What’s up with Oklahoma Quarterbacks and Public Displays of Misbehavior?

For the second time in less than two months’ time, an Oklahoma quarterback has been arrested and charged with public intoxication. One time is too many, but twice signals a disturbing pattern.

On early Sunday morning, just hours after Oklahoma’s annual Red-White spring game, freshman quarterback Chris Robison was arrested for public intoxication. Just a month and a half earlier, Sooner starting quarterback Baker Mayfield was arrested in Fayetteville, Ark., on four misdemeanor charges, including public intoxication and resisting arrest.

In what has become an almost boilerplate response from University of Oklahoma officials, a spokesman for the university was quoted in the Oklahoma City Oklahoman and other media outlets reporting on the incident as saying, “We are aware of the situation, and it will be addressed internally.”

It is entirely plausible that Robison, a four-star recruit from Mesquite, Texas, who is one of 11 members of the Sooners’ 2017 class who enrolled early, was in a celebratory mood after completing three of four passes for 49 yards in Saturday’s spring game.

The young pro-style quarterback sits third in a three-man competition as Mayfield’s backup in 2017, and there is a good possibility he could be red-shirted, given that he has redshirt sophomore Kyler Murray, the Texas A&M transfer who becomes eligible this fall, and sophomore Austin Kendall, who was the backup last season, ahead of him.

No matter where he sits on the depth chart, Robison needs to be held to the same standards as every other member of the team.

And there are plenty of folks inside and outside of college football who are questioning what those standards really are regarding the OU football program, one of college football’s biggest brand names.

Mayfield had something to say about those standards and the expectations the coaching staff and the university has of its student athletes in comments he made to reporters after Tuesday spring practice:

"“I think it can be said that I might have set a bad example first, but we all know there’s a higher standard here,” said the Oklahoma starting quarterback of the past two seasons. “Not just being quarterbacks, but at the University of Oklahoma there’s a tradition here that compares to no other.“We’ve got to realize that expectation and those standards and rise up to it and be the ones that everybody looks at in every single situation.”"

Head coach Bob Stoops cannot be expected to be around and control his players actions every waking hour of their young lives. That would be an impossible task. The problem is, the Sooner head coach may not be personally responsible for their actions – both good and bad – but he sure as heck is accountable when one of his players crosses the line, on or off the field.

It’s understandable that Stoops and his coaching staff would not want to give any more public attention to these off-the-field incidents than is necessary, but in the wake of all the fallout over how the Joe Mixon situation was handled, and senior cornerback Jordan Thomas before that, the perception has been building that the OU football program, and Stoops in particular, are soft on disciplinary and preventive measures.

There was wide sentiment by college football experts and fans alike that Mixon, who punched a female student in the face resulting in a broken jaw, should have been summarily dismissed from the program and not just suspended for his freshman year.

Thomas was arrested in the summer of 2016 following his sophomore season on charges of assault and public intoxication. That was not the first such off-the-field incident involving Thomas. He had been suspended for the 2015 season opener against Akron for an undisclosed issue, but the All-Big 12 defensive player did not miss any time for the 2016 incident.

How Stoops and the Sooners will handle the Mayfield situation has not yet been determined – or at least not disclosed. Stoops has said that he will wait until the legal process plays out before taking any disciplinary action against his two-time Heisman finalist quarterback.

Mayfield inferred in his conversation with reporters this week that the apparent inaction to date by Stoops in laying out the consequences for his star quarterback’s off-the-field indiscretions should not be mistaken as ignoring the issue.

“They’re not letting anything slip,” Mayfield said, speaking about the coaching staff. “That’s not something Coach Stoops or anyone on his staff would ever let anybody let that slip (sic). He’s always done his job well, and we have to do ours.”

ESPN commentator Paul Finebaum (who, as a matter of full disclosure, is a University of Tennessee alum, an SEC advocate and has had some highly disparaging comments in the past about Oklahoma football and Bob Stoops, in particular) called Mayfield’s comments “interesting” and Bob Stoops a “total failure” in terms of player discipline on a “SportsCenter” program earlier this week.

“When Bob Stoops speaks, I don’t really listen because I think he’s disingenuous when it comes to discipline,” Finebaum said.

I don’t believe, as some like Finebaum are suggesting, that Stoops takes these matters lightly. Nor do I believe for one minute that how he chooses to discipline players is based on their importance to the team and how it will impact his ability to win football games. Such a philosophy and practice would have the exact opposite effect and would be self-destructive.

Having said that, however, these irresponsible and disturbing incidents involving Oklahoma football players are happening far too frequently for a program that inwardly prides itself on running a disciplined, responsible and respectful program.

It is true that off-the-field issues involving players at major college programs and local law enforcement attract greater media attention than they do elsewhere, but that is precisely why appropriate rules and regulations governing conduct and behavior not only need to be in place and followed but, most importantly, enforced and appropriately dealt with when they are violated.

Earlier in Stoops’ time at the helm of the Oklahoma football program, not only were public displays of misconduct by players less attention-getting or relatively benign by comparison, but when they did occur they appeared to be handled more swiftly and with stronger teeth.

If the University of Oklahoma truly holds its student athletes and coaches to a higher standard, it appears some damage control needs to be undertaken in the football program. The words to that effect and the actions supporting them seem to have fallen into misalignment and need to be brought back into balance.