NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops wants to make it clear: Any Spygate allegations being leveled against TCU aren’t coming from him.
After Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson spoke out that he felt he’d been accused of cheating in a 2005 upset of the Sooners, Stoops tried Tuesday to clear the air.
“I don’t know where that would come from. That doesn’t come from us,” said Stoops, whose second-ranked Sooners face No. 24 TCU on Saturday. “In the end, I can’t help what people speculate or their opinions. I don’t have anything to do with that. But I’m used to that. There’s a lot that’s said about us or me that aren’t accurate or aren’t true.
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Patterson raised the issue of the cheating allegations two weeks ago in his postgame news conference following a 31-14 win against Stanford, but told the Dallas Morning News he wanted to believe that they weren’t coming from Stoops.
Stoops said in August that the Sooners were prohibiting public access to their preseason scrimmages for the first time in his tenure to protect changes they were making on offense and defense, and also because, “I feel in the past that there have been people that have watched our scrimmages that we’ve played early, and I don’t feel that it’s in our best interests to open our gates to them and give them an opportunity to scout us.”
He didn’t name names, but apparently word got to the Horned Frogs. TCU’s 17-10 upset of a then-No. 5 Oklahoma team in 2005 is Stoops’ only loss in 10 season openers with the Sooners, and the decision to close the scrimmages – which in the past had drawn thousands of fans – came prior to the next season the teams were going to play.
The Horned Frogs are also one of only four teams to win a game in September against Stoops. The Sooners outscored their first four opponents 246-47 last season before losing at Colorado.
But Stoops insists that the change was more about protecting offensive secrets.
d practices. I think our no-huddle offense has been pretty obvious,” Stoops said. “We didn’t want to let on how much we were using it, all our terminology at the line of scrimmage, even defensively our terminology going against it.”
In recent years, Oklahoma has gone from having mostly open fall practices to the majority being closed. During a quarterback competition last August, all of the practices were closed but the scrimmages remained open. This year, only two practices were open for fans and reporters.
“I guess everybody can spy or not spy when it’s open, but we’re not open now so that’s not a deal,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said.
Wilson blamed himself for making a “big deal” out of a spring game that was televised, in which he believed microphones were able to pick up offensive signals because there wasn’t as much crowd noise as a normal game. Patterson has said he recorded that game and watched it, as coaches would normally do with game tape.
Wilson joined Stoops in making sure there was no finger-pointing toward TCU, and complimented Patterson’s program for its success against college football’s powerhouses. The Frogs are 11-2 in their last 13 games against teams from conferences with automatic Bowl Championship Series berths, and 5-1 against Big 12 foes.
ing us right in the mouth and kicking our butts for four quarters, and that’s what they did,” Wilson said. “And they’ve done it every week, every league. … Texas is the only one out of our league that’s gotten them in the last 10 years.
“They have a prideful team, a great team and the edge they had is they came in ready to play. The edge we didn’t have is we weren’t come in ready to play. That’s all that happened in ’05.”
Beyond keeping the no-huddle a secret, Stoops said closing practices also keeps him from needing to disclose minor injuries that occur daily in practice.
“If anybody wants to make anything else of it, that’s up to them but they’re not very accurate if they’re pointing it towards me or us,” Stoops said. “A team you’re going to play in the fourth or fifth game of the year knows what you’re doing. What you did at practice doesn’t much matter at this point.”
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