Bob Stoops Weekly Presser (Akron/Tennessee)

Image via NewsOK

It’s Monday which means Bob Stoops will be holding his weekly press conference. And with it, we’ll be here to recap things as they happen. So feel free to follow along live or come back and get caught up later in the day.

Either way, we’ll be here for ya.

210 Comments

  • Sooner Ray says:

    First in line!

  • ccmosaic says:

    Just waiting

  • D Hunter Sanchez says:

    Stoops won’t say, but the game plan will have Striker and Bond play on the edge to attack the Qb. They have the skill set to keep the QB from killing us on the ground. We need to force them to throw. Any issues with this? Will we able to make them one dimensional?

    • Sooner 76 says:

      We didn’t show a whole lot of that set Sat night, but it sounds like a good idea.

    • SoonerfanTU says:

      Not so sure about that. That seems more like a lineup that would work against a team with a more conventional drop back passing attack. Or, obviously, on 3rd and longs. You don’t “attack” a rushing QB. You contain him first.

      • bravesaint says:

        The key is to cause pressure up the middle and use your outside defenders to contain him. Thus giving him no where to run. What gets defenses in trouble is when the edge rushers push too hard. The tackles then push them past the QB leaving their lanes vacant and giving the QB room on the outside to break contain and gouge the defense for big yardage.

  • Jason Vos says:

    Big 12 QBR after Week 1

    12. Skyler Howard 211.0

    15. Seth Russell 203.6

    21. Baker Mayfield 198.5

    36. Sam Richardson 162.7

    42. Patrick Mahomes 150.8

    45. Mason Rudolph 148.9

    61. Joe Hubener 136.9

    67. Montel Cozart 133.5

    89 Trevone Boykin 114.2

    115. Tyrone Swoopes 67.3

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Here we go

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops starts by thanking the crowd for the Akron game, “were there early and loud.”

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops says he wasn’t happy w/ the number of penalties early, hampered the offense putting them behind the chains.

  • KJ1123 says:

    Looking up at the scoreboard on Sat and seeing -5, 0, 22 rushing yards for at least half the game left a sinking feeling. We have 2 of the best backs in the conference. That above all should be the main priority this week on O.

    • SoonerGoneEast says:

      Two of the best in the country might be more accurate. 🙂

    • D Hunter Sanchez says:

      Have to run no freakin doubt. But coach said they showed some things they haven’t seen before.

      • KJ1123 says:

        I understand he said that, but they knew Akron ran weird fronts, I think I commented on it last week sometime. The problem is the OL is not understanding the numbers as far as the fronts concerned and recognizing quickly who they have. It’s been one of the concerns throughout camp. The OL got in some film yesterday but that’s not enough, they need to spend alot of time on their own too.

        • D Hunter Sanchez says:

          So this is purely lack of experience or study or both?

          • KJ1123 says:

            Experience I think has some to do with it, alot has to do with anticipating and not reacting. They’re too wrapped up in, “Oh this guy is in a 4, he’s going to do this”…have to be an athlete because defenses players aren’t always going to be where they’re supposed to be. Some of them are getting confused with hybrid looking fronts. Its simpler than they think, its pretty much just simply math. Having Tenn film will be very helpful, watching guys tendencies and fronts of course, but Sat will come quick so alot more studying is needed.

          • D Hunter Sanchez says:

            Thanks. What do you think will happen Saturday?

          • KJ1123 says:

            Honestly I haven’t watch any Tenn film yet. I know they’re front 7 is tough and the front 4 is stout. I wouldn’t be surprised if Coach B doesn’t shuffle the line a bit to counter the personnel Tenn has. Just a guess though.

          • D Hunter Sanchez says:

            Watching all the running plays from Akron. Noticed that on the first one Shepard didn’t block and the man over Shepard came down and made the play. On the 3rd Samia couldn’t handle his guy.

          • KJ1123 says:

            On the 3rd play. Samia is supposed to step out to the end…most ends will squeeze if they see run. This guy came up field as he would in a pass rush so Samia was out of position. It was 3rd down though so Samia should of thought pass rush and took a flatter step. Hes young he’ll pick up on situational football as the season progresses.

      • ccmosaic says:

        One of the issues I saw with the running game was how they were using our backs. We kept running outside of the tackle but it appeared to me that we did better when we ran up the middle. We will get this figured out, I am sure.

