Skip Johnson is just one win away from joining a long list of coaches to lead an Oklahoma Sooners team to a national championship in a sport, and he’s doing it in the same way a coaching legend throughout Norman would.
The Sooners on Saturday beat No. 5 national seed North Carolina 9-3 in Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series of the Men’s College World Series. If Oklahoma wins Sunday afternoon and extends its winning streak to 10, the Sooners will claim their third national title in program history.
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“I'm just going to stay out of their way,” Johnson said. “I don't know any other way to do it. You think we're going to go out and hit tonight and take 100 ground balls somewhere? We're not going to do that. I can promise you that. Just stay out of their way.
“It's in God's plan. It's not mine. You ask every one of those players, they'll tell you exactly the same thing — it's God's plan, it's not mine.”
Oklahoma one win over North Carolina away from national title as Skip Johnson nears OU royalty
Johnson’s response was prompted when he was asked during the postgame press conference what his approach was when being just one win away from a title and if his team needed some sort of pep talk. His answer echoed the advice that legendary OU football coach Bob Stoops gave Johnson when this journey through the MCWS was just beginning.
Stoops was part of a deep assemblage of former and current OU coaches from multiple sports that made the trip to Omaha at some point to support Johnson’s squad. It was a perfect example of the Sooner Nation culture that Johnson compared to “a family-owned business.”
If it was a motivating speech Johnson’s team needed, then current football coach Brent Venables already delivered that after the Sooners beat Georgia to start the MCWS at 2-0. Stoops, though, who has led an OU team to a national title before in 2000, gave Johnson some simple advice. And either Johnson took Stoops’ words to heart or the two already lead in the same way.
"Bob gave me some advice," Johnson said as his team sat at just 1-0 in the MCWS at the time. "He said, 'Just stay out of their way,' with another explicit in there. Then I said, 'Yes, sir.'”
At this point, though, with just one win between them and a trophy, it doesn’t seem like anything can get in these Sooners’ way.
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