Out of control?
A string of recent arrests involving Oklahoma football players has prompted criticism of Bob Stoops. Current and former players, including Dusty Dvoracek, chimed in on Stoops’ discipline.
Before Jordan Thomas even dialed Bob Stoops’ number, the cornerback made up his mind that he was done at Oklahoma.
Another chance? Unlikely. Not after his past, not after another arrest. This one was for public intoxication. Just six months earlier he spent a night in Grady County Jail for failing to appear in court following a traffic citation.
“Your first thought is ‘OK, dang, I’m done,’” Thomas said. “‘I’m going to have to figure out something else to do with my entire life … I’m kicked off the team. Let me start making plans right here, right now to see what I’m going to do.’ It’s terrifying.”
But instead of being told to pack his bags, he was given another chance, one that he’s made the most of in the nine months since.
“You see me a year ago, I was deathly in trouble,” Thomas said. “This year, they look to me as a leader. I’ve kept my nose clean obviously and been on the right track, and people aren’t seeing that. People are seeing ‘He got in trouble and nothing happened to him.’ They don’t see the transformation of the player from then until now.”
Thomas’ story came just a day after ESPN personality Paul Finebaum blasted Bob Stoops for his perceived lack of discipline, calling it a ‘total failure’ in the wake of two more player arrests for public intoxication. Those came just two months after quarterback Baker Mayfield’s arrest for public intoxication and three other misdemeanor charges in Fayetteville, Ark., and three months after thencornerback Parrish Cobb was arrested in connection to a string of armed robberies in Waco, Texas.
Earlier that day, Cobb, who hasn’t been on the team since the January arrest, added another black eye to the program when he was arrested for armed robbery in Norman.
“In the end, guys in different situations have been disciplined and disciplined in the right ways,” Bob Stoops said. “We’re dealing with it as it comes. I can’t govern players that aren’t on my football team. No coach can. The players that I’ve brought here have all done well.”
The list of recent transgressions isn’t pretty, but it doesn’t necessarily equate with a lax disciplinary system, former fullback J.D. Runnels said.
“I think we’re looking at a wide variety of issues,” Runnels said. “Let’s be realistic, up until Joe Mixon, I don’t know that many people had a problem with Bob disciplining players.”
Since allowing Mixon to remain on the team following a de facto redshirt season for punching Amelia Molitor at Pickleman’s Cafe in 2014, Stoops has taken plenty of criticism for giving the running back a second chance.
And it’s that one decision that’s colored his subsequent punishments. Prior to the Mixon case, Stoops had dismissed starting quarterback Rhett Bomar and a starting guard J.D. Quinn. He also got rid of top recruit Josh Jarboe before he even took the field for a YouTube published rap that was filled with references to gun violence.
He told defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek, then a senior team captain and honor roll student, that he wouldn’t be playing after a pattern of violent behavior culminated with his friend in the hospital. Dvoracek was eventually allowed back on the team after the NCAA accepted his appeal for an extra year of eligibility.
When Ryan Broyles attempted to steal gas from a closed gas station using a key and a pump access code, Stoops sat him on the sideline for a season.
For Dvoracek and Broyles, the punishments certainly could’ve been tougher, permanent dismissal instead of a year away from the team. Instead, like Thomas, they got second chances and both made the most of them.
“I sit here before you at ESPN, I do a daily radio show for Cumulus radio, because Bob Stoops gave me a second chance,” Dvoracek said on ESPN earlier this week. “I made some mistakes in college. I did some things that I’m not proud of, but he gave me a second opportunity.”
To some critics, the tough love, instant dismissal policy is the only route. But for the players who’ve been through the system, the second chances given by Stoops are far more constructive than a removal from the team.
“You kick a kid to the curb, you ruin his whole career, his whole future,” Thomas said. “He doesn’t get an education at this point. Some of these guys aren’t here without it.”
The string of recent arrests is surely frustrating for the program and continues to open the door for more criticism of Stoops. But the head coach still believes that his methods work, and at some point, it becomes the players’ responsibility to make better decisions.
“We’ve had the one incident that everyone knows about with Joe,” he said. “But hey, we’ve got to do a better job with these guys here out at night, whatever they’re doing. That’s something we’ve talked long and hard about. Am I going to be out there with them? No. So they’ve got to make some better decisions that way as well.”