Stoops handles Big 12 Media Day like a pro

One thing you have to love about Bob Stoops is he’ll never say something just to make a headline. He understands media coverage is a huge part of college football, and talking to them is in his job description, but in Dallas yesterday, Stoops handled the questions fairly well, and said all the right things.

A brief recap of Stoops’ time with the media started with Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman asking Bob what he thought about the NCAA’s involvement in the Penn State case, and his reaction to the penatlies. Without any hesitation, Stoops simply told Tramel he’s a football coach. His job is to win football games, and not determine stuff like that, and Stoops stated it wouldn’t be right for him to judge. A lot of coaches are going to get asked this, but Stoops did not fall for the trap like Missouri’s Gary Pinkel did at the SEC Media Day.

Anyway, after talking about his receivers and the work they’ll have to do this season, Stoops received a question about the state of the OU-Texas game in the Cotton Bowl. Apparently, coach agress with me, you can’t beat the Cotton Bowl. You can’t beat the atmosphere. Stoops called himself a “stadium junkie,” and he likes to play in different ones. So it’s nice to know Bob is on the same ship as myself regarding where the Red River Shootout should be played.

Of course, it didn’t take long to for a Mike Stoops-related question to come up. Stoops said it’s great for the family, and him and his brother work well together. However, maybe the highlight quote for Stoops of the day was when he was asked about Landry’s late season struggles and what the newlywed has to improve on for next season.

In typical Stoops fashion, Bob turned that around quick and told the reporter:

"I didn’t ask him to have to improve on anything. I asked about ten guys around him they needed to improve. The offense struggled. He had more dropped passes in the last three games — we couldn’t even keep track of how many. Didn’t run the football as effectively as we needed to at all. All of that goes together. And so to me it’s more of an issue of the offense and the offense around him than it is him. (via Big12Sports.com)"

Like any good coach, I love how Coach Stoops defends his starting quarterback. The next question, though, involved one of the back-up quarterbacks on the roster, Blake Bell. Apparently, Sooner fans should expect to see the same amount of Belldozer on short yardage situations and in the red zone. However, don’t expect Blake Bell to throw any long bombs this year, that will be a job for Landry.

Though, nearly midway through Stoops’ press conference, some

female

reporter just had to bring up the Kenny Stills in a dress picture, which Bob immediately shrugged and moved on to the next question. The next one regarding West Virginia’s move to the conference, which Stoops believes is good for the Big 12, and likes expanding teh boundaries of the Big 12.

Moving to more on-the-field questions, Stoops hopes the pass rush will be effective with RJ Washington and David King stepping in to starting roles. However, maybe the best news of the day was Bob mentioning Dominique Whaley is cleared to do everything, which is, obviously, big for the offense and takes some of the load off Jones.

Stoops would go on to talk a little about TCU and his history with Gary Patterson. Also, some reporter must have been asleep the first ten minutes while Stoops was on stage, because he asked another “how do you feel about Mike Stoops back in the program” question. Bob seems to be pretty confident in his team’s ability, as long as they execute.

Coach Stoops’ entire presser is up on Big12Sports.com, and once we get ahold of them, we’ll have more from Landry, Ben Habern, and Demontre Hurst, who were with the head coach in Dallas Monday.