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Pelini and Stoops


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http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=3918...;u_sid=10396039

 

Not that I’m trying to suggest anything about what might happen in the future, but it’s interesting to note the comparisons between the first seven games of Bo Pelini’s debut season at Nebraska and Bob Stoops’ first season at Oklahoma.

 

Stoops, like Pelini, was 4-3 at this point after winning his first three games with the Sooners in 1999.

 

Stoops’ first loss that year came against Notre Dame. The score? 34-30.

 

Pelini lost his first game at Nebraska three weeks ago to Virginia Tech, 35-30.

 

The similarities between Stoops and Pelini are striking. Both took over after five-win seasons at powerful programs that had fallen hard. Stoops coached his first game at Oklahoma two days after he turned 40. Pelini was hired at Nebraska 11 days before that same milestone birthday.

 

Both immediately hired their brothers to fill the role of defensive coordinator, and, of course, Stoops and Pelini grew up not five miles from each other in Youngstown, Ohio, starring at the same high school. They both started in coaching as graduate assistants under Hayden Fry at Iowa.

 

Where will the parallels end? We all know what happened at Oklahoma after those first seven games: Stoops is 99-20 since. OU has won 11 games or more in seven of the past eight years with five Big 12 titles.

 

By the way, the 1999 season ended for the Sooners with three wins over their final five games for a 7-5 finish.

 

You’re sure to hear plenty more of the Stoops-Pelini talk next week as Nebraska visits Oklahoma in a game likely to carry more intrigue because of the men on the sidelines than anything else.

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http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=3918...;u_sid=10396039

 

Not that I’m trying to suggest anything about what might happen in the future, but it’s interesting to note the comparisons between the first seven games of Bo Pelini’s debut season at Nebraska and Bob Stoops’ first season at Oklahoma.

 

Stoops, like Pelini, was 4-3 at this point after winning his first three games with the Sooners in 1999.

 

Stoops’ first loss that year came against Notre Dame. The score? 34-30.

 

Pelini lost his first game at Nebraska three weeks ago to Virginia Tech, 35-30.

 

The similarities between Stoops and Pelini are striking. Both took over after five-win seasons at powerful programs that had fallen hard. Stoops coached his first game at Oklahoma two days after he turned 40. Pelini was hired at Nebraska 11 days before that same milestone birthday.

 

Both immediately hired their brothers to fill the role of defensive coordinator, and, of course, Stoops and Pelini grew up not five miles from each other in Youngstown, Ohio, starring at the same high school. They both started in coaching as graduate assistants under Hayden Fry at Iowa.

 

Where will the parallels end? We all know what happened at Oklahoma after those first seven games: Stoops is 99-20 since. OU has won 11 games or more in seven of the past eight years with five Big 12 titles.

 

By the way, the 1999 season ended for the Sooners with three wins over their final five games for a 7-5 finish.

 

You’re sure to hear plenty more of the Stoops-Pelini talk next week as Nebraska visits Oklahoma in a game likely to carry more intrigue because of the men on the sidelines than anything else.

 

Stoops is starting to gain the rep of not being able to win the big game. I hope that's not another similarity Bo and Stoops will have in the future.

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I miss the yearly rivalry with OU...wish they would figure some way out to get that one back...but that is pretty hard with the current set up...and I don't know any way that it could ever be a yearly thing again. The Big 12 ruined a good rivalry. I enjoyed the games we played against OU, and the respect that there was for each other.

 

It won't be long, and nobody but old timers will remember the rivalry....it is Hell getting old...

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Somehow the Big Ten figures out a way to have Michigan and Ohio St. play every year. I think a rivalry game each year between a North and a South team would do the Big XII some good.

 

 

The Big 10 only has 10 teams that compete in football and play fewer nonconference games. That's a bad comparison.

 

A good comparison is the SEC which like the B12 also has 12 teams competing in football and has one permanent cross division opponent for each team.

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