give OU a huge advantage. To elevate the status of the Big 12, OU will play an SEC team in Norman and Texas will play one in Baton Rouge. These games will give the Big 12 a huge leg up in the race to the top when it comes to strength of schedule.

Like they say…if you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch. In this scenario, Ohio State may be staying on the porch. I think Ryan Day should ask for a recount.

Boomer Sooner…

Spring football…

OU fans love the spring game as it serves as a lifeline between the past season and the next. If coronavirus cases keep spiraling out of control, we may have 12 spring games this season.

Just two months ago, we were all giddy as the coronavirus pandemic appeared to be leveling off. Students were set to return to campus in the fall and everything was opening up again. Then all hell breaks loose with the virus. To say that this thing is contagious is an understatement.

Covid 19 reminds me of those sex talks we use to give our students. You know the one where we insisted that their bad choice on a weekend “made in the heat of the moment” could be multiplied by everyone else in the high school making bad choices. That talk masterfully done had a shelf life of about 24 hours tops.

Here’s the problem…those high school students are now adults of all ages. They didn’t listen to us then and they won’t listen to anyone today. Wearing protective gear didn’t happen then and it won’t happen now. As a result, I don’t expect that this thing will turn around anytime soon. This spells really bad timing for the NCAA and the Conference Commissioners who must make a decision about the upcoming season within a couple weeks.

At this point, we should pray for a miracle that will allow us to play in August while being open to other possibilities. The most likely option will be for the NCAA to move the 2020 football season to the spring of 2021. While on the surface this may sound simply unacceptable, it could just happen and if it does, I have some positives to consider…

Spring football is better than no football at all.
Spring football would allow all season ticket holders to attend every game.
Full stadiums in the spring will allow non-revenue sports to avoid budget cuts and/or closures.
Football fans will be granted two football seasons in one calendar year.
Average Oklahoma temperatures in February are actually better than temps in November and December.
And, I saved the best for last…

Football programs like OSU and Texas who have taken body blows due to their handling of the Black Lives Matter issue may lose star players to the NFL draft next spring. OU players will stick around to play for another National Championship…

Something to think about…