New OC

[SoonerAlum]

Goldbug,

I won't try to convince you because I don't believe you want to be convinced. I will, however, discuss your points.

Josh's performance as a QB coach has zero bearing on Riley's performance as an OC. I don't think anyone here would deny Heupel's ability as both a Heisman runner up and NC winning QB. But those have nothing to do with the job he did in charge of an offense that, since he took over, showed an inherent ability to get any kind of traction.

A list of wins and losses are useless without any supporting data. Why did they lose the games? Crap defense? Injuries to key players? The HC deciding to repunt? (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) I have no idea why they lost those games. And yet I can cut and paste tens of dozens of posts from game threads and this board where the vast majority of us, watching games with our own eyes, placed many of the 13 losses during Josh's four years as OC squarely at his feet. Add to that the INCREDIBLE drop off at the QB position since Josh started splitting duties...

I see this move as a positive because the last time OU took a risk on a young coach from outside the program, it worked out pretty well. I go back to the statement that a Power 5 OC who is at the top of his game would come to OU for a year, MAYBE two. That would make things worse, not better. How is anyone else better than Riley?

My three cents. If you want Bob gone, great. However, he isn't leaving yet and so I say give change a chance.

 

[SoonerAlum]

I guess I coulda saved myself lots of typing had I refreshed and read OUGuy's post.

 

[Goldbug]

Goldbug,

I won't try to convince you because I don't believe you want to be convinced. I will, however, discuss your points.

Josh's performance as a QB coach has zero bearing on Riley's performance as an OC. I don't think anyone here would deny Heupel's ability as both a Heisman runner up and NC winning QB. But those have nothing to do with the job he did in charge of an offense that, since he took over, showed an inherent ability to get any kind of traction.

A list of wins and losses are useless without any supporting data. Why did they lose the games? Crap defense? Injuries to key players? The HC deciding to repunt? (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) I have no idea why they lost those games. And yet I can cut and paste tens of dozens of posts from game threads and this board where the vast majority of us, watching games with our own eyes, placed many of the 13 losses during Josh's four years as OC squarely at his feet. Add to that the INCREDIBLE drop off at the QB position since Josh started splitting duties...

I see this move as a positive because the last time OU took a risk on a young coach from outside the program, it worked out pretty well. I go back to the statement that a Power 5 OC who is at the top of his game would come to OU for a year, MAYBE two. That would make things worse, not better. How is anyone else better than Riley?

My three cents. If you want Bob gone, great. However, he isn't leaving yet and so I say give change a chance.

I want Bob Stoops to stay at OU and be successful. But to do that he needs to get his mojo back because he's been on a downhill slide for at least 4 years......he didn't have just one bad year this season. I see the situation at OU through the eyes of a businessman. If your top guy won't make the tough decisions and hire the best people to work for him he is never going to maximize the success of the organization. Riley had a mediocre record at ECU against teams with comparable talent. He moved the ball well but so did Heupel most of the time so that isn't enough by itself. We'll see. But I'm skeptical Riley is the right guy when there are undoubtedly better candidates out there and Oklahoma has the money to hire them. Bob Stoops has now made his decision and he'll live or die with it. We all want to be watching OU in the NC game soon......and win it.

 

[Wheat]

Bobby Jack Wright has "retired'"....


Oklahoma football: Cornerbacks coach Bobby Jack Wright retiring from coaching | News OK




NORMAN -- Oklahoma cornerbacks coach Bobby Jack Wright has decided to retire from coaching, sources confirmed Monday evening to The Oklahoman.


An official announcement of Wright's retirement is expected this week. He could move into an administrative role within the OU athletic department, although that is still yet to be determined.
His retirement ends a remarkable coaching career that has spanned five decades.


Wright began his coaching career in the early 1970s at Texas high schools before moving into the college ranks at Texas A&I (now Texas A&M-Kingsville) in 1979. There, he coached future Pro Football Hall of Famer Darrell Green.


