Bob Stoops hasn’t been shy when it comes to his feelings about the SEC. As he gets his team prepared to take on Tennessee this weekend, Stoops didn’t have much to say about his previous comments, but did take a little jab at the SEC.
Oklahoma’s coach knew questions about his vocal disdain for the Southeastern Conference’s perceived superiority were coming Monday as his fourth-ranked Sooners prepared for SEC member Tennessee
He shook most of them off, but when asked about the SEC’s supposed belief that its athletes are a cut above, Stoops delivered the closest thing to a quip he would offer.
“I don’t know,” he said. “That hasn’t been the case in our experience. Whoever we’ve played, that hasn’t been much of a difference.”
Oklahoma linebacker Geneo Grissom was more direct about his coach’s thoughts.
“We all know coach Stoops’ feelings about the SEC,” Grissom said. “As his guys, we’re 100 percent behind him. We’re going to make sure we help him out there and make a statement in that aspect.”
Stoops has criticized the SEC as far back as the spring of 2013, when he called some of the stories about the league’s supremacy “propaganda.” He had little to go on because his Sooners had lost three straight against SEC opponents and had just been routed by Johnny Manziel and SEC member Texas A&M 41-13 in the AT&T Cotton Bowl.
Stoops got some ammunition when Oklahoma stunned Alabama 45-31 in the Sugar Bowl and took significant momentum into the offseason. This past summer, Stoops took exception to Alabama coach Nick Saban’s comment that the Allstate Sugar Bowl was a consolation game. On Oklahoma’s media day, when asked about his initial response to Saban, he replied: “Oh, get over it. Again, where am I lying?”
I’m sure this won’t be the last of the jabs we hear from Stoops, but if he wants to really have scoreboard on the SEC he needs to bring home another national instead of settling for the occasional BCS bowl.