Bob Stoops Says He Would Have Acted Differently Today in Joe Mixon Matter
By Chip Rouse
Bob Stoops stands behind the decisions he and his superiors at the University of Oklahoma made two years ago regarding the handling of the Joe Mixon situation, but acknowledges that the same situation today would be dealt with more severely.
Unfortunately, this is an incident that is not about to go away anytime soon – if ever, as far its impact on the image and credibility of the Oklahoma football program.
Mixon, the uber-talented running back, receiver and return man for the Sooners will be moving on, most likely after this season but definitely after 2017.
It is quite probable that all the fallout and critical judgement attached to the incident two-and-a-half years ago, when Mixon was charged with assaulting a female OU student, punching her in the face so hard it broke several facial bones, will accelerate his departure from Oklahoma. This would make the upcoming Sugar Bowl game with Auburn his last game as an Oklahoma Sooners.
The irony of all of this is that Mixon might be inclined, even encouraged, to separate himself from OU and the scene of the incident by moving on to the NFL. It is widely speculated, however, that at least half of the NFL teams want nothing to do with the Oklahoma star because of the societal attitude toward people, including star athletes, who commit acts of domestic abuse.
There are a great many people who believe Mixon should have been immediately dismissed from the team after the incident occurred and that a year’s suspension along with the 100 hours of community service that the then-Oklahoma freshman was ordered to perform was far too lenient of a punishment. The freshman running back was also barred from participation in any team activities over the time of the one-year suspension.
Some are even theorizing that Mixon was spared from outright dismissal because he was an exceptional talent, a five-star prospect that the OU football program did not want to lose.
“Yeah, I understand where people come with that,” Bob Stoops said in a press conference on Wednesday in a press conference to respond to the public reaction to release of the video showing the altercation between Mixon and the female student.
“But let’s remember,” he continued, “that he (Mixon) had not played a down here when this all occurred and when we made the discipline, and we’ve had plenty of four- and five-star guys not amount to a whole lot here through the years.”
The OU head coach did as good a job as could have been expected in stepping forward and responding to the media questions in what can only be characterized as a virtual no-win environment for himself personally and for the University of Oklahoma.
What is they always say? Hindsight is 20/20. That is precisely what the takeaway was from the Stoops press conference.
Right up front in his remarks, the Oklahoma head coach of 18 seasons said, “Two-and-a-half years later, it’s fair to say it (the punishment given to Mixon) isn’t enough. That’s the way things have gone in the last two-and-a-half years, the only thing acceptable anymore (when these kind of acts are committed) is dismissal. We didn’t go that route.”
Stoops does not back down from the decision he made at the time – “at the time” being the operative part of that statement.
“We fully expected, when we made our decision in regard to what Joe’s discipline would be,” Stoops said in Wednesday’s press conference, “that the video (would) be released (for the public to see) within a week or two within that month.
“We had no idea it would go this long, and that is out of our hands. With the timeline of it all, it has not worked out well for anybody.”
Nothing good has come out of this situation for anyone involved. Joe Mixon will have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life. The victim, then-18-year-old Amelia Molitor, not only was subjected to the forceful punch to the face but had to undergo reconstructive surgery as a result of it.
As for Stoops, the Sooner football program and the university, they have been under intense scrutiny and public judgement for the way in which they handled – or, some are saying, mishandled – the entire situation.
“In the end, you know, it’s easy to just dismiss it or remove a guy and head on down the road,” Stoops acknowledged, “but in the end, too, I may have too strong a commitment to these guys that I recruit.”
The OU head coach reiterated that he always has and always will believe in the players he recruits, and that he believed at the time (of the Mixon incident) that a young 18-year-old deserved an opportunity to redeem himself and to improve from it and, some day, possibly be forgiven.
The world is clearly in a different place regarding attitudes about any kind of domestic assault or abuse. Along with that follows the strong expectation for swift and uncompromising disciplinary actions.