What they're writing
What writers around the country had to say about OU coach Bob Stoops after the Sooners' loss in Thursday's BCS title game:
Now that Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops's reputation as "Big Game Bob" has been sullied to a mocking tenor, a new moniker has emerged for the Sooners: "Chokelahoma."
Florida fans taunted the Oklahoma coach, players and fans after their team's victory Thursday night.
Stoops is 1-3 in Bowl Championship Series national title games, which includes three straight losses. He has also lost five consecutive BCS games and three of his last four games against Texas. For his lone national championship victory in 2000, more than half of the 22 starters were recruited by his predecessor, John Blake.
"Everyone will have their opinions on it. That's fine," Stoops said. "In the end, I'll be glad to try it again next year. If that's the biggest burden I have to bear in my life, I'll be a pretty lucky guy. We'll do our best to be trying again next year, and we'll keep going after them, if it's all the same to everybody else."
Oklahoma will just have to ignore opposing fans with their hands around their own throats.
-- Thayer Evans, The New York Times
The burden of Oklahoma's 24-14 loss rests on the shoulders of Bob Stoops, who once again couldn't figure a way to live up to a nickname that mocks him.
Big Game Bob has now lost five BCS bowl games in a row.
His third title game loss since the shocking '01 Orange Bowl win over Florida State doesn't exactly make him college football's version of Marv Levy, but it certainly doesn't add any luster to his reputation.
Give Stoops ample credit for consistently putting OU in these types of situations. And it certainly wasn't as embarrassing as the last time they played here, in a 36-point loss to USC.
But Thursday's loss might have been the most painful. The Sooners had every chance to win a game in which most pundits gave them little to no chance.
Mistakes and dubious decisions by players as well as coaches stopped OU on at least three occasions.
-- Kevin Sherrington, Dallas Morning News
After the handshake, when Bob Stoops congratulated and Urban Meyer consoled, Thursday night's head coaches headed in opposite directions toward opposite fates.
Meyer found himself in a hug-fest, his Gators celebrating a 24-14 victory over Oklahoma and another national championship. Stoops trudged toward the tunnel en route to another uncomfortable January night, another offseason of questions about whether his team can win a national title ever again.
Sound familiar? Here's a quick refresher on what's happened to these two men since the start of 2001, when Stoops' Sooners won a national title by drubbing Florida State here, in the same Dolphin Stadium where UF beat OU on Thursday.
Stoops' stock has sunk, with five losses in six BCS bowls, earning him the weird game-coaching dichotomy of looking like Bud Wilkinson for 364 days each year and John Blake for one.
Meyer, meanwhile, has enjoyed a rock-star rise to the pinnacle of his profession. He won big at Bowling Green, brought football fever to Salt Lake City with an undefeated 2004, and now owns two national championships in four years in orange and blue.
-- Dave Curtis, The Sporting News
For now, at least, the nickname needs to go.
No one needs to refer to the man on Oklahoma's sideline as "Big Game Bob Stoops." On Thursday - when it mattered most - Bob bombed.
Again.
Florida's 24-14 victory over the Sooners in the BCS championship marked the third straight national title game loss and the fifth consecutive BCS bowl defeat for Stoops, the Marv Levy of college coaching.
He's collected six conference trophies and coached Heisman winners and sent countless players to the pros. Still, when Stoops goes bowling, save one BCS title, he has a knack for rolling gutter balls. It started with LSU and USC. Then came the nightmares against Boise State and West Virginia.
-- Jason King, Yahoo! Sports
Big Game Bob Stoops lost his fifth straight BCS game and third straight national-title game. He eschewed a chip-shot field goal and directed his Sooners to convert a fourth-and-goal situation.
The Gators blew up the fourth-down run. In the final seconds of the first half, the Sooners stayed superaggressive with their passing game and tossed a critical interception with Oklahoma at the Florida 6.
Big Game Bob left a lot of points on the football field Thursday night. He'll be second-guessed in Oklahoma at least until he wins a second national title.
