JimBob
12-30-2007, 09:49 AM
Opponents' drama may cripple teams
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
12/30/2007
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- The fine folks out here liked the state of football in the state of Oklahoma so much this season that they invited two of the state's teams to spend the holidays in the Valley of the Sun.
However, those bowl-game invitations came with the same caveat. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State must play the role of the heavy in games loaded with heartstring-tugging theatrics.
First up is OSU's assignment Monday in the Insight Bowl against Indiana. Two days later, OU faces West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.
Indiana was the college football world's darling during the regular season. The Hoosiers fought to honor their late coach, Terry Hoeppner, whose goal was to take the school to its first bowl since 1993.
West Virginia became the favorite team for a lot of America after the Mountaineers were dealt two lethal late-season blows. A few days after an upset loss to Pittsburgh cost West Virginia a national-title shot, coach Rich Rodriguez delivered a worse blow when he bolted for Michigan.
So Indiana and West Virginia will enter bowl games with similar-sounding battle cries. The emotionally charged Hoosiers will want to win it for the coach who lost his battle with cancer. And the equally emotional Mountaineers will want to win it to spite the coach who dumped them during their darkest hour.
All of which has left the Sooners and Cowboys looking at those bowl selection people, the ones dressed in those ugly, yellow sport coats, and collectively saying: "Gee, thanks a lot."
It's difficult enough to win any bowl game. And that's not counting when you toss in the popularity and emotional factors, resulting in the majority of the country rooting against you.
And how about the officiating crews? Do you think the zebras might subcon sciously give the sympathy vote to the Hoosiers and Mountaineers? Hey, in a year when officiating often bordered on horrendous, I'm not ruling out anything from the whistle-tooting boys in the striped shirts.
And it's not like the Cowboys and Sooners arrived in Arizona so carefree that they didn't mind if someone wanted to assign them the bad-guy roles.
OSU is looking for a little love of its own these days. The Pokes were jilted when wildly popular and successful offensive coordinator Larry Fedora said he was going to Hattiesburg, Miss., to become Southern Mississippi's coach -- instead of going bowling with OSU.
In case you missed the regular season, Fedora is the major reason why OSU is in the Insight Bowl. With a defense that bordered on inept most of the year, Fedora found a way for the offense to outscore the opponent six times, the exact number of wins needed to qualify for the postseason.
"We've had the successful offense," OSU defensive end Nathan Peterson said. "And everyone knows that the defense is the side that needs to pick it up right now. A lot that happened this year is on us."
While Peterson and his defensive teammates had to hear all season about their shortcomings, the entire OU team has constantly been reminded all year of how it fell short in last season's Fiesta Bowl.
The bowl game the Sooners would have preferred, of course, is the BCS na tional championship game in New Orleans. But of all the BCS bowls they wanted to avoid, it was a return trip to the Fiesta Bowl.
From hospitality to location, the Fiesta Bowl is considered as good as it gets. But it isn't ideal if it means those season-long reminders of the loss to Boise State a year ago are intensified during bowl week.
Not surprisingly, a question about the 43-42 overtime loss to Boise State was one of the first that OU coach Bob Stoops was asked on Wednesday.
It's an obvious topic. It was not only that the lightly regarded Broncos upset the Sooners, it was the way they did it with trick plays and clutch performances.
Stoops has strongly denied that OU is haunted by that game, even mocking those asking the questions. But some of his players didn't sound as convincing.
Standout defensive end Auston English didn't even play in the Boise debacle because he was redshirting. But the third-year sophomore was at the game, and last week he said: "I don't know if I'll ever get over it."
So, yea though OU and OSU will walk through The Valley of the Sun, should they fear no evil even though they are battling their own demons as well as being the bowl-game heavies?
This could be that rare time thou Sooners and Cowboys might find comfort in supporting each other, because most of the nation is supporting their opponents.
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
12/30/2007
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- The fine folks out here liked the state of football in the state of Oklahoma so much this season that they invited two of the state's teams to spend the holidays in the Valley of the Sun.
However, those bowl-game invitations came with the same caveat. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State must play the role of the heavy in games loaded with heartstring-tugging theatrics.
First up is OSU's assignment Monday in the Insight Bowl against Indiana. Two days later, OU faces West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.
Indiana was the college football world's darling during the regular season. The Hoosiers fought to honor their late coach, Terry Hoeppner, whose goal was to take the school to its first bowl since 1993.
West Virginia became the favorite team for a lot of America after the Mountaineers were dealt two lethal late-season blows. A few days after an upset loss to Pittsburgh cost West Virginia a national-title shot, coach Rich Rodriguez delivered a worse blow when he bolted for Michigan.
So Indiana and West Virginia will enter bowl games with similar-sounding battle cries. The emotionally charged Hoosiers will want to win it for the coach who lost his battle with cancer. And the equally emotional Mountaineers will want to win it to spite the coach who dumped them during their darkest hour.
All of which has left the Sooners and Cowboys looking at those bowl selection people, the ones dressed in those ugly, yellow sport coats, and collectively saying: "Gee, thanks a lot."
It's difficult enough to win any bowl game. And that's not counting when you toss in the popularity and emotional factors, resulting in the majority of the country rooting against you.
And how about the officiating crews? Do you think the zebras might subcon sciously give the sympathy vote to the Hoosiers and Mountaineers? Hey, in a year when officiating often bordered on horrendous, I'm not ruling out anything from the whistle-tooting boys in the striped shirts.
And it's not like the Cowboys and Sooners arrived in Arizona so carefree that they didn't mind if someone wanted to assign them the bad-guy roles.
OSU is looking for a little love of its own these days. The Pokes were jilted when wildly popular and successful offensive coordinator Larry Fedora said he was going to Hattiesburg, Miss., to become Southern Mississippi's coach -- instead of going bowling with OSU.
In case you missed the regular season, Fedora is the major reason why OSU is in the Insight Bowl. With a defense that bordered on inept most of the year, Fedora found a way for the offense to outscore the opponent six times, the exact number of wins needed to qualify for the postseason.
"We've had the successful offense," OSU defensive end Nathan Peterson said. "And everyone knows that the defense is the side that needs to pick it up right now. A lot that happened this year is on us."
While Peterson and his defensive teammates had to hear all season about their shortcomings, the entire OU team has constantly been reminded all year of how it fell short in last season's Fiesta Bowl.
The bowl game the Sooners would have preferred, of course, is the BCS na tional championship game in New Orleans. But of all the BCS bowls they wanted to avoid, it was a return trip to the Fiesta Bowl.
From hospitality to location, the Fiesta Bowl is considered as good as it gets. But it isn't ideal if it means those season-long reminders of the loss to Boise State a year ago are intensified during bowl week.
Not surprisingly, a question about the 43-42 overtime loss to Boise State was one of the first that OU coach Bob Stoops was asked on Wednesday.
It's an obvious topic. It was not only that the lightly regarded Broncos upset the Sooners, it was the way they did it with trick plays and clutch performances.
Stoops has strongly denied that OU is haunted by that game, even mocking those asking the questions. But some of his players didn't sound as convincing.
Standout defensive end Auston English didn't even play in the Boise debacle because he was redshirting. But the third-year sophomore was at the game, and last week he said: "I don't know if I'll ever get over it."
So, yea though OU and OSU will walk through The Valley of the Sun, should they fear no evil even though they are battling their own demons as well as being the bowl-game heavies?
This could be that rare time thou Sooners and Cowboys might find comfort in supporting each other, because most of the nation is supporting their opponents.