2025-26 Season

Don’t get me wrong, I love football season. But basketball can’t get here soon enough.
Ditto. When I meet people and they learn I am an OU fan, I always tell them I am one of the rare OU fans who likes/case about the basketball team even more than the football team -- and that was even back when we had a great football team. :)
 
Ditto. When I meet people and they learn I am an OU fan, I always tell them I am one of the rare OU fans who likes/case about the basketball team even more than the football team -- and that was even back when we had a great football team. :)
OU and Bama are basketball schools in five years. Calling it now
 
OU and Bama are basketball schools in five years. Calling it now
All you have to do is go to a single football game for either to know that will never happen.

OU's campus this past Saturday was a thing of beauty. I've been a football season ticket holder since 1999. Been to pretty much every big game in Norman over that time frame. I've never seen the campus like it was on Saturday. SO many people. So much electricity. It was awesome. OU basketball will never match that. I grew up probably more of an OU basketball fan than football, but once I started going to games, and Kelvin left (lol), football season is where its at.

Also got back into OU baseball some this year.
 
All you have to do is go to a single football game for either to know that will never happen.

OU's campus this past Saturday was a thing of beauty. I've been a football season ticket holder since 1999. Been to pretty much every big game in Norman over that time frame. I've never seen the campus like it was on Saturday. SO many people. So much electricity. It was awesome. OU basketball will never match that. I grew up probably more of an OU basketball fan than football, but once I started going to games, and Kelvin left (lol), football season is where its at.

Also got back into OU baseball some this year.
I agree with this. Not many things match the atmosphere here when the football team is playing good. It's much bigger than an OU thing. The entire state, and even many outside the state, get super excited. The atmosphere on Saturday reminded me of being a student in the 80s when Barry's teams generated that kind of atmosphere weekly... Bama has experienced some success in basketball lately, but it doesn't come close to matching the excitement their football team generates. That level of fandom doesn't die easily.
 
I didn’t want to start a new thread. I find the timing of Bruce Pearls retirement odd. Is he forcing auburns hand to hire his son doing it this way? It just seems odd.
 
I guess I don't see him forcing Auburn in any way.
If they didn't think his son was the best candidate, they wouldn't hire him.
What is Bruce going to do if they don't hire him?
 
I guess I don't see him forcing Auburn in any way.
If they didn't think his son was the best candidate, they wouldn't hire him.
What is Bruce going to do if they don't hire him?
It's late September and practice already started. What other options would they have at this point?
 
It's late September and practice already started. What other options would they have at this point?
give him an interim title
I don't think they give him this contract if they didn't know it was coming and if they didn't want him to take over
 
give him an interim title
I don't think they give him this contract if they didn't know it was coming and if they didn't want him to take over
Sure, that was an option. All we mean is that by doing it now, Pearl assured that his son would be the guy coaching the team this season. Maybe the school would have wanted to hire his son even if this has happened in April, but I just think it is a weak move. And I think in general, things don't usually go well when coaches are allowed to more or less handpick their successors. whether it is a son or someone else on staff.
 
And I think in general, things don't usually go well when coaches are allowed to more or less handpick their successors. whether it is a son or someone else on staff.

You nailed that one. I first read this about 40 years ago or so (yeah, I'm old). When the legendary Minnesota Vikings head coach Bud Grant retired, he hand-picked a guy named Les Steckel to be his successor. It was a disaster as he was fired after one year. Grant actually returned for one more year which is about when I read the article. The point the writer was trying to make was that SUBCONSCIOUSLY, the outgoing head coach is afraid his successor will be as good or better than him...and end up recommending a lesser candidate instead. Obviously, there are plenty of examples which disprove this theory, but many, many more which support it. In a recent college basketball example, didn't Jay Wright highly recommend his successor at Villanova? How did that work out? A little closer to home, and not an immediate successor, but wasn't Barry Switzer's glowing recommendation of John Blake help him land the top job at OU?
 
You nailed that one. I first read this about 40 years ago or so (yeah, I'm old). When the legendary Minnesota Vikings head coach Bud Grant retired, he hand-picked a guy named Les Steckel to be his successor. It was a disaster as he was fired after one year. Grant actually returned for one more year which is about when I read the article. The point the writer was trying to make was that SUBCONSCIOUSLY, the outgoing head coach is afraid his successor will be as good or better than him...and end up recommending a lesser candidate instead. Obviously, there are plenty of examples which disprove this theory, but many, many more which support it. In a recent college basketball example, didn't Jay Wright highly recommend his successor at Villanova? How did that work out? A little closer to home, and not an immediate successor, but wasn't Barry Switzer's glowing recommendation of John Blake help him land the top job at OU?
the only one that was really "forcing the schools hand" was Bo Ryan at Wisconsin ... he thought about retiring after a season but wanted his long time ast (Greg Gard) to take over but the school was not on board and told his they would do a national search .. so he didn't retire ..

and instead the next season he just retired in middle December Making Gard the interim HC . he had a few struggles in the first month but then led them to 3rd in the Big 10 .. and got the full time job .. he is still the wisky HC
 
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