In 1983, he moved to North Texas State for three seasons.


Wright came to Texas in 1986 and served under three head coaches while spending time coaching linebackers, the secondary, special teams and wide receivers.


In 1997, Wright was the Longhorns' defensive coordinator.


The Russell Athletic Bowl was Wright's 21st bowl game as a coach.
Wright is one of only two assistant coaches to serve under Bob Stoops during all of his first 16 years in Norman.


The Mission, Texas, native was one of the first hires Stoops made when he took over Oklahoma in 1999, brought aboard to bolster the Sooners' recruiting in the state of Texas.


Wright did that throughout his time at Oklahoma and expanded his reach far beyond Texas.
In recent years, Wright helped bring Tony Jefferson and Aaron Colvin to the Sooners.
Wright discovered defensive end Charles Tapper at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl combine in San Antonio when Tapper was a raw, inexperienced football player. Tapper was a first-team All-Big 12 defensive end as a sophomore.


For his first five seasons at OU, Wright served as the recruiting coordinator and defensive ends coach. In 2005, Wright was named the assistant head coach, assistant defensive coordinator and continued to coach defensive ends.


From 2011-12, Wright added special teams coordinator to his duties in addition to coaching the defensive ends.


In 2013, he switched to coaching cornerbacks when Jerry Montgomery came aboard to coach defensive linemen and Jay Boulware took over special teams.

 

[SoonerAlum]

He moved the ball well but so did Heupel most of the time so that isn't enough by itself.

Part of the problem, though, was Heupel's inability to move the ball with anything other than Perine. How many 3&outs did we see this year? Way too many.

Everything I've read about Riley from inside and outside of Oklahoma is that the kid is hungry and good. Promoted to OC at 27, he's got something going on. And while ECU may have been average, ECU's offense set school and conference records for the last five years since Riley took over.

Now we need, and I mean desperately need, a receivers coach and a cornerbacks coach. Bobby Jack will be missed but...I've missed having good corners.

 

[td2play]

I'm gonna say that anything and I mean anything is better than what Josh Heupel put on the field for a game plan. And if we can find someone that can make adjustments during the game that will be an added bonus. I worry that Bob had resigned himself to the thinking that sometimes you just have to outscore folks in this league. Granted the offenses have come a long way and sometimes you do have to score 30+ to win but defensive issues need to be addressed and getting rid of Bobby Jack I don't think is the answer. I know he retired or was forced to retire but we have had some very good defensive backs under him. Maybe if the offense doesn't go 3 and out against all these high powered offensive teams the defense will have a chance to rest and make some plays. I think the best formula for success at OU is the Pro-Set offense. Heavy run and play action. Give the defense a chance to rest and wear out the opponents defense. Get a QB that can go under center and make a 3 step or 5 step drop. Not all these throw it from the spread formation guys. We also need big tall wideouts that can make a contested caught. I loved Broyles and Shep too but these guys are just way too small. We need a Dez Bryant type WR to take some of the pressure off the QB and the other WR's. I like the group we recruited last season. I hope they stay now that the OC's have gone. I think we could have kept both of these guys on in a different capacity and been better for it. Josh as QB coach and Norvell as some kind of recruiting capacity. Is there a limit to how many you can have on staff? I don't believe Norvell got a fair shake in all of this. The WR's were bad but how many times did Knight sling it over their head? I think based on recruiting there is some talent in the WR group at OU. Maybe we can start to get something out of them with a more accurate passer. My money is on Mayfield to be the guy next season with Knight backing him up. Cody looked like a scared rabbitt out there in the games he started this season. Oh well enough of this rant. Boomer Sooner!