-- Jason Whitlock, Kansas City Star
There were electric runs. Acrobatic catches. There was measurably more offense than the final score indicated.
There was - critics of the Big 12, take note - night-long spurts of hard-hitting, drive-snuffing defense.
-- Gil LeBreton, Fort Worth-Star Telegram
Copyright (c) 2009, World Publishing Co
New U. defense coach looks for 'fight' in Sugar Bowl
Kalani Fifita Sitake has a few things in common with Kyle Whittingham, none of which is insignificant in the latter recently naming the former as Utah's new defensive coordinator.
The first is, they are both sons of tough fathers.
Whittingham's dad, Fred, was a long-time college and pro coach whose presence in a locker room was as subtle as a stampeding herd of rhinos. Gary Andersen, the man Sitake replaced a couple of weeks ago, tells a story about Fred, going back to when Andersen was attempting to make the L.A. Rams coming out of college, and Fred was an assistant coach with the club.
"One time, Fred walked through the weight room when a lot of guys were in there lifting, and all the players just stopped what they were doing as he came through. Fred commanded that kind of respect."
Sitake's dad, Tom, was a former rugby player from Tonga -- "I thought he was the strongest man in the world, he was rocked up," Sitake says -- who taught his son, as the family moved from Tonga to Hawaii to Utah to Missouri, with temporary stopovers in other places, to be grateful, be diligent, be strong, be humble, be hopeful.
"He was the most influential person in my life," says Sitake. "He was kind to people, he treated them well, but he wanted his kids to work hard. He made us run hills. He used to say to me when I was young, 'I wonder what the guy who's going for your scholarship is doing right now.' He wanted to prepare me for football, and prepare me for life. When I went to BYU, it was easy compared to the workouts I had done with my dad."
The second is, they are both quick studies.
After Whittingham finished up as a linebacker and graduated from BYU, he tried his hand at playing pro ball, but eventually settled on a career in coaching. He became a defensive coordinator at age 34.
Sitake was a running back at BYU, having most of his success as a freshman. He went on an LDS Church mission thereafter, returning in 1997, and, from there, struggling with injuries, including popped shoulders, a broken leg, a dislocated ankle, and two back injuries that required surgery, over the next three years. He scored one touchdown in 53 games.
"I didn't care about stats," Sitake says. "I just loved playing football and being on the team."
Even now, when Sitake attempts to reach up to screw in a light bulb, his shoulder flips up and out. A small price to pay, he figures, for having had the chance to bang hats out on the field.
After he graduated, he tried unsuccessfully to stick with the Cincinnati Bengals, and then turned to coaching. He spent one season at Eastern Arizona Junior College coaching defensive backs and special teams. Following that, he worked as a graduate assistant at BYU for one season -- until Andersen hired him at Southern Utah, where he coached running backs, tight ends, and offensive line over a two-year span.
In 2005, Whittingham brought him on as a linebackers coach at Utah.
During those years, Sitake immersed himself in football, soaking up every bit of coaching information he could sponge from whatever source was available. The switch to defense was a cliff to climb.
"When you get hired by a head coach to coach the position he played and mastered, it's his deal, and you haven't coached that position, well ... I wasn't new to working hard," Sitake says. "I learned everything I could. Kyle challenged me to be one of the best linebacker coaches in the country. I looked at high schools, colleges, and at the NFL. I absorbed it all. I learned everything I could about defense. And I loved it."
He grasped Utah's defense well enough, quick enough to be promoted to Andersen's old spot almost as soon as the former coordinator bolted for Utah State as the Aggies' new head coach.
Sitake, a valuable recruiter, says that when he returned from a recent recruiting swing through Hawaii and Los Angeles, Whittingham told him, "I'm going to name you defensive coordinator." Sitake's immediate response: "OK, let's go."
"I was excited," he says. "But I'm ready."
Sitake is 33.
The third thing is, they are both disciples of Fred Whittingham's brand of defense.