        • D Hunter Sanchez says:

          Yeah. I was asking other Sooner fans where I caught the game why run Perine side ways?

          • bravesaint says:

            He was running sideways to try and avoid the Akron defender in the backfield every play. Defensive penetration will kill any running play before it starts.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops says they need to be able to run the football better. “I believe we will.”

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops says he was really pleased w/ the defensive play and specifically their communication. Singles out Matt Dimon, Charles Walker & Dom Alexander. Hatari Byrd as well.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops also complimentary of Austin Seibert

  • Jordan Esco says:

    opening ? about OU’s scheduling philosophy, b/c no one has heard Bob answer that before.

    • Golfluvr13 says:

      He just needs to put a poster up in the room that states this. I do not know how many times I’ve heard his explanation. And I love their philosophy, I’d rather see the Sooners take on anyone, anywhere, then have them playing cream puff U every week until they start conference play.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops says they’ll crank the music up a little louder in practice this week to prep for the crowd noise. Doesn’t seem to think it will be a big deal.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops says they emphasize constantly avoiding penalties, much like every coach does at every level I’d suspect. Another great question from the peanut gallery.

    • Jordan Esco says:

      Goes on to say Mixon catches it (punts) as well as anybody on the team, plus then you’ve got a 220+ pound guy to try and take down.

    • SoonerGoneEast says:

      The “better decision” would be to get Shep out of there.

      • boomersooner says:

        Who do y’all want in there? I get shep is valuable to the offense. So is mixon. So is westbrook. There are quite a few who are valuable at their position(sanchez is too) but give me the guy who could change a game without turning it over (yes I know he turned it over but no history of fumbleitis). We’ve started the year off better with letting him return some. I say let it play out and see what happens with shep back there

        • D Hunter Sanchez says:

          I don’t feel Shep is that great of a threat to return punts.

          • boomersooner says:

            He had 2 pretty darn good ones they just ended up not counting. Did the penalties cut him loose? I don’t know but they were solid returns

          • SoonerfanTU says:

            Based on last season? Clearly he was instructed not to take chances. You could tell that after 1 quarter of play against Akron.

        • SoonerGoneEast says:

          I still consider Shep to be the skill player we can least afford to lose, given what we experienced last year when he went down and also what we became when Broyles went down.

          • boomersooner says:

            Yeah but with Baxter and Westbrook and if Neal keeps it up plus Andrews and Meade we have tons of weapons. That’s how I see it at least

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            Perhaps, but that’s how we always see it, haha!

          • Fear The Magic says:

            I agree that Shep is an essential component of this team but the difference between this year and last year is night and day as far as having other WRs who can not only catch the ball but are dangerous after catching it as well.

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            Let’s hope this discussion never become relevant! (-;

          • Fear The Magic says:

            True that!

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            All likely true, and obviously this offense doesn’t create the same dependency we had on Shep. That’s somewhat comforting.

        • eastoksooner says:

          Maybe Daniel Brooks if he can catch?

      • soonermusic says:

        I don’t think that punt returner is as dangerous a spot as some here think. Sure it puts the receiver in an action play, so does a crossing route, btw, but it’s nothing like the danger presented on kick returns. I think the coaches should, and almost always do, try to put the best guy out there. If that’s Shep, and it appears to be, I look forward to some big returns.

        • SoonerGoneEast says:

          It’s not as dangerous as returning kicks, but I think it’s more dangerous than any receiver position. I just feel like taking your best player from a skill position and putting him back there is a bit risky.

          • soonermusic says:

            Isn’t that what every coach does though? I just don’t see them protecting guys from that position.

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            If you’ve got someone else to plug in when the first guy goes down, run him both ways for all I care, but if you don’t have an adequate replacement then I would handle it differently. If anything have someone back there fair catching of that’s what it takes. JMO, but when Broyles and Shep went down it ended our season.

          • soonermusic says:

            Neither of them went down as a punt returner. By that logic you have proved my point and maybe would hold them out as a receiver. 🙂 I think Stoops is as careful as any coach in the country when it comes to protecting players from injury, and if neither he, nor any other coach I can think of thinks it’s a concern, I don’t think it is either.

            I understand not wanting to have a key player go down, but punt returning hasn’t contributed to that.

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            The point was the impact their injury had on the team given our lack of depth at the receiver position. It’s all about mitigating risk without sacrificing the game, and I believe that’s done easily enough.

