FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: SOUTHERN CAROLINA v OKLAHOMA

January 3, 2005

Bob Stoops

COACH BOB STOOPS: Well, just feel great again just the way the week has gone. I've really liked the timing of everything. Again, the Orange Bowl Committee and everybody here have just been fabulous, and our accommodations at Barry University have been great, wrapped up our third straight practice yesterday there, and all that's left to do is some meetings and some walk-throughs today, so I really like the position we're in, the way we've prepared, and I'm excited for tomorrow. It can't get here soon enough.

COACH BOB STOOPS: They remind me of Adrian Peterson and Reggie Bush. They're great players. I don't know who to compare them to. I'm not much on that. They're their own people. They've got their own style, and they're both very effective and very good.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Oh, they're definitely one of them. They're a strong group, very good players, very active, so it's a big challenge. It's a big part of the game. Our offensive line guys take a lot of pride. I like the fact that we come in with great experience there and great ability there, so that's going to be a big match-up.

COACH BOB STOOPS: I was going to say, to who (laughter)?

COACH BOB STOOPS: Nick has a lot of experience in the NFL, and you'd have to ask him. You know, it is for some, it isn't for others. I think it's fair to say that there are a good number of college jobs that are every bit as good as professional jobs, and so for some guys I think it's more the challenge of it and working with players at that level and at that age that they're all at and what they've accomplished and the skill of that level and the challenge of it. Coaching-wise, as well, building a team. I think as much as anything, it probably has to do with challenges, those that are intrigued by it.

COACH BOB STOOPS: I think overall we come in in a more -- definitely a more positive -- we haven't had to answer questions the entire week on why we're here, so overall, you know, whether we come in more confident or not, we were confident a year ago, you know, so how much different -- we haven't had to answer the same questions. Other than that, we've prepared well and they're coming in excited and ready to play.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Maybe. I think it really helps us in the routine of the week and the way we approach the entire week and prepare and get ready. So in the end whether it helps you or not, you still have to go play and earn it this week. SC has been in a lot of big games, as well. But we do feel comfortable in this situation and in the environment the entire week and know what to expect as we go through it and get ready to play.

COACH BOB STOOPS: It's really about routine. You know, we'll go -- our meetings, our walk-through, just pace ourselves through. Same with tomorrow, we have a routine for game day, for night games that we have that we use through the year, and we'll stick to that. Our players have been in some big games, and they understand you can get too wound up too early, to pace yourself and have it ready at the right time.

COACH BOB STOOPS: You know, we've been in some tight circumstances in a few games and fought our way through them, so I like the fact that we have. I think overall when you go through 12 games to have that experience coming into these type of games can help you possibly, just that you've been there, hang in there, keep playing, something good is going to happen, when that's happened before that way. In the end if those circumstances come, we'll handle them the right way and keep playing.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Sure, but I believe everybody else in those Bowls has worked them hard, too. We're all fully aware of that, coaches. We work the kicking game hard going into every game. We've had some extra time and we have worked it and worked it hard, in meetings and on the field, so hopefully when you get out there you can execute and make plays that you're supposed to make in your kicking game, and we're prepared to do that.

COACH BOB STOOPS: I did, and I just couldn't resist a touchdown (laughter). We were going for an interception just a few plays later, so that was kind of bad how we handled that, but in the end I just felt it was so wide open that why not score and really finish this instead of giving them an opportunity to come back. It's easy to say after the fact, well, you knew you were going to win. You know, you don't know. It's the second quarter. We want to get this thing finished. Again, it would have been a whole lot different. I see him kick every day, and you just trust your technique and trust your swing and have at it.

