How to build an offensive line: OU style
Oklahoma freshman Britt Mitchell supposedly quit the team during the summer and joined the marines. Not quite. He actually transferred to UTEP.
“I just didn’t enjoy it up there” in Norman, Mitchell said. “Since I’ve been here at UTEP I’ve loved every minute of it. I like it a lot better here.”
No one likes El Paso. Except maybe girls with eyebrows drawn with sharpies. So how much did Norman have to suck for him to embrace El Paso?
Because offensive linemen usually take at least a couple of years to contribute, retention is important. You have to have something in the pipeline at all times. Now the obvious way around this is by accepting transfers whether from junior college or another D1 school.
Which OU does. They recently picked up Jarvis Jones from LSU. Jones was actually kicked off the LSU team for violating team rules.
But OU checked him out, and he’s a good kid and shit.
“Every decision we make is scrutinized backwards, forwards and sideways,” athletic director Joe Castiglione said. “When you work with the people we work with here every day, you don’t have to worry about the character issues. They are going to take care of them. That, above everything, is why we’re successful.”
Castiglione is probably surfing Youtube right now.
OU’s starting left tackle, Phil Loadholt, originally signed with LSU out of high school but failed to qualify. When you can get guys in school that can’t qualify for LSU, and when you can get guys in school who get kicked out of LSU…you’ve got an advantage that other teams don’t.
August 8, 2008 at 12:11 pm
“When you can get guys in school that can’t qualify for LSU, and when you can get guys in school who get kicked out of LSU…you’ve got an advantage that other teams don’t.”
Very nicely put.
Some schools love their football team because their university and state suck. Some people love their football team because their university and state do not suck.
August 8, 2008 at 12:31 pm
This chain of comments is going to be fucking awesome.
August 8, 2008 at 12:44 pm
In every public school district, there’s a special school for severely academically or behaviorally troubled students. In the Big 12, there is OU.
August 8, 2008 at 12:45 pm
When you say violating team rules, do you mean committing multiple felonies?
August 8, 2008 at 12:59 pm
no, he means there was a cheerleader at the school named Team Rules. Her father loved football and only had girls.
August 8, 2008 at 1:00 pm
They used to take guys with just one felony but I know the process is much stricter now so perhaps multiple felonies is the new standard.
It’s about time Stoops starts wearing that visor with a lil tilt.
August 8, 2008 at 1:27 pm
So is Robert Joesph going to start at safety for OU?
August 8, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I don’t see this one ending nicely.
August 8, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I’m surprised Britt Mitchell has popped in here.
August 8, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Who can blame Mitchell? His ears were probably bleeding from Jarboe’s rappin’ ‘n shit. The kid still has to sit out a year, yet eagerly left blowU for El Paso. Ouch.
August 8, 2008 at 8:31 pm
That’s Marines, not marines.
August 9, 2008 at 6:28 am
1. How miserable of a hellhole does the city of Norman have to be that someone would prefer being in El Paso?
2. How completely worthless does OU have to be academically that people who can’t qualify at LSU are easily admitted? Just, wow
August 9, 2008 at 9:20 am
Easy to throw stones when you call Austin home. The rest of us will sit quietly in our glass houses.
August 9, 2008 at 6:09 pm
It is perplexing that the sooners are so proud of their success when a lot of that success depends on cheating, lax standards, and importing most of their players from Texas.
Having said that, their biggest advantage right now is Bob Stoops. they deserve a lot of credit for that hire (OU is Stoops’ first head coaching job at the college or pro level).
I love college football, especially the horns, but I’m not sure that it makes complete sense for universities (which are all about research and education) to have these huge football programs that have nothing to do with education or research. Obviously it can be very profitable for the university so my qualms are not financial.
My issue about college football (as practised by UT, for example), is that it is not really amateur but is a big business. I don’t know where you draw the line but I guess I would prefer that schools would be playing players from their own area for one thing (as UT does for the most part).
I also think that if college football is not really going to be an amateur sport, then the players should be paid whatever their market value is.
August 10, 2008 at 10:29 pm
“It is perplexing that the sooners are so proud of their success when a lot of that success depends on cheating, lax standards, and importing most of their players from Texas.”
Aside from this entire sentence being incorrect…
It is perplexing that UT named their stadium after an OU alumnus. An OU all-American and Vince Young are the only reasons UT has any success of note. Without Royal, UT is like Texas A&M (a flash in the pan that’s really just a national joke) but more pompous.
To get to the point, I think this is the result of a straight trade. OU cut Jarboe not because of a weak rap, but because they were deep at WR anyway and needed an experienced OL for 2009. The rumor is that Jones made a rap (irony) insulting Katrina victims, and Les Miles had to boot him for PR.
Who here has read Jim Dent’s “The Undefeated”, laying out extensive allegations of cheating? Kafka, go ahead and raise your hand high. Who here knew that author Jim Dent is up for parole this year after spending the last 4 years in prison? I always trust ex-cons, how about you?
