To the extent the Sooner-covering media can be set on fire by a single question, it was set on fire on Tuesday.
It was set on fire when Berry Tramel, dean of the state sports press corps, ex of The Norman Transcript, The Oklahoman, Sellout Crowd and current of the Tulsa World, asked Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle what many have since reported to be, “Are you coaching for your job?”
Alas, that wasn’t exactly the question.
Alas, some folks claim Arbuckle said no, but that’s not true either.
Still, a thunderclap and thank goodness Tramel went there, because he might have been the only one willing to do it.
In these days of internet outlets surviving on paid content subscribed to by Sooner fans who prefer positive news the vast majority of the time (and 100 percent of the time if they’re softball fans), it’s nice to see an old newspaper scribe ask questions like it’s 25 or 30 years ago, when journalists were not fans at all or put their fandom away to properly do their job.
That kind of professionalism is going away faster and faster and we’re worse for it, making it a pleasure to see it exercised or, perhaps, re-normalized for the 20- and 30-media-somethings bound to be stunned by such directness.
Setting the record straight, here’s the question Tramel actually asked.
“Yeah, Ben, it seems possible that the rest of the season you’re coaching for your job, maybe even likely,” he queried. “Is that something you sort of knew going in, or how do you deal with that kind of pressure?”
To which, Arbuckle replied:
Berry, I haven’t thought about that one bit … It is a week-by-week basis of how can I put together a game plan, how can I install it with our guys and how can I execute at as high a level as possible. And that is the only thing that is on the forefront of my mind.
So, there.
That’s not Arbuckle’s entire answer, but it’s enough.
Stock, but it does the job.
He can’t think about it.
He’s got work to do.
But is he coaching for his job?
You betcha.
Maybe nobody wanted to believe he was entering the season, not given how last season finished in the playoff and not given how many talked themselves into the impending greatness of John Mateer, thumb issues long gone.
And still, because Arbuckle began with Mateer at Washington State, anybody who gave it a moment of preseason thought should have understood his fortunes to be tied to his quarterback’s.
And if they didn’t get it then, they must get it now.
