Bordow: Valley unkind to Stoops brothers

This just in: The Oklahoma Sooners have announced they will not play in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl, even if they’re extended an invitation.

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Mountaineers slam Sooners in Fiesta Bowl

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Team officials declined to say why, but a team source witnessed head coach Bob Stoops having a temper tantrum in the locker room, stomping his feet and yelling, “I hate this place! I hate this place! I want to go home!”

You can’t blame the guy for losing it.

A year ago, the Sooners were the victim of Boise State’s sleight of hand.

Wednesday, they were a shell of their regular-season self, and the West Virginia Mountaineers pounded them, 48-28.

This is just a guess, but how much you want to bet Oklahoma’s charter flight home today gets stuck on the tarmac for six hours and the restrooms back up?

The Valley has become a torture chamber for the Stoops family. The only difference between Arizona coach Mike Stoops and Bob Stoops is that Bob just loses football games while Mike loses games and his mind.

The brothers Stoops are now 0-4 in our fine metropolis the last three seasons.

If Arizona and Oklahoma ever do meet in a Fiesta Bowl, it will be a scoreless tie.

The Sooners were supposed to be better than this. You could have made a case, in fact, that they deserved to play in the national championship game, given one of their two losses came when quarterback Sam Bradford was knocked out early in a 34-27 road loss to Texas Tech.

Instead, Oklahoma played as if it was still suffering a hangover from the Boise State game. It had more penalty yards (10) than total yards (minus-1) in the first quarter, and the rest of the game was a succession of missed tackles, blown assignments and holding penalties.

“Embarrassing,” Stoops said of the 13 penalties for 113 yards. “Absolutely no discipline whatsoever. That has to be a reflection on me. Obviously, I’m not doing a good enough job of getting our players to play smart.”

Speaking of hangovers, just how much did Stoops have to drink on New Year’s Eve? He had to be missing a few brain cells to call for an onside kick after the Sooners had scored to cut the Mountaineers’ lead to 20-15 midway through the third quarter.

For the first time all night, Oklahoma wasn’t swimming against the tide.

But Stoops then made the fatal decision, West Virginia recovered the kick, which didn’t travel 10 yards, and freshman running back Noel Devine — look for him at the Heisman Trophy presentation two years from now — scored six plays later.

There were still 18 minutes left, but the game was over.

“We had the momentum,” Stoops said. “If you recover the onside kick you get a chance to give them a blow.”

Or, you give the Mountaineers a short field and a chance to regain control of the game.

Considering Oklahoma had forced West Virginia to go three-and-out on its previous two possessions, kicking it deep was the best move — and the smart move.

If any team should have been discombobulated, it was West Virginia. It lost its leader and its compass when coach Rich Rodriguez took the Michigan job and declined to coach the Mountaineers in the Fiesta Bowl.

Six other clubs had played bowl games with an interim coach. Their record: 0-6.

West Virginia, however, didn’t buckle. It played smart, passionate football, dominating the Sooners even though it lost running back Steve Slaton early in the game with a hamstring injury.

And after seeing quick-silver quarterback Pat White dissect the Sooners with 326 total yards (176 passing, 150 rushing), I’m convinced the Mountaineers would have been in the title game had an injured White not missed half of their 13-9 loss to Pittsburgh on Dec. 1.

“They never, ever quit believing,” interim coach Bill Stewart said. “That was very impressive. It was a great, great performance.”

This wasn’t a Fiesta Bowl for the ages — it’s hard to top last year’s drama, complete with Ian Johnson’s postgame marriage proposal — but West Virginia will remember it fondly.

Oklahoma, on the other hand, will try to come up with a convenient excuse to miss next year’s game.

Like the dog ate the invitation.

Or the team is washing its hair.