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Bob Stoops punted late with polls in mind. And that's ... OK?
By Matt Hinton
Bob Stoops is no stranger to charges of running up the score at Oklahoma. But with his explanation Monday for deciding to punt on fourth-and-10 from his own 7-yard line with 2:24 remaining and the Sooners trailing by nine in Saturday night's loss at Missouri, he may be the first to publicly admit to playing down the final score for the sake of appearances in the polls. From NewsOK.com:
To be fair, though Stoops was conceding the battle in Columbia, the realist in me finds it hard to blame his strategic retreat to minimize losses in the larger, more unpredictable war – especially in a space where I've consistently criticized the BCS for not allowing its computer polls to consider margin of victory at all. If the final score should be a factor (and it should be), coaches should treat it as one. And he's right about how far we still have to go in this dance. Oklahoma is well-positioned in the computer polls, where it remains in front of undefeated Boise State, Oregon and Utah this week with two ranked division rivals (Baylor and Oklahoma State) and a likely date in the Big 12 Championship Game still in front of it on the schedule. There's no money in damning the torpedoes.
So much for gallantry and "taking it one game at a time," then. Oklahoma fans may counter that they would have still had a viable win to play for in the final minutes if Stoops had opted for the extra point following a quick touchdown that cut the Mizzou lead to 36-27 with 6:10 to play instead of a two-point conversion in an effort to slice the margin to seven; the two-point try failed, OU remained down by two scores instead of one, and suddenly the fourth-down attempt from your own 7-yard line 3 1/2 minutes later isn't worth the squeeze. With that failed gamble in the books, though, at least Stoops knew when to fold 'em.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...Ah35DD24jJ_PGkw1FLl.F7o5nYcB?urn=ncaaf-279941
By Matt Hinton
Bob Stoops is no stranger to charges of running up the score at Oklahoma. But with his explanation Monday for deciding to punt on fourth-and-10 from his own 7-yard line with 2:24 remaining and the Sooners trailing by nine in Saturday night's loss at Missouri, he may be the first to publicly admit to playing down the final score for the sake of appearances in the polls. From NewsOK.com:
And thus does the beauty contest triumph o'er the competitive spirit once again.
To be fair, though Stoops was conceding the battle in Columbia, the realist in me finds it hard to blame his strategic retreat to minimize losses in the larger, more unpredictable war – especially in a space where I've consistently criticized the BCS for not allowing its computer polls to consider margin of victory at all. If the final score should be a factor (and it should be), coaches should treat it as one. And he's right about how far we still have to go in this dance. Oklahoma is well-positioned in the computer polls, where it remains in front of undefeated Boise State, Oregon and Utah this week with two ranked division rivals (Baylor and Oklahoma State) and a likely date in the Big 12 Championship Game still in front of it on the schedule. There's no money in damning the torpedoes.
So much for gallantry and "taking it one game at a time," then. Oklahoma fans may counter that they would have still had a viable win to play for in the final minutes if Stoops had opted for the extra point following a quick touchdown that cut the Mizzou lead to 36-27 with 6:10 to play instead of a two-point conversion in an effort to slice the margin to seven; the two-point try failed, OU remained down by two scores instead of one, and suddenly the fourth-down attempt from your own 7-yard line 3 1/2 minutes later isn't worth the squeeze. With that failed gamble in the books, though, at least Stoops knew when to fold 'em.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/footba...Ah35DD24jJ_PGkw1FLl.F7o5nYcB?urn=ncaaf-279941