 

[Goldbug]

I'm gonna say that anything and I mean anything is better than what Josh Heupel put on the field for a game plan. And if we can find someone that can make adjustments during the game that will be an added bonus. I worry that Bob had resigned himself to the thinking that sometimes you just have to outscore folks in this league. Granted the offenses have come a long way and sometimes you do have to score 30+ to win but defensive issues need to be addressed and getting rid of Bobby Jack I don't think is the answer. I know he retired or was forced to retire but we have had some very good defensive backs under him. Maybe if the offense doesn't go 3 and out against all these high powered offensive teams the defense will have a chance to rest and make some plays. I think the best formula for success at OU is the Pro-Set offense. Heavy run and play action. Give the defense a chance to rest and wear out the opponents defense. Get a QB that can go under center and make a 3 step or 5 step drop. Not all these throw it from the spread formation guys. We also need big tall wideouts that can make a contested caught. I loved Broyles and Shep too but these guys are just way too small. We need a Dez Bryant type WR to take some of the pressure off the QB and the other WR's. I like the group we recruited last season. I hope they stay now that the OC's have gone. I think we could have kept both of these guys on in a different capacity and been better for it. Josh as QB coach and Norvell as some kind of recruiting capacity. Is there a limit to how many you can have on staff? I don't believe Norvell got a fair shake in all of this. The WR's were bad but how many times did Knight sling it over their head? I think based on recruiting there is some talent in the WR group at OU. Maybe we can start to get something out of them with a more accurate passer. My money is on Mayfield to be the guy next season with Knight backing him up. Cody looked like a scared rabbitt out there in the games he started this season. Oh well enough of this rant. Boomer Sooner!

Trevor Knight is history as OU's QB unless disaster strikes and we absolutely have to use him. He's fragile, a sorry passer and he has not improved after running hundreds of plays. If he can beat out Baker Mayfield we are in serious trouble. The receivers are thin. And you're right; we need bigger and tougher receivers but they aren't coming to OU right now for some reason. The defensive backfield has had kids with talent but they seem to be dumb as rocks and don't improve with experience. Maybe that's some of the risk we take recruiting pure talent but I think a majority of the fault is on poor coaching. Heupel didn't make in-game adjustments and I agree that is the biggest reason he's standing in the unemployment line. Norvell didn't recruit what we need and the players he did recruit seemed to be under performing. That put his head on the chopping block. However, firing Heupel and Norvell won't fix the team's hardest problem to solve: we've got a defense that is about as tough as wet Kleenex. Mike Stoops is a sorry DC and until he's gone we'll continue to give up a lot of points. Blaming our defensive problems on too many 3 and outs by our offense is not really the whole truth. What if we had been scoring points quickly and the D was constantly on the field for that reason? No. There were simply too many 3rd down conversions given up by the D, long plays given up when we were out of position and poor tackling. Those were the biggest reasons the D stunk it up....again.

 

[td2play]

I know the defense is a problem but when the offense at least moved the ball they played better. I'm willing to give Mike one more season because I was one of those calling for his return and Venables head. I still think he can coach an aggressive defense. A lot of the problems we have on defense come from not being aggressive.

 

[outofyourmind]

Trevor Knight is history as OU's QB unless disaster strikes and we absolutely have to use him. He's fragile, a sorry passer and he has not improved after running hundreds of plays. If he can beat out Baker Mayfield we are in serious trouble. The receivers are thin. And you're right; we need bigger and tougher receivers but they aren't coming to OU right now for some reason. The defensive backfield has had kids with talent but they seem to be dumb as rocks and don't improve with experience. Maybe that's some of the risk we take recruiting pure talent but I think a majority of the fault is on poor coaching. Heupel didn't make in-game adjustments and I agree that is the biggest reason he's standing in the unemployment line. Norvell didn't recruit what we need and the players he did recruit seemed to be under performing. That put his head on the chopping block. However, firing Heupel and Norvell won't fix the team's hardest problem to solve: we've got a defense that is about as tough as wet Kleenex. Mike Stoops is a sorry DC and until he's gone we'll continue to give up a lot of points. Blaming our defensive problems on too many 3 and outs by our offense is not really the whole truth. What if we had been scoring points quickly and the D was constantly on the field for that reason? No. There were simply too many 3rd down conversions given up by the D, long plays given up when we were out of position and poor tackling. Those were the biggest reasons the D stunk it up....again.

