Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star took aim at Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops after several of his decisions in the national championship game cost the Sooners a chance to beat Florida:
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.
I don’t think any coach should be criticized for being aggressive. If you’re Oklahoma and you’re scoring 60-plus points a game, you stay aggressive. But what’s the harm in calling a time out and talking about what you’re going to do? The momentum from play to play had just shifted to Florida after the stop on the third down, so when Stoops and his coaching staff decided to essentially run the same play on fourth, he sent Chris Brown right into the meat grinder.
Oklahoma wasn’t going to fool anybody by lining up quick and running the same play. Stoops should have called a time out and first decided whether or not he wanted three or six points. If he wanted the six, he should have come up with a better call than the exact same play he ran the down before. It was a major gaff in a major situation. Did it cost the Sooners the win? Yeah, maybe.
