OUInsider - Owen Field

It's been that way for the last 13 years, and it will not change. I think it hurts player development, but that is the way Stoops does it.

excuse me, but Bob himself said a few years back; he does it to reward the starters. citing his own playing days, that its a reward for earning the starting role...........doubt all you want, but he said it himself, check with James

Bob is good. But he is an idiot to play his starters late. It is his biggest flaw.

I think it hurts the development of the players and lowers the moral of the team as players would like to get the opportunity to play a little during blow outs.

It's one thing to talk about it.

A statement of disagreement will get little unhappy response most of the time.

It's when someone outside the program starts calling Bob or Brent an idiot, or starts calling for their head, or states their objection as a matter of obvious fact (when it's really not obvious) rather than just their opinion, that get a lot of us irritated.

Bob remembers games like the BYU, SMU Holiday Bowl when BYU was down 20 with under four minutes left and came back to beat the Dickerson James Mustangs on the final play.

Or when Maryland, I think, was down 30 late in the third or early fourth in an ACC game a while ago, and came back to win a conference game.

Anonymous message board posters can afford to be arrogant about what might happen.

And I don't think Bob's quote about starting time being earned was applied to who gets time at the end of blowouts.

I've seen Bob criticized this year for not going to his bench earlier in the Texas game for not letting his backup ends play sooner. The problem with that is that the back up ends were in the regular rotation all day. And for all the complaining about starters getting hurt with three minutes left in regulation, injury is more likely when players are on the field who really haven't been prepared in the game plan. The guy next to them might get blind sided by a blocker who was supposed to be occupied. Or a db run over by a big back who should have been handled by a lineman.

Playing time is earned and on defense when everybody is healthy, we're already playing close to 20 guys regularly on defense. And a few more on special teams.

If any coach in America has earned the right to play the rotation as he sees fit, it's BStoops. And calling him an idiot is not a smart thing to do, for a lot of reasons.

Player development is important and can be accomplished during the extra practices between the regular season and bowl game. Even though most coaches will have you believe they do not listen to the media or pay attention to the voters do not believe that for a second, we win comfortably against an ISU team that beat then number 2 OSWho and drop in the BCS ( lost votes in the human poles ) and it was not by a big enough of a margin ( Vegas line -28 ) and most of the voters do not watch the games, they pick up the paper, see the scores and read a paragraph of the headlines and then vote. OU is expected to win and win big most every game by the media and fans and when you do not you drop in the poles. I would be willing to bet if we had beat TTECH and BU by 1 or three points BAMA would still be ahead of us in the BCS. Remember this, BAMA passed us in the BCS before we even lost a game! Style points are the reason you do not play second and third teamers.

I get what you are saying but who are you going to put out there? We have starters that are still learning and need the snaps! Why are we talking about this, we have not blown anybody out in quite a while! You all must be talking about the A&M game 77-0, yeah we should have made whole sale substitutions and won more like 56-28! I have been watching the games and know Bob to play freshmen and who ever else is ready to play so evidently nobody else is stepping up enough.

Perhaps but I would suspect a head coach could institute a broad policy that starters play most of the game without micro managing the position coaches.

In the early part of the year, it's important, even for the experienced guys, to get reps with the players they line up next to. New stuff has been installed. The way the new guy next to you reacts to certain things is different than a different player did.

Late in the season, it's a different dynamic. But for example when we lost both Broyles and Reynolds, then getting live action reps are invaluable for new players playing new positions. How Stills makes a certain break out of a cut on a route from the slot is different than the way Broyles did it. Those game reps are different from practice reps. Heading into Bedlam, having those guys get as comfortable as possible with that, with whoever filled Stills spot outside getting reps, same thing.

On defense, you have Nelson playing end for the first time. He's learning every snap. So is the guy next to him.

In addition, anything less than 25 points isn't certain until about four minutes is left. Some may disagree and you're entitled to that disagreement. BUt it as enormously arrogant to call Stoops stupid over issues that he is incredibly more aware of details that you can't even have explained to you, much less understand.

Saying that Bob made a mistake in your opinion is one thing. Others in this thread have called him stupid. THAT is stupid.

Player reps on Thanksgiving weekend are less valuable than rest in most cases, but a 20 point game is not a blowout until later than most of you apparently think. You have the luxury of not worrying about strange scenarios that can lead to that disappearing over a quick defensive score or a two play touchdown drive by the other guys.

And onsides kicks happen. We led Oregon by 13 with a minute left and lost.

Too many want to just rag on OUr staff because they expect us to be in th emiddle of not only a 140 game win streak, but to have covered 138 of those. And Bob hasn't delivered that.

And neither has anybody else.

That is a classic story. It is ever better if true rather than lore (and this is not to suggest you or anyone else is lying). Either way, I like that story.

My intent with starting this post was to try to learn reasons why one would follow the practice he does. And there have been a number of plausible reasons given.

I don't find it helpful or interesting to disparage coaches or those who post on this board.

My first post was my opinion towards your question and you will not find me beefin on Bob or the players. I am thankful we have the coach we have.