‘We’re not as far off as it may look’: Bob Stoops confident that Oklahoma’s in good hands
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.
After finishing the regular season 6-6, many @OU_Football fans are worried about the future under Brent Venables.@CoachBobStoops shared with @PlankShow & @GabeIkard that he isn't one of those who are worrying. #BoomerSooner
Full Interview: https://t.co/wlTi1MuwNj pic.twitter.com/t7YX3OMjDA
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) December 2, 2022
“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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