August 11, 2008 at 4:43 am
Nate,
You should look at the OU depth chart (listing the guys that actually play some) and count the number of players from Texas and the number of players from Oklahoma. In recent years, there are pretty much always way more Texans than Oklahomans. for example, if you look at the 2007 depth chart on O, there are 9 Texans and 3 Oklahomans (and a bunch of guys from other states (i.e. not Oklahoma)). If Oklahoma tried to win with home grown Oklahoma talent, it would not crack the top 20.
There is absolutely no point in arguing about my other two criticisms for Oklahoma (cheating and lax standards). Oklahoma is renowned for cheating (recent examples the car for AD and Big Red for Bomar and his OL buddy). If you can’t admit that, you are simply not dealing with reality and we can agree to disagree.
I was interested in discussing how an Oklahoma fan can get much satisfaction from a team of hired guns (i.e. not local boys), some of whom play at OU because they are either paid under the table (AD, Bomar, etc), and some who slide in at OU but would not be accepted at more reputable schools (such as UT). Or even LSU.
What I am trying to understand is the win at all costs philosophy. I assumed that the typical sooner fan is simply shameless (i.e. cheating is fine so long as you don’t get caught) and desperate for any achievement.
Your response has shown me that denial is probably a bigger factor.
Regarding the points that you raised, they are not very interesting in general and have nothing to do with the points that I actually want to discuss.
I don’t think you and I have any more to discuss since we have different views of reality.
August 11, 2008 at 4:48 am
I see a lot of Sooner fans argue that they don’t rely on Texas players to achieve elite status as a program. They’re deluding themselves. The state of Oklahoma just doesn’t have a large enough population to grow enough talent to be a perpetual top 10 team. That’s why Switzer said recruiting Texas was one of the three fundamentals of his program.
August 11, 2008 at 8:00 am
Thank you, NateHeupel, for stopping by to demonstrate why someone who couldn’t qualify academically at LSU would be accepted at OU.
August 13, 2008 at 9:00 am
Kafka (and all you other clowns down there). Certainly OU relies on players from other states to fill it’s roster (It’s not against the rules is it? I mean, we wouldn’t want to be accused of cheating). But does that really concern you? Shouldn’t you be more concerned about WHY the cream of the crop in Texas wants to go north of the Red River to fulfill their college football dreams? It’s true we allowed a cheating Texan, Bomar, in our state and on our team. How did he repay us? By cheating, like one would expect a Texan to do. Good job raising him! What did OU do? Kick him off the team, immediately. What else would you have OU do? Vow to not recruit anymore Texans, ’cause there apt to cheat?
There was never any cheating with AD and his car. His mother attempted to buy and couldn’t arrange financing. I personally know of another similar situation NOT involving a student athelet who attempted to purchase a car under circumstances similar AD, and couldn’t get the financing done. The dealership encouraged them to keep the car and continue to attempt to arrange financing. This went on for nearly 45 days, so AD’s situation is not uncommon and is not a special consideration that is any different from something someone who is not associated with collegiate athletics might experince. OU doesn’t have anymore lax standards than any other university has. The bottom line is that universities (including UTerus) are in the people business and occassionaly people are going to behave badly. When they behave badly on OU’s watch, OU gets rid of them. UTerus employed a web designer who fraudulently created a false news story about 2 OU football players, using graphics stolen from and newspaper web sight in Oklahoma and a UTerus computer system. Have you ever heard ‘people in glass houses shoudn’t throw stones’? That applies to people like you. If your mediocre team can’t keep the homegrown talent, that’s your problem, not ours.
August 20, 2008 at 11:17 am
not accepting the previous arguments of the sooner nation.
-OU cheated. Texas cheated. OU has been bit by it more recently. Move on.
-Dont even try to sling the ‘dirty, felony-riddled program’ in OU’s direction. The impressive Fulmer Cup runs the last few years should give any realistic UT fan pause for mud slinging regarding off the field issues.
-Jarboe was hardly dismissed due to our incredible depth at WR. Quite the contrary. The kid was a phenom athlete. Sucks to lose him but he knew (or should have been aware) that he was on thin ice. Resultingly, nobody should be all that shocked at what happened. Without the prior issue in high school, it probably is an issue that gets handled internally.
-If UT fans truly want to cast OU as the new Fresno State, feel free.
-and as for this ‘argument’ regarding Oklahoma taking Texas players. Really? Texas has the deepest and arguably richest talent pool in the nation. Anyone remotely close to the state would be foolish for not recruiting it like their program depends on it (because it does). If Kansas was 6 times the size it was and had their high school football as organized as the A’s farm system, we would recruit the shit out of that state too.
August 20, 2008 at 11:27 am
When you say violating team rules, do you mean committing multiple felonies?
Did somebody say multiple felonies?
August 25, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I see that Henry James is still pretending to know something, anything, about football.
LOL