2009 Oklahoma Sooners

[Jack Lambert]

Here are the projected white starters for Bob Stoops this year. The Sooners started 3 whites in 2005, 5 in 2006 and 2007, and 6 in 2008.

Offense

QB Sam Bradford

FB Matt Clapp

TE(Z) Trent Ratterree

C Brody Eldridge


Defense

DE Auston English

MLB Ryan ReynoldsEdited by: Jack Lambert

 

[Don Wassall]

Barry Switzer would be proud of the overwhelmingly black Oklahoma team. He always looked like an unprincipled used car salesman and worse. But now this champion of "student"-thugs has been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, belatedly according to the black man who made an impassioned plea for his election:

Switzer was a star in race relations

IT WASN'T a surprise when the self-righteous College Football Hall of Fame repeatedly ignored Barry Switzer. Nor is it shocking now to learn it took an African-American to convince his fellow voters their persecution of Switzer should end.

The reasons why Switzer was shunned will be rehashed often this week. Friday marks the 20th anniversary of Switzer's forced resignation as Oklahoma's football coach after 16 seasons.

His breathtaking fall from grace was swift, stunning and ugly. From Dec. 19, 1988, to Feb. 13, 1989, the OU program was rocked by NCAA probation, a player shooting a teammate, two players involved in a rape and the starting quarterback getting busted for selling cocaine to an undercover agent.

Charles Thompson's appearance on the cover of the Feb. 27, 1989, issue of Sports Illustrated wearing handcuffs and an orange prison jumpsuit was the fifth and final blow that sealed Switzer's fate.

The coach, labeled everything from a lovable rogue to a reckless outlaw, was the obvious fall guy in the sordid mess. It may have involved only a handful of players from the more than 100 on his team, but Switzer recruited them, acknowledged he broke NCAA rules to keep them and refused to change the loose-ship approach that finally sunk him.

Editorials in the state's three largest newspapers called for his resignation. So did several former OU players, who said they were embarrassed and ashamed of the Sooners' renegade image, which that SI cover story detailed with these words: "How Barry Switzer's Sooners Terrorized Their Campus."

That sensationalized headline was grossly overblown and belonged on the pages of a London tabloid. But it helped fuel the frenzy and falsely altered the image of a school, a program and its coach.

So a defiant Switzer finally surrendered to his critics on June 19, 1989. That meant he only needed to wait the required three years before becoming eligible for the Hall of Fame, when Sooners fans figured he'd easily be a first-ballot selection.

His credentials seemingly make his induction a no-brainer: three national championships, 12 Big Eight titles and a 157-29-4 record, which placed him fourth on the all-time winning percentage list at .837.

He also had paid a heavy personal price by giving up the job he loved instead of fighting to keep it. Switzer, convinced he could save his program and add more national titles, eventually relented to OU power brokers and friends who told him it was time to go.

But that slum-dunk Hall of Fame selection turned instead into years of the Honors Committee â€" the 12 members who select new Hall of Fame members â€" telling Switzer "shame on you."

Finally, in the spring of 2001, the Tulsa World broke the story that Switzer's long wait was over. He would be honored that December in New York City and formally inducted in August 2002 at the Hall of Fame headquarters in South Bend, Ind.

Sources who were in the room in Charlotte, N.C., when the Honors Court finally selected Switzer, have confirmed that an impassioned speech by Gene Smith changed voters' minds.

Smith, now the athletic director at Ohio State, was Arizona State's AD at the time of the vote. He is a former Notre Dame football player who is also a black man.

Those sources said Smith, the only minority on the Honors Court committee at that time, never mentioned race. He didn't have to; everyone in that room knew Switzer had championed the cause of the black athlete long before several of those coaches who had been inducted before him.

Smith told the Honors Court it had made its point by repeatedly bypassing Switzer. Now it was time to make a more important point â€" the Sooners' former coach had the credentials and richly deserved induction.

Switzer's induction finally brought closure to the controversial way his equally controversial career ended. It was a sweet victory for thousands of OU fans who had launched petition drives and made pleas to the media to help stop this ostracizing of Switzer.

Their passion was unique and displayed the loyalty Switzer could instill in people. Many fan bases would have given up after their coach had been ignored a couple times.