Everything the Utes do defensively is rooted in the principles Fred taught Kyle for three decades. That was true when the younger Whittingham was the coordinator, and it has remained a constant since.
"It all comes from Fred," Sitake says. "Stopping the run is No. 1. I've bought into that. I'm going to echo what I've bought into. I want to get inside Kyle's head and think like him, but also have my own influence on it.
"You have to adjust to situations and adapt, according to your personnel. You have to mix it up against different kinds of offenses, based on what our opponents' strengths are.
"I want to see a punishing defense that will make an impact on every series and every play. I want us to play hard, physical, aggressive defense. You've got to challenge guys to be better players, challenge them to be good."
Another thing is, they are both maniacs for football.
Whittingham has already proved that, devouring the game from the time he sat around the table as a teenager, picking up the game's crumbs from his dad.
Sitake says the whole coaching thing gripped him in those first couple of years on the job, when he was making next to nothing, working ridiculous hours, and having the time of his life.
"I was living a dream," he says. "Coaching seemed like something I was born to do."
And now, he adds: "I'm passionate about this game, about trying to get the most out of these guys. I believe in teaching them, communicating with them, getting everything I can out of them. I'm the luckiest guy in the world to get that chance."
And one last thing, they both believe the Utes have a shot against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
"These guys were ranked No. 1 for weeks," Sitake says, "but we're not afraid of them. Our D-linemen know Alabama will challenge them. They know what's coming. But once you're on the field, in a fight, anything can happen. We're not going to let them get away with what they're good at. Our goal is to stop the run. We want to get our guys in the right place to make plays.
"If they run through us, it will be a long night. If we get to thinking we can take their best, then ... watch out. Never count our defense out because we'll keep fighting."
Whittingham couldn't believe it any harder, nor say it with any more conviction nor hope for what comes next more than Kalani Sitake.
sltrib.com
Here's proof that Hawaii has football talent to spare
Mike Cavanaugh tried.
But the competition was very strong.
A few years ago when Cav was still the University of Hawaii offensive line coach he mentioned some stud high school linemen on the Big Island.
Max Unger and Daniel Te'o-Nesheim were at Hawaii Prep Academy.
"Isn't that where Bern Brostek coaches?"
"Yeah," he answered.
"Good luck."
Cav, a pretty persuasive recruiter, might as well have been going up against the former Rams offensive lineman in a one-on-one drill. Brostek, an 'Iolani and Washington Huskies star back in the 1980s, could provide a direct path to the Pac-10 for anyone worthy of it.
And he did.
And they've proven worthy.
Unger, now an Oregon Duck, is a lock for All-American, and likely a first-round draft pick next spring -- like Brostek nearly 20 years before him. As for Te'o-Nesheim, if you saw the Washington defensive lineman play against UH last year, I don't have to tell you anything.
Once, when he was still with the Rams, Brostek told me his post-NFL plan was to become a garbageman.
"You get a workout and you finish early," he said.
Thankfully for Hawaii football (though not necessarily UH football) Brostek decided instead to share his knowledge and passion for the game with the next generation of big boys, on the Big Island. They include Unger and Te'o-Nesheim. Today the Star-Bulletin honors them and 22 others of Hawaii's best on our first Hawaii Grown College Football All-Star Team.
This collection judged the best of the locally produced players now in college is sure to spur discussion. The team was picked by Billy Hull, who has followed them all closely as the writer of our weekly Hawaii Grown report (while local UH players aren't featured weekly in HG, they are products of our state's prep ranks, too, so that's why they're included in consideration for this team, and Hull was also involved in UH football coverage).
While Unger was clearly the choice for offensive player of the year, USC linebacker Kaluka Maiava narrowly got the nod on defense.
The Baldwin grad got stiff competition from three linemen: Tyson Alualu (Cal/Saint Louis), David Veikune (Hawaii/Campbell) and Te'o-Nesheim. I leaned toward Alualu because of monster stats produced mostly as a defensive tackle.
