Norman is back to normal, thanks to Stoops' magic

Sporting News, The, Nov 6, 2000 by Matt Hayes

It's deep in the night in Norman, Okla., thunderstorms are dumping buckets of rain, and cars crawl up and down Boyd Street on the campus of the University of Oklahoma.

A radio station is replaying the Oklahoma-Nebraska game. Again. A few blocks away, fans are dragging a piece of the goal post down fraternity row, and car horns blare in chorus.

Somewhere in this town Barry Switzer is smiling, and the words "Sooner Magic" have rolled off his lips for about the umpteenth time.

"It's that feeling," Switzer said last week. "They've found it again."

It has been more than a decade since anyone associated with the Oklahoma program could utter those sentiments. That it's Switzer, the legendary former coach and king of all that is OU and crimson and cream, saying so, gives it more meaning.

Sooners 2000 looks nothing like your father's wishbone machine but still has all those familiar trimmings: a big victory over Nebraska and oranges pelting Owen Field at the end of the game.

Standing in the middle of it all is Bob Stoops, a 40-year-old coach who has Oklahoma on the cusp of greatness again, not even two years after inheriting a program in complete disarray. The Sooners' 31-14 whipping of then-No. 1 Nebraska last weekend and their subsequent rise to No. 1 in the polls has completed one of the most remarkable and improbable reclamations in recent memory.

And even that may be understating things.

"We went from zero to hero quickly," OU senior defensive tackle Jeremy Wilson-Guest says. "I'm not sure we all know what it means."

It's hard to blame them if they I didn't. Since Switzer was run out of town in 1988 amid NCAA sanctions and player brushes with the law, Oklahoma had been twisting in the dust bowl winds. Three coaches and three different styles contributed to lean years and empty seats around Owen Field.

More than anything, it created and festered a loss of perspective and appreciation for the history and tradition of one of the most storied programs in college football. Oklahoma has won six national championships, 35 conference championships and 20 bowl games.

Each of those numbers may increase by one at the end of this season.

"I thought it would be this good someday," offensive coordinator Mark Mangino says. "I didn't realize it would be this quick."

Anyone who knows Stoops knows why. The day he was hired, he asked that the news conference be held outside in the middle of campus--in freezing weather with his new team surrounding him--so administrators, boosters and fans could all see the personnel that would turn around the fragile fortunes of OU. He took the first defining step before ever walking onto the field.

"This is a school that has played in 16 Orange Bowls and won 12," Stoops says. "You don't hide from that."

While others before him desperately tried to distance themselves from the tradition, pressure and expectations of the glory years, Stoops embraced it all from Day 1. He has brought back players and coaches from the past to speak to the team and be part of the rebirth. Last week, he showed video of past Oklahoma-Nebraska games to give his players a sense of history for the rivalry. Earlier this year, The Boz spoke to the team before the Rice game.

"It was unbelievable," linebacker Rocky Calmus says. "There's Brian Bosworth, a guy I idolized as a kid, talking to us. You can't imagine what that does."

Maybe that's why Switzer felt so at home last week, when he strolled around the practice fields for the first time since he left Norman. "I didn't come to this place for 13 years," says Switzer, who had a 157-29-4 record and three national titles from 1973-88. "I was never asked."

In the years before Stoops' arrival, the OU administration longed for the old days but had no idea how to get them back. Before Stoops, OU wallowed through three different coaches, each tearing holes and leaving scars in Sooner Magic. It began with former player and defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs, who won the prize of following Switzer. He was 2-10 against Texas and Nebraska and was forced to resign after the 1994 season.

Then there was the bizarre experience of Howard Schnellenberger. The failed one-year stint included an antagonistic relationship with his players, several of whom actually dissuaded recruits from coming to Norman.

Finally, there were the disastrous John Blake years. OU's three-year record of 12-22 under Blake was the worst three-year period in school history. Just how bad was the comedy of errors? The Board of Regents vote on his firing was shown on live television throughout the state on a Sunday night during the November ratings period. New athletic director Joe Castiglione fired Blake, then immediately went after Stoops.

"He was it," Castiglione says. "There was no question."

The three who came before Stoops all had one common flaw: Their offenses--wishbone or not--never made an impact. In fact, at one point, Blake i changed offenses in midseason and reverted to the wishbone. Gibbs went through three offensive coordinators in six seasons, and there are still doubts that Schnellenberger was even interested in the offense.