Briles moved to background, Lebby scrutiny can now fall upon job for which he was hired
Here’s the deal.
Everything should turn out for the better.
Perhaps not how a big slice of Sooner Nation believes it will or why it might, but it should.
In search of a positive takeaway from all the non-football headlines to sprout following Oklahoma’s 28-11 victory over SMU and the persona-non-grata appearance of rightfully-still-disgraced former Baylor coach Art Briles upon Owen Field last Saturday night?
Go with that.
Though Sooner offensive coordinator and Briles’ son in-law Jeff Lebby still appears to not fully understand the transgression of bringing a lightning-rod ex-coach guilty of creating and perpetuating a rape culture at the world’s largest Baptist university onto hallowed Sooner ground, it’s nevertheless a story that’s going to end well.
Despite Lebby eroding a good portion of his trust equity, presuming he’d managed to accrue some since his arrival, with his three bosses — Brent Venables, athletic director Joe Castiglione, university prez Joseph Harroz — the program will be better for it over time.
Two reasons.
One, we’ll not see Briles on the Owen Field turf ever again and, we’re forced to conclude, nor in the stadium that surrounds Owen Field either.
If the law wasn’t laid down well enough before, it has been by now, it’s bound to be respected and that’s a good thing.
Two, Lebby’s poor judgment concerning a non-football issue, the enduring toxicity of his father-in-law’s presence, will create a larger spotlight, a more powerful microscope and generally heightened scrutiny concerning not only his personal judgment, but his football judgment, too, forever forward.
Ergo, with or without Lebby, the Sooner offense should start making a lot more sense and therefore be better, be it under his direction starting now, or under his successor’s, should one be required, coming soon.
Funny, but not only did the disgraced-coach-on-the-field situation not come up one last uncomfortable moment or two during Venables’ weekly press conference on Tuesday, the Sooner offense hardly came up at all, either.
There was a question about OU’s plan for true freshman back-up quarterback Jackson Arnold — about that, Venables can dream up no world in which the five-star prospect might somehow redshirt — yet there was no other query involving Lebby or his unit.
In fact, the only Sooner offensive coordinator to be asked about was Kevin Wilson, who had the job from the lead-up to the 2005 Holiday Bowl through the 2010 season, but who is now head coach at Tulsa, where OU meets the Golden Hurricane at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
“A dang good football coach,” Venables said. “Tulsa’s lucky to have him.”
And then went a little deeper.
“I see his players playing aggressively and playing confidently,” Venables said. “Even watching them go up to [No. 8] Washington, traveling halfway across the country … they go first down, second down, third down, conversion. Real fearless. He’s kind of got a go-for-broke mindset.”
Tulsa wound up losing 43-10, but at least went down swinging.
The possession Venables’ described was the Golden Hurricane’s first, in which they first converted a third down and then a fourth down to eventually answer the Huskies’ game-opening touchdown with a field goal of their own.
Listening to Venables speak, it was too easy to think of too many things.
One, yes, that really was Wilson’s attitude when he ran coach Bob Stoops’ offense to some of its highest heights, like coaxing a Big 12 title caliber season out of emergency quarterback Paul Thompson after returning starter Rhett Bomar had to be jettisoned less than a month before the 2006 opener, to calling the plays of the record-breaking offense Sam Bradford quarterbacked in 2008.
Two, where has that attitude gone, the Sooners’ current offensive coordinator, Lebby, regretting his conservative approach time after time, now one season to the next, four days ago against SMU just the latest example.
Three, perhaps the light bulb went off in Venables’ head as he was saying those very words about Wilson, his old ones-vs.-ones practice-field rival, who may have called some bad plays through the years, yet never out of fear of what might go wrong.
“My father-in-law, his presence on the field after the game the other night, is something that created a distraction,” Lebby said on Monday. “I apologize for that. That was not the intent at all.”
Perhaps not a perfect statement, but fair enough for damage control and bully for him if he really gets it and if he doesn’t, well, his and others’ loss.
Also, by all means, let the scrutiny now extend to the job he was hired to do.
Soon enough, maybe Saturday, he won’t in-retrospect wish he’d done something differently in real-time that put a loss on the Sooner table until a dang-near too-late correction.
See?
It’s going to get better.
Off the competitive field, it already has. On it, now or later, with or without the coordinator who caused last Saturday’s storm.