Bear with me here — I’m still trying to get my hands around this. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Switzer used to beat opponents at Oklahoma like Scott Kazmir does the Red Sox, now he’s trying to tell us all what the proper way to lose is. Because apparently whatever North Texas did against Oklahoma two weekends ago didn’t cut it. From Chris Dufresne of the LA Times, who thinks the Big East is the second best conference in the country, and thus should probably stick to reproducing quotes:
Quote of the year so far comes from former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, upset that North Texas kept passing the ball during a 79-10 loss to the Sooners on Sept. 1: “They had no game plan for losing. . . . Because when you can’t win a game, you need to run the clock, don’t let it stop, don’t throw passes incomplete . . . get the game over with, get on the bus and go home.”
What, like North Texas shouldn’t be allowed to work on their passing game just because they’re getting their asses kicked? Sorry the Mean Green didn’t comply with your wishes, Barry. Maybe you should give a seminar to all underdogs in non-conference games. See how that speech would’ve worked with Appalachian State.
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I agree with Barry, because perception becomes reality over time. Everyone looks at the most points scored an opponent historically and the announcers mention it on every telecast.
For instance, last Saturday we all heard that Michigan hadn’t lost a game by a wider margin since Ohio State beat them 50-14 in 1968.
In 1954, Stanford with John Brody at QB, kept working on its passing game, and wound up losing to UCLA 72-0. UCLA had more yardage on interception returns than Stanford did on its passing game. The implications of that game were far reaching, because Stanford’s vote helped put the sanctions on USC, UCLA and Washington that resulted in the dissolution of the Pacific Coast Conference.
In the end, everyone forgot about UCLA’s offense running the ball with all of the reserves on the squad and concentrated on the final score of 72-0 for many years thereafter. Every time UCLA scores a lot of points, the announcers always bring up 72-0. Nobody recalls that the score would have been in the 40’s if Stanford had heeded Switzer’s advice, and west coast football history would possibly be different.
Similarly, I am sure that Oklahoma’s 79-10 score will be remembered and pointed to as an act of running the score up. Everyone will forget that North Texas was “working on their passing game”.
That’s a good point — I didn’t really think about it that way. Still though, obviously they were more concerned about getting their extra work in than the embarrassment of the final score, and that’s fine by me.