Our Defense is terrible. The defensive line gets little push and almost never gets to a QB, the linebackers are out of position or chasing down receivers, the secondary never looks back for the ball and plays off receivers way too far. They just have bad fundamentals. The first few games looked like they were hitting and tackling great, then PooF, gone, whifs, missed tackles, arm tackles, crap. This was Mikes 3rd year back, but really 2 years of his recruiting classes, so I guess we'll see what happens next year. I'm with Goldbug though and think that Mike isn't the same DC he once was.

 

[td2play]

The more I read about this guy the less I like our chances. I don't want to be Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, or Oregon. All of these teams need to throw to make a 3rd and anything more than 1. I don't want to go back to being a finesse team. The one thing that was right about this offense was it's ability to line up and smash people in the mouth with big backs and o-line. Seems to me this hire is going back to the Leech days of throwing it 70 times a game. See how that worked for Oregon in the NCG! QB talent will be upgraded with Mayfield who should know the system already. But this hire feels like a step back to me. Maybe Riley will suprise me and tailor his offense to the talent he has and not the other way around.

 

[outofyourmind]

I wonder if he will run the system he wants to run or will he run the system that Bob tells him to run.
Hmmmm.

 

[romeo212000]

The more I read about this guy the less I like our chances. I don't want to be Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, or Oregon. All of these teams need to throw to make a 3rd and anything more than 1. I don't want to go back to being a finesse team. The one thing that was right about this offense was it's ability to line up and smash people in the mouth with big backs and o-line. Seems to me this hire is going back to the Leech days of throwing it 70 times a game. See how that worked for Oregon in the NCG! QB talent will be upgraded with Mayfield who should know the system already. But this hire feels like a step back to me. Maybe Riley will suprise me and tailor his offense to the talent he has and not the other way around.

Riley has had multiple 1,000 yard rushers as OC. He'll use the tools he has, and our RB's are our best weapons.

 

[romeo212000]

I wonder if he will run the system he wants to run or will he run the system that Bob tells him to run.
Hmmmm.

Bob said he wanted to hire someone who would run their system. I assume he wanted to hire someone he felt comfortable turning the entire offense over to so he could direct his attention towards the defense.

 

[outofyourmind]

Bob said he wanted to hire someone who would run their system. I assume he wanted to hire someone he felt comfortable turning the entire offense over to so he could direct his attention towards the Golf Course.

I was afraid of that.

 

[romeo212000]

I was afraid of that.

I'm betting he's been given a similar implication to the one Switzer got once upon a time. I doubt he's thinking about the golf course much.

 

[Goldbug]

We're paying the DC $850,000. If Bob needs to help him do his job it proves the point I've been trying to make for 2 years. Mike sucks. And if he needs to spend his time helping his new hotshot OC do his job that's a waste too. Bob needs to get off his fat, entitled ass and RECRUIT. Our talent level is down and that's a direct reflection of Stoops. If he can't go into a recruit's living room and convince the kid (plus his parents) to come to OU then what the hell do we want him for? Wilkinson did it. John Blake did it. Barry Switzer did it. Bob's stopped doing it. Stick with recruiting, Bob, and let your coordinators sink or swim on their own. Problem is your brother is already sinking like a rock.

 

[outofyourmind]

We're paying the DC $850,000. If Bob needs to help him do his job it proves the point I've been trying to make for 2 years. Mike sucks. And if he needs to spend his time helping his new hotshot OC do his job that's a waste too. Bob needs to get off his fat, entitled ass and RECRUIT. Our talent level is down and that's a direct reflection of Stoops. If he can't go into a recruit's living room and convince the kid (plus his parents) to come to OU then what the hell do we want him for? Wilkinson did it. John Blake did it. Barry Switzer did it. Bob's stopped doing it. Stick with recruiting, Bob, and let your coordinators sink or swim on their own. Problem is your brother is already sinking like a rock.