            We can agree to disagree, though. It’s all good.

          • soonermusic says:

            Yes we can. and it is all good. I bet we can also agree that Neal looked great, and that, risk aside, Shep looked pretty good back there.:-)

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            I was very happy for Neal. I’ve liked this kid since high school and really want to see him leave his mark.

          • EasTex says:

            Shep has been hurt numerous times while being a WR, including landing on camera lenses. Some of our most valuable skill players have returned punts for as far back as I can remember starting in the mid 1950’s.
            Not only do I not understand why all of a sudden this is an issue, when it never has been before, I will never agree that a player is too valuable to return punts. The risk of injury begins the moment they step on the field regardless of where they play.

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            Agreed, the risk of injury is there every time they step on the field, so the more they step on it, the greater the risk. I would probably feel differently if we had more proven depth at the position, but the jury is still out on that. But without question our offense went down the tubes with nobody to adequately back up Broyles or Shep.

            And I agree with you that no one player is bigger than the team, but if Mayfield was my best returner I would find someone else to return punts. It’s not about putting someone above the team, it’s about considering the consequences of an injury given the depth and doing what’s in the best long-term interest of the team.

          • EasTex says:

            Well, I always leave the QB’s out of the discussion, there aren’t that many on the roster.
            Both Broyles and Shep were injured as receivers, not as returners. If we lose a skill player to injury, I don’t see that it matters whether they were a WR or a PR.
            Until this past game I was opposed to Shep returning punts because I didn’t think he was good at it or had his heart in it. With those two good returns he made, despite the penalties, I am more enthusiastic now than before as long as he doesn’t fumble.

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            He did look sharp, didn’t he? I didn’t expect it either for some odd reason, even though I’ve seen every single play that he’s every made in college, haha!

          • EasTex says:

            His elusiveness has always seemed to mystify opponents.

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            The guy has a knack for putting his body in just the right place and/or position. I’m hoping his skill set translates well to the next level. Class kid and I loved watching his Dad play.

          • EasTex says:

            I love Shep, and I loved his Dad and Uncle, Woody.

          • soonersd says:

            True… his ability to start/stop/change direction really makes guys look stupid. He is one of the most unpredictable and shifty players I’ve seen. Then, when he is eventually swarmed by defenders… he finds his crease, hits it quick/hard and always seems to pick up 4 or 5 more yards. Pretty impressive to watch.

          • soonermusic says:

            “if Mayfield was my best returner..” He’s not but I believe ,back in the day, that Darrell Royal was.:-) (also Jack Mitchell)

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            I don’t think they were full-time starters either, but yeah, a different era for sure. They were both before my time as well, but my family and friends would always talk about the Wilkinson era. Wish we had more footage and stories from that period. It’s amazing how things were done then and how much the game has changed. All very cool stuff.

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            BTW, if you’re ever in need of useless trivia, I was reading something the other day of Naismith creating/designing the first football helmet. It was just leather flaps, but it was to protect against cauliflower ear!

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            And to continue with useless trivia, Naismith might have invented basketball and wrote the first rule book, but as well as he knew the game, he is the only coach in KU history with a losing record, haha! Cool bit of info.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops is confident the new offense will work out really well for Perine.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops says he was really proud to see Durron Neal come in and make some big plays, tough catches.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Feisty Stoops almost came out there

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops says the competition at RT btwn Samia & St. John is on going.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    “We’ll see what Coach Cooks wants to do this week.” – Stoops when asked if Jordan Thomas will get the start this week.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops is getting tired of these questions about getting ready to play in a certain stadium.

  • Sooner Ray says:

    I love the faces Bob makes as he listens to a question being asked. Shaking his head lol.

  • KJ1123 says:

    “Does playing in an environment like Tenn play on a players psyche?”

    ..”NO”.

    • D Hunter Sanchez says:

      Best answer…”it shouldn’t.”

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  • Jordan Esco says:

    Baxter said this was the case when he arrived at OU

    https://twitter.com/ryaber/status/640938730014904321

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops re: the Vols RB duo: The challenge is they’re both really good.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    media trying to make Mike in the booth into a thing, Bob says they’ll have to ask him (Mike) about it.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    Stoops won’t bite on playing an SEC team, over-laughing ensues.