But you have to wonder if Switzer would have ever made it without Smith's support. Those same sources confirmed there were voters in that room who were doggedly determined to continue their heretofore successful campaign to blackball Switzer.

They refused to consider Switzer's life-changing accomplishments. The bootlegger's boy never claimed he was a choirboy, but he was also a man way ahead of his time when it came to race relations.

He took black players from poor backgrounds and gave them an opportunity for a better life, while many of his peers refused to recruit them. Those players were asking for a first chance at the American dream, not a second one. And the great majority of them became success stories.

Gene Smith obviously didn't forget the significance of Switzer's impact on the game and its players. And that's what I choose to remember most about Switzer's college coaching career 20 years after it ended.
<CENTER>By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist</CENTER>





http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?subjectid=202&amp;articleid=20090614_202_B1_TlaWrd313815
<CENTER>
</CENTER>

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I dislike Barry Switzer more than just about any coach out there. Poor Barry, it wasn't his fault. Yeah right, just like it wasn't the fault of his players. Cry me a river!

 

[Colonel_Reb]

It looks like Oklahoma will start one more white in TE(Z) Brody Eldridge.

 

[Jack Lambert]

Post updated. Thanks Reb.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

No problem Jack!

 

[Colonel_Reb]

A couple of changes to the OU starters. Brody Eldridge will be the starting Center. Since black TE Gresham is out for several weeks at least, the starting TE will be white, Trent Ratterree. The RG spot will not be occupied by a white player, so there will be just 4 whites on offense. The defense looks the same as before. So, a total of 6 white starters to begin the season.

 

[Jack Lambert]

Thanks for the update, Col.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Source: Bradford to have surgery </font>


<hr size="1" width="100%" noshade="noshade">

ESPN.com news services



</font>
There is a "very good chance" Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford will announce he is having season-ending surgery on his shoulder, a source told ESPN's Joe Schad on Wednesday.
Bradford, who won the Heisman Trophy last season, was to address his
plans in a news conference Wednesday night. He is not expected to speak
Thursday.

<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><t><tr><td rowspan="2" width="5"><spacer ="block" width="5" height="1"></td><td width="200">

</td></tr><tr><td width="200">Sooners quarterback Sam Bradford on the sidelines after being injured against Texas on Saturday.</font></td></tr></t></table>
Coach Bob Stoops said Bradford needed to gather more information before
choosing what to do about his injured right, throwing shoulder.
"He just wasn't ready to fully answer everything that'll want to be
asked and for sure what he wants to do just yet, until he has a few
more people to visit with," Stoops said after the Sooners' practice.
"That's it. I won't say another word about it."

Even if he decides to have surgery, Bradford is "not expected" to make a decision about the NFL draft, the source told Schad.
Bradford was coming off one of the most prolific passing seasons in
NCAA history when he opted to come back for his junior year instead of
entering the NFL draft. He was considered a top quarterback prospect
after throwing for 4,720 yards and 50 touchdowns last season.
Bradford was initially hurt just before halftime in the season opener
against BYU and returned to play one full game before being reinjured
during Oklahoma's second drive in a 16-13 loss to No. 3 Texas on
Saturday.
Bradford said after the game that he wouldn't make a decision about his
long-term plans until after the season. He said before reinjuring the
shoulder that surgery remained a treatment option. He was initially
diagnosed with a Grade 3 sprain of his AC joint, and Stoops said X-rays
and MRIs have shown no new damage.


"Sam's whole situation, he'll have something to say when he knows what
his path will be, and that isn't right now," Stoops said. "I'm not the
one to answer it. He will. And I will once he feels he's ready to and
knows for sure what he wants to do."
Bradford's primary reason for returning to Oklahoma was to pursue the
national championship that he narrowly missed out on last season, when
the Sooners lost to Florida in the BCS Championship Game. An Oklahoma
City native, Bradford has also spoken about how Oklahoma football was
practically a pro sport to him as he was growing up.
"I think it's extremely difficult for him, coming back for all the
right reasons, wanting to have an opportunity to go compete on the
football field, compete for championships and then having all those
things taken away from you," quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel said.
"There's a lot of hard work that goes into it and when you invest that
much, it's going to be extremely disappointing. It's not an easy
situation for him, certainly."
The Sooners (3-3, 1-1 Big 12) have fallen out of the national
championship race with three early losses by a combined five points
against ranked opponents, all away from home.


