{"id":5210,"date":"2018-01-02T16:20:20","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T22:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=5210"},"modified":"2018-04-13T02:27:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T07:27:39","slug":"sooners-riley-are-at-a-crossroads-one-season-does-not-make-a-coaching-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=5210","title":{"rendered":"Sooners, Riley are at a crossroads…….one season does not make a coaching career……."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jan 1, 2018; Pasadena, CA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs running back Nick Chubb (27) runs in a touchdown against the Oklahoma Sooners in the fourth quarter in the 2018 Rose Bowl college football playoff semifinal game at Rose Bowl Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My old high school tennis coach at Classen High in Oklahoma City,\u00a0Mr. Don Fleet, was an effective teacher, not only on the tennis court, but in the court of psychology.\u00a0 He would always emphasize that in sport if you beat the crap out of your opponent at the start of a contest, you better do the same at the end of it.\u00a0 I feared the man as I did not like to meet the wrath of his temper or what he had in mind for me if I lost a match after beating my man in set one.\u00a0 That happened only once.\u00a0 Coach was old school and losing was not acceptable.\u00a0\u00a0I learned\u00a0the facts of life from my old tennis coach, rest his soul.<\/p>\n

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Someone needs to tell the coaches at Oklahoma that it is not acceptable to beat the hell out of your opponent for the first half, only to let the game slip away in the final thirty minutes to get your ass beat.\u00a0Sooner Nation, \u00a0that again, is not acceptable.\u00a0 And any way about it, you should not be happy for just being there, the Rose Bowl that is.\u00a0 A season that was, yes, outstanding, should have been much more.\u00a0 OU should have won that ball game last night. And no, this loss should never be directed at any one assistant coach.\u00a0 It is not about assistant coaches. It is about attitude first, second, and always.<\/p>\n

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In his first year at Florida State, coach Bobby Bowden brought his highly inferior Seminole football team to Norman, Oklahoma to meet a nationally ranked Sooner team.\u00a0 Most expected a “half-a-hundred” to nothing score for OU, and Bowden and his team were in over-their-head that sunny afternoon on Owen Field.\u00a0 OU did not play well, but Florida State held up with starting six new players for the game and even though their record went from 0-2 to 0-3 with a 24-9 loss, the media worked hard at telling Bowden and his team how the loss was a “moral” victory an how proud they should be.\u00a0 Bowden would have nothing to do with that, was not happy they had lost the game, and did not praise the efforts of his losing team.\u00a0 His most remembered remark was\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “A game in which Florida State seemed to have no chance was one it might have won. Reiterating his distaste for moral victories, Bowden added: ‘These things are forgotten.’\u00a0 Bowden was on his way in this turning point loss.<\/p>\n

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OU had a chance to win last nigh in the end to erase a very poor second half.\u00a0 They needed\u00a0less than a yard in the first\u00a0overtime to\u00a0keep a drive alive and win the game.\u00a0But\u00a0a now conventional Lincoln Riley could\u00a0not put the game in his Heisman Trophy winner and give it a try. No, he settled for a field goal to\u00a0get a\u00a0tie.\u00a0 Then in the second overtime he\u00a0had to settle for\u00a0three by his kicker and we all know what happened after that. Bowden in his loss to OU in\u00a076 played all out, going for tough first downs, working for touchdowns and not taking the safe way out. He was a man that used his first season to show his resolve to win and not allow others to take victory from defeat.\u00a0 Last night was not the best for Riley. No complaints for\u00a0Lincoln for going safe last night.\u00a0No.\u00a0 But\u00a0there are winners and there are losers and last night Lincoln Riley came in second to Kirby Smart.\u00a0 That cannot be overlooked.\u00a0 Winning coaches, players, make plays.\u00a0 My bet was on Bake to make a yard.\u00a0 Not for a field goal kicker to tie a game which in the end you lose.<\/p>\n

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What Lincoln Riley does from this day on and how he treats a loss in this beginning of his head football coaching career at OU is upon him.\u00a0 Will a tough loss to a team that you pushed around for a half only to falter in the California dusk on New Year’s Day eve be the catalyst for a great career at OU or will it lead to further losses to teams that you put a good beat down on then let up.\u00a0 Oklahoma, you took your foot off the gas, and got your ass handed to you in the end.\u00a0 Coaching mistakes, which Riley and his staff made last night, can be taken care of with experience.\u00a0 But attitude, a knife to the throat killer instinct, that is another matter.\u00a0 It was said of the game that Georgia was the more physical team in the end.\u00a0 Well, what about the beginning?\u00a0 It was the same Georgia team I believe.<\/p>\n

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That is the way I see it sport fans.<\/p>\n

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PASADENA, CA – JANUARY 01: Head Coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs hugs quarterback Baker Mayfield #6 of the Oklahoma Sooners after the Bulldogs beat the Oklahoma Sooners 54-48 in double overtime in the 2018 College Football Playoff Semifinal Game at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Harry How\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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My old high school tennis coach at Classen High in Oklahoma City,\u00a0Mr. Don Fleet, was…<\/p>\n

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