  • Jordan Esco says:

    That’s a wrap

  • Jordan Esco says:

    If you’re interested in any of Butch Jones’ comments from his presser earlier today.

    https://youtu.be/AGV4RLIKFME?t=34m12s

    • paganpink says:

      Thanks again, Jordan, for taking the time out on your labor day to cover Coach Stoops comments. You’re all right!

  • EasTex says:

    I really liked the shirt Coach Stoops was wearing today.

  • Sooner 76 says:

    Jordan, you did a superb job of covering this press conference! Well done, sir!

  • SoonerGoneEast says:

    Rocky Top Talk is trying to make something out of Stoops remarks at the PC. Apparently he was supposed to pay homage to Neyland and tell the world he’s scared to death to play in front of 102k and is considering just forfeiting the game.

    • Sooner Ray says:

      Get outta there man! That’s how nasty infections start. 🙂

      • SoonerGoneEast says:

        I took in the Texas meltdown threads on BC and BON Saturday night. Now my neck won’t quit itching, my left eye keeps twitching and it hurts to urinate.

    • paganpink says:

      Haha! And Stoops simply said that he doesn’t understand the questions. That we’ll play Ohio State next year and the press will ask him about them as well. That we do nothing different in preparing for them compared to any other road game. They blast music at practice and then go into the stadium on Thursdays and blast it even louder in there. And they do that for anyone else as well. Period. He was very complimentary of them and talked about their tandem running backs and how he could see a lot of improvement from last year. Maybe they’re upset because Butch Jones said we are one of the most underrated teams in the country and are a top 5 team and a top 5 program and they need to get a lot better in order to beat us!

    • boomersooner says:

      Bunch of untalented dorks coming up with bulletin board material for the dry erase board in mommy’s basement

      • SoonerGoneEast says:

        The game itself should be a big enough story. If they have to hype it like this, my how they have fallen.

        • boomersooner says:

          Yeah, somebody had a quote on here one day about how it was 2 bluebloods going up against one another. I get the point but don’t self proclaim yourself as a blueblood. I’d rank them down the road with Yale moreso than with Oklahoma(by the way, I really really hate tennessee but I grew up there so I had a lot to deal with)

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            They won a natty in ’98 (I think) and haven’t been too relevant since. They also made a retro claim on our 1950 title. Blueblood, not so much. Second tier, maybe.

          • boomersooner says:

            yeah the sec seems really good at waiting for enough people to be dead before claiming something that ain’t theirs

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            Hahahaha!

  • Hotrod33 says:

    This is going to be a great matchup. We should find out a lot about what are guys can do in a hostile environment. This is going to be the largest and loudest crowd they will play in front of the entire season. This game whether we win or lose, will go a long way the rest of the season on what they need to work on.

    • SoonerGoneEast says:

      Largest? Yes. Loudest? I guess we’ll see.

      • Brent says:

        oregon will be tough to beat for loudest. I felt like I was sitting in front of a jumbo jet at that game.

        • SoonerGoneEast says:

          I was at Autzen for the theft in 2006. That place is straight up deafening. You would never believe that stadium has less than 60k. If I ever go back, I might bring earplugs.

        • EasTex says:

          Loudest and most annoying venue I’ve ever witnessed was at A&M. Always loud and they never EVER sit down or shut up the entire game.

    • SoonerfanTU says:

      To be fair, it’ll be the largest regular season crowd we’ve probably ever played in front of. Maybe the most for any game?

      Then we’ll break that record in two years when we play at Ohio State, right?

  • Daryl says:

    We just landed Safety Robert Barnes

  • Matthew Stevens says:

    BOOM!!!

  • Sooner Ray says:

    A BOOM is allowed at this time!

  • soonermusic says:

    Possibly the least interesting press conference ever. Our intrepid reporters were struggling even more than usual to come up with anything even reasonably coherent to ask. “Must be hard playing in a hostile environment” over and over, good grief.

    The only nugget I grabbed at all was that Bob likes having Mike in the booth, thinks it’s making a clear difference, and, although I’m sure he considers whether Mike is at least okay with it, he doesn’t much care whether Mike likes it, or prefers it, or not. End of story. At least, that’s what it sounded like to me.

    • Glocal Sooner says:

      I appreciate that Bob doesn’t talk negatively about others. He’s a true professional. I felt like the manner in which he commented about Riley’s speed of getting plays out, was a knock on Heupel’s lack thereof.