COACH BOB STOOPS: I think it did. It made those games closer than they needed to be. When you mishandle a punt on the 10 yard line and jump offsides the very next play and give them the ball on the 5 yard line and then we drop a punt right in our hands and give them a touchdown, that's hard to overcome on the road. Then you have a couple of fakes on you that you'd like to think you can handle and you don't. You know, in those games, those special teams plays made a big difference in the scores in making those games as tight as they were.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Well, there's a number. A lot of our structure in our game, our practice and game management and the way we do things comes from there. More than that, philosophically, a couple of things to really enjoy, the competition of it, and to not allow -- the real one that sticks to me is to make decisions in games based on what I feel we need to do to win, not by what the media or the book says you need to do. A lot of times you can maybe punt the ball because that's what the book says you need to do and that's what the media is not going to get on you if you did it, but if you go for it in a certain situation and you feel you need to just to win the game, that I need to do this to win, and if it doesn't work, be willing to be criticized because you did what -- in the end you don't ever have to sit the next day and sit there and say I wished I'd have done this but I didn't do it because I was afraid of what the backlash might be if it didn't work. You always coach very aggressively. I can remember we were playing Tennessee, I think it was '96 at Tennessee, to build up Peyton Manning, Danny Wuerffel, all of that, and of course the first series of the games he wants the return, and we've got a 4th and 10 somewhere in there mid-field, and he doesn't even think about it. He's not calling time out and he sends the guys in and throws a touchdown that very snap. You've got to be aggressive that way. So those are a few things.

COACH BOB STOOPS: There's a lot to that. You don't have to be Superman, you don't have to make more of it than it is. We've been in these situations. I think our guys understand that. I do remind them of that. We need to be -- play like we're capable of and play smart and play together, and if we do, we have what it takes to have an opportunity to win.

COACH BOB STOOPS: You might tell Pete and USC (laughter). I would think, I guess some general factors that are factors in every game that I'm sure Pete would probably say, as well. I think running game is always a factor, whoever is able to do it the best. Turnovers are always going to be a key factor in every game, and then who can make plays, the big plays in the passing game and protect the quarterback are always going to be factors, and again, you throw in kicking game. There's always field position and plays there that matter.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Oh, there's some great ones. You know, I came up at Iowa not just with Hayden Frye and one of the best of all time that I'm close friends are is Dan Gable, the wrestling coach at Iowa for such a long time. Nine straight National Championships, that's hard to do anywhere. I read everything I can on John Wooden, had a chance to personally meet him last spring and loved that opportunity. I love watching what Krzyzewski does at Duke is amazing, just through the years and how he's built that program, and then everyone has talked about -- there's a lot of great college coaches, football coaches that people know of that I respect, as well, but those are some you probably weren't expecting to hear that have great track records.

COACH BOB STOOPS: It's ironic, I as a young person for some reason always grew up young and was infatuated and thought about playing in the Orange Bowl for a National Championship or just playing in the Orange Bowl, and through college had a chance at the Rose and been to a great number and at Florida had been to the Sugar, and the year we're going to the Orange Bowl at Florida, though it wasn't the National Championship, was the year I was hired at Oklahoma. So I was thinking, "Here's my chance to go to the Orange Bowl, and I get the head coaching job." I wasn't complaining, but I was like, well, I missed my chance. I helped a little bit in early practices but then during the game got too busy with recruiting, and then how ironic, though, two years later as the head coach here, we were in the Orange Bowl for the National Championship, and I thought, "Well, it doesn't get much better than that for me." So yes, it's something I always wanted to do. Now we get to do it again.

COACH BOB STOOPS: I would be if they would forego the Big-12 Championship game. In our league, I think what you look at, we count on playing 12 games, and I say that in a humble way, but those are our expectations. When we have that extra game already or we earn our way to it, now you have a chance to be playing 13 every year or whatever would happen. So to me, I would be in favor like if you look at the structure of our conference in the Big 12, if we would jumble -- instead of having divisions, jumble our conference like the Big 10 does, play nine conference games, three non-conference games and choose your champion like the Big 10 and PAC 10 do. I'd be all for it. I would imagine other schools having the extra game would be a positive. But if they're not going to do anything different and just add another game, then I wouldn't be.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Sure. You know, when we arrived -- when I look back on that run we got on in 2000, the fans -- you know, I don't know that anyone expected it to happen like it did, and even as the year began, we were a solid team, but we were still very susceptible, and as the season went we got better and better and stronger and stronger, and I can remember coming back from Texas A & M, coming back from Kansas State, coming back from our road games, all the people that would be there at the bus or at the airport waving us on and cheering us, and we chuckled the other day, we get back from Texas A & M, we come home and there's nobody there. We're supposed to win (laughter). Even when we came back from the Big-12 Championship, thousands of people at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. That's what you're expected to do. I don't complain about that. I like the fact that we're expected to win and expected to win every week. That's what you want because you've got a chance to -- I feel a better chance to reach those kind of levels when you're expected to, and so we embrace it, and that's just the way it is. When you've won a lot, people expect you to do it all the time, and when you do they yawn, and when you have a tight game everybody wants to make an issue of it when it's not easy to do.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Well, it's hard for me to say having not worked with Coach Carroll on that staff. What I've read and seen about him through the media, it seems like there are some similarities in the way we try and approach coaching our players and the way we handle them. Coach Pelini, who's worked with Coach Carroll, he says the same thing, that there are similarities in the way we run our program or the way -- I guess my style and trying to be as positive as you can be in your corrections and the way you coach. Have fun with it and enjoy it and do your best to not allow it to consume you. So it seems like there are some similarities that way.

