Linked Up: Soonerfreude

I was recently checking out SB Nation's Sooner redoubt, Crimson And Cream Machine, and noticed they openly wondered if the Sooners' program was teetering on the edge of an outright disaster of a season and implosion of a program.

The author, Jordan Esco, is a good guy and often visits us here at the Carnival, so I don't feel great about hoping for his abject despair.

But I don't feel that bad about it.

Check out his article. He actually senses some similarities in what we went through recently.

I've said it here before and Saturday night was just a depressing reminder of the fact that we've actually seen this already. At this time, it seemed incredibly fortunate (and entertaining) that is was happening to our hated rival, the Texas Longhorns. However, now that it appears our Sooners are headed down a frighteningly similar path it's, um, slightly less entertaining.

Mack Brown was very open about the fact that his program had become complacent with their success, that a sense of entitlement had permeated their program, and that it had become a problem that demanded changes. To his credit, he made those adjustments and despite our hatred for all things burnt orange, he appears to have done all of these things before the ship capsized.

Obviously as an Oklahoma fan, you never want to compare yourself to Texas in anything, but the similarities here simply cannot be avoided. The one glaring difference however, and one that should scare the you know what out of OU fans, is the fact that Bob Stoops has given no indication whatsoever that he's willing to make the kind of program re-defining changes Brown did.

As a casual third party observer, I feel like there's been a bit of a mephitis emanating from the Switzer Center the last few years. Plenty of rumor and innuendo to be sure, but when these sorts of things get mentioned as often and from as many sources as these things did, it's likely something isn't right in Denmark.

We know that first hand.

There is no shame in losing to Purple Merlin, Lord knows we get that. It wasn't so much that they lost but how they looked in the loss. They weren't the confident, fearless, well-organized bunch that seemed to be the hallmark of the best Stoops teams.They weren't last year either.

But mostly, Bob Stoops looked different. Gone was the fiery, headset-throwing, ref-ass chewing Sooner leader. Sure, Mike Stoops was back bouncing around yelling at players, refs and occasionally clouds, small children and down markers but big brother Bob looked...Spent? Exhausted?

Resigned?

I'm sure helping Kenny Stills frost his tips and pick out evening gowns tires a guy out but he looked more significantly whipped to me. I'd heard from a few sources they wouldn't be surprised if Stoopsy hung 'em up some time soon. Looking at him on the sideline Saturday made it seem less far fetched.

Anybody else notice this?