      • soonermusic says:

        Maybe so, but you (we) do need to be careful about adding context, based upon what we’re looking to hear. He may have been slighting Heup by comparison, or he may have just been intending to compliment Riley on a positive. I heard the same inflection you did, but I’m thinking it could have been unintentional. It seems to me that there comes a point in which any compliment that he makes about Riley improving any aspect could be taken as a knock on the predecessor. Of course, you replace a guy because you’re looking for a change for the better, but I don’t think he can preface every compliment for the new guys with a disclaimer about the old ones.

        Edit: Or, he had an unguarded or semi guarded moment and didn’t mind leaking one of his reasons for making a change…:-)

      • John Garner says:

        If he did diss JH, I don’t think it was intentional. Bob’s a class act.

  • SavageSoonerEsq says:

    Robert Barnes just committed to OU I think?

  • DCinAZ says:

    BOOM!

    Robert Barnes commits to OKLAHOMA! (Son of Reggie Barnes)

    http://247sports.com/Player/Robert-Barnes-81947
    https://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrec…-Barnes-175095
    http://www.hudl.com/athlete/4196503/robert-barnes

    Robert Barnes @r0bertbarnes
    Excited to announce that I will be committing to the university of Oklahoma! #BoomerSooner ⚪️??

  • Chad says:

    I am just ready to see the full deployment of our entire offense and defense! Let those guys loose!

    • SoonerGoneEast says:

      I’m trying hard to temper expectations for this team. This sort of thing doesn’t help.

      • soonerthunder says:

        I happen to agree w/him too. I think we are very good. Even in just our D was better than last yr, or just the O, but I think the O has many more weapons and is much better, and I think the D is much better, and. . . even the kicking game.

        • SoonerGoneEast says:

          It’s the return game that worries me, haha!

          • soonerthunder says:

            Last yr I didn’t think Shep was a threat at all at PR. But I saw real promise Sat night. I think our KR will remain good, but I thought PR was non-existent last yr. I feel better a/f what I saw Sat. myself.

          • SoonerGoneEast says:

            I was only joking, SoonerMusic and I have been going back and forth today and I thought you were him, my bad.

            You’re right, we’re a much better team all the way around. I’m ready for a quality opponent this Saturday so we’ll have a more accurate gauge of how far we’ve progressed.

    • SoonerfanTU says:

      Anything is possible, especially if we get by Tennessee, but I don’t think we’re going to get “there” just yet. I just want us to keep improving, and if/when we do lose, have it be a well played, tough loss. Not something like Baylor of last season. I’m still predicting about 2 regular season losses. Probably Baylor and somebody else.

      • bravesaint says:

        You hit the nail on the head: “Just keep improving”. We do that and I’ll be happy.
        The worst part of last year was the regression the team went through. Instead of getting better as the year went on, we got worse. That was hard to stomach.

      • JB says:

        I think that is a sane and reasonable statement. We beat Akron, not Florida State or Ohio State. There is a great deal we still don’t know about this team. I’m not sold that Tennessee is all that good, but they are a better test than Akron. If we beat Tennessee, I think we’ll be in for a 10-2 season and on the right track for a better season next year. If we lose to Tennessee, then I’m expecting 3-4 losses but like you said, close, competitive games.

  • Kenny says:

    Mark my words…..sooners are playoff bound!! BOOMER!!!

  • Ruddoj says:

    good thing about the new OC and seeing in 1st Q that OU was going to have a tough time running the ball….
    The old OC would of continued with the game plan and run the same plays well into the 4th Q.
    The new OU OC (LR) adjusted/adapted/took what was available and began his game-plan as the game unfolded.

    That is 1 positive I took from the game.

    OU OL needs to have a GREAT day on Sat at Tenn to win the game.

    OU WR’s looked much improved from a physical/blocking standpoint.

    Andrews will give teams fits as a standup TE over the middle.

    please stop using SS as a tackling dummy on punts!!!

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  • Mathew says:

    Every year, I always get all gung ho after the first game and start thinking “maybe this is the year”. Not this time! 8-5 until they prove it haha. Want to see if the o-line will sure up and that offense we just went up against was weeeeaaak. I saw signs of us being more organized on both sides. That’s encouraging. This week will be first big test for the D. They have revenge on their mind and i bet that stadium will be louder than its been in years.

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