The Lantern

Issue date: 7/19/07 Section: Sports

Not all things are looking dim in Norman, Okla. these days - At least not for Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops.

Just a year after the Sooners program dismissed quarterback Rhett Bomar and offensive lineman J.D. Quinn for being paid for work they did not perform, the NCAA forced the program to eliminate all wins from the 2005 season as well as two scholarships for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.

What the Sooners did not seem to lose was the credibility of its coach.

Despite the NCAA coming down on the program and delivering some form of punishment, Stoops seems to have come out of this situation with barely a nick on his reputation.

While several college coaches have largely lost their credibility among the college football world in the last 20 years or so for similar sanctions against their programs, Stoops seems to have fallen into a different category with fans and the media.

Several media outlets have addressed the recent sanctions placed on the Sooner football program and, while realizing that this is a very serious issue, seem willing to give Stoops a pass because "he cannot keep track of 100 players at all times."

There is doubt coaches at any level can babysit their players at all times of the day.

At some point, players have to be trusted to make the right choices and be treated as what they are supposed to be - knowledgeable young men and student-athletes who make the right decisions.

What is bothersome is that Stoops is not footing more of the blame for this situation.

We all know if Pete Carroll and the USC football program had been facing the same issues, the media would undoubtedly be criticizing him to no end for running a dirty program.

Of course, how else could Carroll keep reeling in these top-flight players such as Reggie Bush every year without giving them some other incentives?

Or how about Urban Meyer at Florida? What if his program had been led by players were being paid for work they were not actually doing?

Seeing as Ohio State was defeated by the Gators in a pair of Championship Games this past season, Buckeye fans would be the first to make the Gator fans as well as the media aware that these kinds of acts are intolerable.

In no way, shape or form am I insinuating that these programs are perfectly clean and without faults.

It is just a bit unfair that while Stoops sits out there seemingly untouched by the media, other coaches would be fed to the dogs had they run into the same predicament.

This is just another case when success directly determines the amount of media praise or criticism that a coach and program will receive in a certain situation.

The fact that USC and Florida have each won at least one National Championship in the last three years, speaks volumes about their respective coaches being susceptible to more praise when times are good and more criticism when they are not.

Although Oklahoma won a National Championship in 2000, Stoops has had just one season with less than two losses since.

Perhaps Oklahoma is a bit overshadowed by the recent success of its foe, Texas, and it certainly has not recently received the level of national attention that programs such as Florida and USC have experienced.

It should be noted Stoops himself chose to dismiss both Sooner players from the team last spring in response to the findings of the university.

However, when the attention should arguably be on Stoops, it is not.

The most important thing for a coach to remember about student athletes is that the student comes first.

Stoops did the right thing in removing the players from the program, but a collegiate coach should be more concerned with what their player(s) are doing off the field, especially when one of them is the starting quarterback.

After all, these are academic institutions in which these young men are enrolled, and teaching them life lessons and helping them develop character are two attributes that are just as important as learning the game of football.

Keith Britton can be reached at britton.71@osu.edu.

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