re: How has Oklahoma been so good?

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Only have to play one or two decent teams a year

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didn't you guys lose to the worst big XII team this year?

My point is infinite money isn’t a perfect corollary to success in lockstep.

Nobody, no matter how much money they have, will outbid for high school talent by a multiple of 3 or 4. They won’t because recruits are unknown quantities, many are busts, and that’s a big risk to take. So if you have a ceiling to what someone will pay, and the ceiling is say 2x, I would believe that a lot of smart talent will not just jump at the highest bidder but take a holistic view on getting the best combo of pay, development, and exposure.

Ahh yes, I almost forgot the ol' "Texas didn't offer" bullshite.

OU recruits great in Texas, especially in the DFW metroplex which is closer to Norman than Austin or College Station.


DFW is full of Oklahoma alumni. Also they recruit well nationally because they have had sustained success in every decade. It is a brand known as winners, much moreso than their arch-rival Texas, who goes through periods of ebbs and flows.

Every young generation has grown up watching flashy successful OU teams, though I think it may finally be fading.

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The only knock on them is that they just haven't won a title in a very long time.

They have accomplished everything else.

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About this exactly ...

My take is that they're good every year almost in the way that Bama was good 2018-2019 and to some degree 2021-2022, very good to insane QB play that allowed them to demolish shitty and even at times above average teams but because lacking defense, they got beat or very seriously challenged when playing against teams with an elite defense.

Oklahoma's defense hasn't been great in a while. They focus on offense. Nobody during that time in the Big 12 focused on defense really. These type of offenses are great at getting everyone excited. The talking heads piss themselves talking about how great they are are until they get destroyed by better overall teams in the playoffs. It's not rocket science.

It's not that hard. Their administration has always been aligned with the program and they are historically very good at identifying and hiring excellent coaches.

I’m not gonna watch it, what did he say?

We know pretty much all of the players turned on Kyler in the end

I think it’s simple when comparing Texas to OU…Oklahoma has had more stability within the coaching ranks.

OU has had Wilkinson, Switzer, Stoops, and Riley dominating the scene with a few other names sprinkled in.

Texas has had Royal and Mack with the ups and downs of guys like Akers, Mackovic, etc sprinkled in. Mack is/was a damn good coach, but snakebit against OU.

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Nobody during that time in the Big 12 focused on defense really.

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I think teams tried to focus on defense. It just became hard to do so as time went on. Big 12 actually had at least some good to great defenses in the late '90s and early '00s.

I think there were several factors at play.

1. The Big 12 was the first major conference to switch in a large part to spread type offenses which pretty much everyone is running today. These offenses put a lot of pressure on defense as can be seen by increasing scores even among games like Bama vs Georgia. This inadvertently gave the Big 12 a negative reputation with respect to defense and those perceptions can be self fulfilling prophecies.

2. Big 12 officials have always been far more strict when it comes to pass defense. That meant defenses were routinely saddled with penalties on plays that would not be a penalty in the SEC. The conspiracy mind in me believes that this was intentional as the power of the conference started seeing that offense would be their niche. If you were a good defensive back, why would you want to play in the Big 12? OU fans remember Parnell Motley who was pretty damned good but routinely flagged for being physical. So, again, this becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

3. The rise of the SEC in the 2000's as the dominant conference made it even harder to recruit defensive talent to the Big 12. A&M moving to the SEC didn't help either. If a great defensive player wanted to stay in state, he would most likely choose A&M.

Make no mistake, coaches wanted great defense. I mean, Riley is a failure when it comes to producing good or even decent defenses but it isn't like the conference coaches wanted their defenses to decline. It is just that the factors listed above made it increasingly difficult to achieve.

OU has traditionally had great defenses. The last 15 years were mostly an anamoly.

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- Barry Switzer, because he was a pioneer in attracting black players into the program.

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This is a big one right here. It seems so long ago now, but it was a huge thing back then. The families of those players have not forgotten.

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Andrew's father played for the Oilers and got his Law degree at Texas. Texas never offered, so we don't know. Mack recruited RGIII as a DB.

It will always be DKR - Texas Memorial Stadium.

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Good points not to mention his dad was up for the AD job when they hired that idiot from ASU.
I remember reading somewhere andrew was all in on stanford but considering mattress mack didn't recruit him you are right. We'll never know.

My comment about the stadium name was mostly in jest...just to point out how important vince was that he could overcome mack's lack of spine and win.