Only one-fourth of the two dozen play for UH. And of those six, only two came to the Warriors straight out of high school with scholarships in hand.
Draw your own conclusions.
But rest assured Greg McMackin is a very active recruiter and there is a whole different culture now at Manoa when it comes to talent procurement. Let's call it proactive.
I've always felt college choice, athlete or not, is a very personal decision -- and you can always come home, like Veikune, who went to Colorado out of high school.
Still, is it not reasonable for UH fans to expect the Warriors to convince at least half of the top 10 and top 20 to play for the home team? Imagine the O-line with Unger on it.
It's not like UH has to compete with any other school on the same land mass -- but, ah, that is part of it, the allure of the unknown.
Let the debates begin.
Copyright (c) 2008 starbulletin.com.
Interim Coach to Get Permanent Title at Clemson
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Interim coach Dabo Swinney will become Clemson's permanent coach, according to a school official close to the football program.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity Monday morning because an official announcement has yet to be made.
Athletic director Terry Don Phillips was expected to introduce Swinney as head coach later Monday.
Swinney took over as interim coach Oct. 13 when Tommy Bowden resigned.
The Tigers won four of their final five games under Swinney to become bowl eligible. The clincher came Saturday when Clemson defeated rival South Carolina 31-14.
Phillips had traveled the country interviewing candidates the past month, including soon-to-be Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin and coordinators like Bud Foster of Virginia Tech and Brent Venables of Oklahoma. Turns out, Clemson's best choice was a building away from Phillips' office.
The two met Sunday for a formal interview.
Phillips was all smiles Saturday afternoon after Clemson's victory, watching Swinney get carried off the field by his players. Phillips declined to discuss Swinney's future then, saying he wanted Saturday to be about Clemson's coaches and players and what they had accomplished under difficult circumstances.
A big reason was Swinney.
William Christopher Swinney was born in Birmingham, Ala., and got his nickname because an older brother had trouble pronouncing "that boy." Swinney walked on to the Crimson Tide football team and eventually earned a scholarship and a national championship ring with coach Gene Stallings' 1992 squad.
"I could tell there was something special about Dabo as far as being a coach," Stallings said last week when he visited Clemson's practice.
Swinney stuck with Stallings' staff and stayed at Alabama through 2000.
He was selling real estate in early 2003 when Bowden, once his Alabama position coach, called him about a Clemson opening. Swinney has been the Tigers' receivers coach and one of the team's top recruiters - he lured star runner C.J. Spiller out of Florida's backyard - until becoming head coach at Bowden's suggestion to Phillips in October.
Among Swinney's first moves was firing offensive coordinator Rob Spence, almost as big a lightning rod for fans' displeasure as Bowden, and taking over the playcalling.
Swinney started a "Tiger Walk" through the parking lot to the stadium before games so players could feel the support of Clemson's faithful.
He opened practice to students and, sometimes, canceled workouts to take the players to a children's hospital to lift patients' spirits.
Swinney, 39, was folksy and charming, comparing Clemson's problems to a poorly tuned car that just needed a little TLC.
Swinney's biggest move was rediscovering playmakers like quarterback Cullen Harper, receiver Aaron Kelly, and the "Thunder and Lightning" runners of James Davis and Spiller.
Harper was banged up and ineffective in September before getting benched by Bowden right before the change. Swinney put the ball back in the senior's hands, and he responded with seven of his 11 TD passes the last six games.
Kelly, a senior, was much more effective the second half of the year. Davis and Spiller have combined for 10 scores the last six games.
The Tigers needed a finishing flourish to keep playing past November. The win over South Carolina, Clemson's third in a row, got that done. Swinney and the team await their bowl destination, something few figured possible when the interim coach nervously met the media his first night on the job.
The pick is sure to be popular with the players, who had hoped he'd return.
"I feel like he's turned this program around in some great ways and he has a bright future here," safety Michael Hamlin said Saturday.
Copyright (c)2008, Arkansas Business Limited Partnership. All rights reserved