COACH BOB STOOPS: I don't have many on that to be honest. That's for other people to say and choose whether we are or not. I'm too consumed with pushing forward, pursuing more championships and trying to improve our program to think that way and feel I'm too young to think that way. To me you just continue to -- you push forward and keep building and some day maybe you look back and someone may say that it was or it wasn't, but that's not for me to do. I don't look at it that way. I'm proud of the fact as a program of what we've done and in particular in the last five years that has stood for something for a period of time, and it's one of the better programs that we've established in those five years. We do take pride in that I think as a program that we're doing the right things and we want to continue to build on it and improve on it.

COACH BOB STOOPS: It probably does. They want to play that way, and we ask them to play aggressively, so we want to do the same and help coach them aggressively, as well. I would imagine it does trickle down to them.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Absolutely. You can't ignore their tradition and history, as well, and as a young person growing up in Ohio, how could you not? The great players that were through there and the great records, so definitely. I think playing them does give it an extra kick and more excitement, and I think it does for the whole country, and plus not only our past history, but I think, too, what each of us have done in the last few years.

COACH BOB STOOPS: I don't know that -- yes and no. Yes, I believe it does, although I've felt all along we understand what a difficult and tough league we play in. But to me in these bowl games there aren't a lot of factors that enter into these games, and I don't know that you can always determine who exactly is stronger than the other for a lot of reasons. You know, you go to Cal and you think -- you can say all you want, but in the end the fact that they're not where they want to be enters into their psyche and their ability to play. So there are a lot of reasons that enter into these games, so I'm always careful about that. I don't usually put too much stock in any of that.

COACH BOB STOOPS: I wish he hadn't have told me that. I marvel at his record and the success they had for such a long period of time, and you don't win that much that often for that long and not have done things the right way. I know in the end there are some factors that everybody likes to bring up, but through a long period of time, he had incredible success. To me the biggest accomplishment I look at is they beat Nebraska 12 of 16 years. That's hard to do when Nebraska was a top ten program and the way they were playing and how good they were. I loved his style, the way he coached, and everyone knows that I grew up loving watching Oklahoma, as well. But as far as strategies now and all, I can't say that there's anything that I can draw off right now.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Well, there's one that's not with us anymore that we were walking in when they were walking out. You know, I don't want to bring up a guy's name that's not with us anymore. That's not fair. There are a few players that we each tried to go after, and this year, as well. It's fair to say every year there's going to be some. We have some crossover with most programs in the top ten, wherever. Anyway, we bump into each other here and there.

COACH BOB STOOPS: I'm not going to answer that. I'd have to be honest (laughter). You know, the worst thing, I said this, and the worst part of the BCS, I said it on TV, is it had me sitting at home rooting for Texas the last two weeks of the year. What is that (laughter)? You can't tell me they're always rooting for us. Anyway, what our legacy will be, I don't know. We're going to continue to build the program and hopefully continue to win, and I know beating them the last five years, that does say something. They've been a strong program, but we've been able to win and be in these National Championships and these type of games is a factor. It's a factor in recruiting. Hopefully we can continue to build on it. I believe we can.

COACH BOB STOOPS: Thanks, John.