Bob Stoops on Sam Bradford, Blake Griffin, His Lil’ Bro and Awkward Big 12 Tiebreakers
April 14, 2009 – 6:15 am by Will Brinson
Bob Stoops is one of the best coaches in college football. At the same time, the guy probably gets a pretty raw deal — not only does he frequently catch heat for various things (looking at you Big 12 tiebreaker!) that are beyond his control, but people crush him for being a horrible “big game coach.”
This stems, of course, from the fact that he’s lost five straight BCS games, which, besides being straight-up factual, seems almost too impossible to be true. Fortunately, Petros and Money asked him about just that on KLAC recently, in addition to a bunch of other awesome questions. Said awesome questions include: Sam Bradford’s performance in the Sooner “quarterback competition,” worrying about the BCS tiebreaker in the Big 12, and whether or not he thought Sam Bradford would return to Oklahoma this year (before he announced, obvs). He also — not quoted below — discusses the current state of Oklahoma athletics, discussing Blake Griffin and then touches on his brother at Arizona for a minute as well. Surprisingly, he’s rooting for the guy.
On worrying about the BCS stuff (i.e. the Big 12 tiebreaker) while you’re coaching:
“You don’t worry about it – obviously you pay attention to it. You know what’s out there. But in the end you still have to go play and play well and win. And it’s just an unusual situation where there was a 3-way tie. And people wanted to make it a 2-way tie, but that wasn’t the case; it was a 3-way tie and it’s just unusual how that happened throughout the year.”
On losing 5 of the last BCS bowl games:
“Well, again, if that’s all you want to focus on – we’ve won six of seven Big 12 Championships and that isn’t anything to sneeze at. I think in the last 10 years, only a few other people have one. So it’s just what you want to focus on. And usually when you’re in national championship games, the other team is pretty good. [Laughter] We’ve been in four of them and won one. It was a tight game and Florida’s an awfully good team, and made the plays down the stretch of the game that made the difference. But in the end, you’re doing something right if you’re in the national championship game and winning your conference championship game three times in a row.”
Bob Stoops on if he thought Sam Bradford would return and the full interview after the jump.
On whether he thought Sam Bradford would return:
“I felt overall that he would, and, uh, was I certain? No. But I know that Sam – just like he plays – is a guy that doesn’t rush things and doesn’t make rush decisions and knew there was still more he wanted to do here. Regardless of whether people say he won’t improve, he will improve.”
Listen to Bob Stoops on KLAC with Petros and Money
Tags: BCS, Big 12 football, Blake Griffin, Bob Stoops, College Football, NCAA Football, Oklahoma Sooners, Sam Bradford