Joe Schad is a college football reporter for ESPN. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Things keep getting crazier in Norman.

<div>NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Bob Stoops hasn't been able to get an 'Are
you kidding me?' kind of laugh out of Oklahoma's string of injuries.
Never feels like screaming either.</div>




"Not my style," he said.

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">There's no
question, though, that this season has been trying for the Sooners'
coach. Tight end Jermaine Gresham (black), a second-team All-American, suffered
a season-ending injury days before Oklahoma's opener against BYU and
the challenges have never let up.</a>

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">Heisman Trophy winner Sam
Bradford (white) was out, then back in and finally gone for good with an injury
to his right, throwing shoulder. Top receiver Ryan Broyles (black) and tailback
DeMarco Murray (black) were also hurt and missed games, and this week brings
even more injury to the insult of the Sooners' fourth loss and their
first time out of the AP rankings in four seasons.</a>

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">Three more
starters will miss the rest of the year, the latest being offensive
lineman Jarvis Jones (black). Stoops said Tuesday that Jones fractured his heel
during a 10-3 loss at Nebraska on Saturday and won't be back this
season.</a>

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">A day earlier, he announced that defensive end Auston
English (white) and team captain Brody Eldridge (white) also suffered season-ending
injuries in the Nebraska loss. English was to have surgery Tuesday on a
tendon in his ankle, and Stoops said Eldridge's injury was to his neck
â€" and not his shoulder as previously described â€" and would not require
surgery.</a>

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">"It's just odd, too, the injuries," Stoops said.
"(Trainer) Scott Anderson's never seen a fractured heel. The tendon
that Auston English is having operating on later today, he's never seen
that tendon â€" that ever happen in all his years of training. Brody's
situation, it's actually with his neck, he's never had before.</a>

"We've had a lot of odd situations, or odd injuries, that really are highly unusual."

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">The
injuries have played a role in perhaps the most disappointing of
Stoops' 11 seasons in Norman. Oklahoma (5-4, 3-2) started out with
hopes of returning to the BCS championship game for a second straight
year, but instead has fallen from No. 3 all the way out of the poll for
the first time since 2005, heading into Saturday's game against Texas
A&amp;M (5-4, 2-3).</a>

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">"At certain points, sure, all that's happened
through the year, it aggravates you. It motivates you do to better,"
Stoops said. "You're constantly searching for ways to overcome it, so
that's what we're trying to do â€" to get better in certain areas, to not
hurt ourself with some foolish penalties, to execute better in critical
situations, to make a field goal when you've got to make it."</a>

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">The
injury problems really started back in training camp, when Eldridge was
moved from tight end to center while Ben Habern was hampered by a back
injury. When Gresham got hurt, it created a dilemma of whether to move
Eldridge back to replace him or keep him at center.</a>

Then came the big blow: Bradford sprained his shoulder just before halftime against BYU, and the Sooners ended up losing 14-13.

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">"It's
kind of like a snowball effect after that, good player after good
player gets hurt," Habern said. "But you can't blame the season on
that. You can't say that, 'Oh, we would have won this game if we had
him or if we had somebody else.'</a>

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">Eldridge had moved to left guard
after Brian Simmons hurt his knee â€" he's still "a couple weeks away,"
Stoops said â€" and now he's out, too.</a>

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">Offensive coordinator Kevin
Wilson said Tavaris Jeffries is back with the team after dealing with a
family issue last week, and freshman Tyler Evans and sophomore Brian
Lepak will help fill the holes at guard. Stephen Good, a guard, will
work more at tackle to prepare to back up Cory Brandon, and tight end
Eric Mensik will be an emergency option.</a>

<a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">"We'll still hopefully
have enough. We're at a point, though, we need to knock on wood and
kind of stay where we're at," Wilson said. "We don't need to lose
anyone else as far as being able to manage and get through the season."</a><a href="http://images.video.msn.com/js/ch/channels.css" target="_blank">http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/10348994/Sooners-lose-3-more-starters-for-rest-of-season#tb

</a>Edited by: Colonel_Reb