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TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL

December 31, 2007

Bob Stoops

GLENDALE, ARIZONA

Q. Just a question about the spread offense. You see it so much in college football and the variations of that. How much do you think that has created the parity in the game today?
COACH STOOPS: How it has created what?

Q. Some of the parity you see in the games today and some of the upsets.
COACH STOOPS: I don't know that it is because of the spread offense. I think it is more because of the skill of the players. I think there is parity regardless of what offense people are running, so I don't -- at least I don't look at it that way, that the spread offense has anything to do with it as much as quality players that are around the league.

Q. Does that offense make it easier for smaller schools to improve because they don't have the size? Isn't speed more important? Is it easier to recruit more of it?
COACH STOOPS: I don't know. I think there are more players overall to go around anymore. I kind of equate it to maybe the 20 scholarships we want to give this year, you know, and maybe six, seven, eight years ago there might have been a pool of 50 that we felt there were the ones we wanted. And now there is a pool of 80. I think there are more guys that go around to everybody.

Q. Talk about your seniors, what this class has met, what they have accomplished at Oklahoma.
COACH STOOPS: Well, it has been a great group. This group of seniors has been a good number of -- they have won championships for us and a good number of Bowl games. It is a great group. They are a strong-character group of kids, our seniors and really a special group.
I think they have done an outstanding job leading this year and a very unselfish group of players that have really been a great example for our young guys to watch.

Q. Coach, good memories or bad memories coming in here today?
COACH STOOPS: It is exciting. I'm not much -- doesn't bother me walking in here again. We played a heck of a game last year, and we're excited to be back here again with another opportunity. So we look forward to the challenge and coming in here is exciting.

Q. When you look at the matchups of this game, what jumps out at you?
COACH STOOPS: Always, I guess -- what always jumps out at me is defense. I think they've played really good defense through the season. We have, as well. And I think we have been in these Bowl games, able to run great defenses is a major factor in these games.

Q. What is the DeMarcus Granger status?
COACH STOOPS: He was sent home yesterday. He will not play. And we'll deal with his situation when we get back. If there is anything further, we'll see.

Q. Disciplinary?
COACH STOOPS: Yeah.

Q. How does that impact you? Talk about the run defense.
COACH STOOPS: We go with the other guys, Gerald McCoy, Cory Bennett, all those guys have been solid. Adrian Taylor will get more snaps. All those guys have played through the season for us, so it doesn't change anything we're doing.

Q. You have three starters out of the game.
COACH STOOPS: Darien Williams is a starter. He started the whole season last year. Really, it is kind of like we're without two.
But DeMarcus Granger, those guys play as many snaps as he does, as well. So maybe count him as a half. We're down one-and-a-half, I'll give you.

Q. Players have said you keep reminding them of the three straight BCS losses. Is that a motivating factor?
COACH STOOPS: That's because the T.V. keeps reminding me of it, so ...
We've won our share of games, too. In the end, I don't think -- I don't think one year relates to the other. I don't see it. We're always a different team, different players, you know, different team we're playing against. The circumstances are always different. You win each one on its own.

Q. Coach, speaking of relating, can you relate to West Virginia's team, what they might be going through without a coach?
COACH STOOPS: I can't relate to that. I don't know how to -- you know, what to tell you there. I'm sure it's different. They would have to talk to you about that. I'm not experienced in that.

Q. Can you talk about how there is a bigger pool of players now, some more players?
COACH STOOPS: I think there is more and more players that develop at the high school level. The high school coaches do a great job. I think there is more and more attention to developing players physically at a younger age in high schools.
They're just training, I think, so much better, whether it is developing speed and strength and size. So I just think maybe the overall level of the way the players are being developed at a younger age is giving us a bigger pool of players to work with.

Q. Talk about West Virginia, the challenges there, and what you're most concerned about going into this game.
COACH STOOPS: They're just offensively great-skilled players, really, defensively, as well. You see the guys, you know, just the skill, the speed, their execution. They just do an excellent job executing and making people miss them and creating big plays offensively.
And then defensively, very disciplined in how they play, they have been very sound in how they play. Just structurally a very good football team.

Q. You have been here for a week. You hear the same questions over and over again from us guys. Just want to get the kick-off right now? Do you just want to kick the game off because you answer the same questions over and over?
COACH STOOPS: It's okay. That's part of it. You're always anxious to play. We're getting there. We will have another good day of practice here today and we will be ready to play.

Q. Bob, if the signing day were pushed back to, say, March, do you think that would push back the job change much and coaches would coach through the Bowl games?
COACH STOOPS: You think it might help that way. I don't know. It seems to me when people want to make a change, they do it rather quickly and that starts everything rolling.
You know, once somebody lets go of a coach, you know, it is a race to get -- to hire their coach. I don't know. I don't know if it would change anything even if you moved recruiting back.

Q. Does it bother you the way things -- the Bowl games seem to be somewhat cheapened by that?
COACH STOOPS: It does change things. Does it bother me? I don't know that it matters, if it bothers me or not.
In the end, I don't know if you can put timetables on what -- trying to do with their lives, what people are trying to hire people. It is just difficult. I don't know what the answer would be to change that. You know, the Bowls do -- there are quite a few changes, though, that affect teams in Bowl games.
I don't know if there is a right answer. I don't know that it's ever -- when you're changing jobs, I don't know if there's -- timing is ever very good for it.

Q. Bob, do you have any players on your team from Arizona?
COACH STOOPS: Matt Clapp and Mike Knall.

Q. What number?
COACH STOOPS: Matt Clapp -- Mike Knall is 13. Matt Clapp I want to say is 34. I don't see him playing a lot this year because he is being red-shirted.

Q. What are some of the things you are most concerned about?
COACH STOOPS: We've got to play great run defense. They run the footballs effectively and as well as anybody we've played. Got to tackle well, tackle well in space, be disciplined in how we adjust and align ourselves and read their schemes.
And offensively, being able to, you know -- to be balanced, to be effective running and throwing, take care of the football and protect the quarterback. And then hopefully special teams creates some field position.

Q. Being from Youngstown, did you have any connection with West Virginia?
COACH STOOPS: No, I really never did. Being so close to West Virginia, there in Youngstown, I never did have any association at all with them.

Q. Bob, I realize that you say that one year is not like any other. But at the same time, your kids seem to have this craw in their throat about what happened here last year and seem determined to do something about that. Is that a good thing, that they're remembering that from that aspect?
COACH STOOPS: Sure. You always want to improve on what you've done and those memories do sour you to a certain degree and you want to change them.

Q. Do you have any of that?
COACH STOOPS: To some degree, but, again, to me it is a whole new situation and opportunity because, again, different teams.

Q. How concerned are you, Bob, about them throwing the change-ups with the coaching change and might try to work in a few more wrinkles? Sometimes it happen in Bowl games, but is it a bigger concern with Rodriguez leaving and Bill Stewart taking over?
COACH STOOPS: To some degree. The fundamental parts of their offense won't change. Obviously, the play call being a little different may choose some other ways to go.
But you've got to be able to adapt to that. Everybody in Bowl games, obviously looking at last year's game have different wrinkles, as do we.

End of FastScripts

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