soonerdudes

Summer is drawing to a close, and that can only mean one thing. But since Oklahoma finds itself without a representative in this year’s WNBA Playoffs, we turn our attention instead to the Oklahoma Football Sooners. Yes friends, it’s that time of year when the heartland is buzzing about the annual Preseason Dudey Awards, the most prestigious honor known to Sooner Nation.

The results have been tallied, and we can honestly tell you that this year’s vote was the closest in Dudeys history. Dreams will be come true, hearts will be broken and recounts will be demanded. You don’t want to miss a moment of the action. So sit back, relax and enjoy the 2010 Preseason Dudey Awards (brought to you by Miller Light, Levi’s and 3M Scotch Brand Household Scissors).

Sam Bradford Award: Best Offensive Player

Ryan Broyles

Honorable Mention: Demarco Murray

Lee Roy Selmon Award: Best Defensive Player

Jeremy Beal

Honorable Mention: Travis Lewis

Bud Wilkinson Award: Outstanding Coach

Josh Heupel

Honorable Mention: Jackie Shipp

Adrian Peterson Award: Outstanding Freshman

Kenny Stills

Honorable Mention: Tony Jefferson, Brennan Clay

Brian Bosworth Award: Most Swagger

Travis Lewis

Honorable Mention: Ronnell Lewis

Quentin Griffin Award: Underrated player

Jonathan Nelson

Honorable Mention: Landry Jones

Game Ball Award: 2010 MVP

Demarcro Murray

Honorable Mention: Ryan Broyles

OCU Award: Rising Star

Tom Wort

Honorable Mention: Demontre Hurst

Most to Prove

Landry Jones

Honorable Mention: Donald Stephenson, Dejuan Miller

Marcus Dupree Award: Prized 2011 Recruit

Trey Metoyer

Honorabe Mention: Brandon Williams, Jordan Phillips

OU GQ Award: Sharpest in His Uni

Dejuan Miller

Honorable Mention: Ronnell Lewis, Travis Lewis

Best Game Day Libation

Miller Light

Honorable Mention: Coors Lights, Screwdrivers for 11 AM kickoff

Best ESPN Talking Head

Dari Nowkhah

Honorable Mention: Desmond Howard, None

Best Texas State Fair Menu Item

Fried Beer (This one wasn’t close)

Honorable Mention: Fried Bacon

Best Place to Watch Outside Norman

Cotton Bowl

Honorable Mention: Your Sooner Man Cave

Best Off-Season Pastime

OKC Thunder Basketball

Honorable Mention: Waiting for football, Embarrassing Yourself on the Golf Course

Facebook Warrior

Brennan Clay

Honorable Mention: The Sooner Dudes

Best Game Day Fashion Decision

Jorts

Honorable Mention: Jersey T-Shirt

Most Hated Man in Sooner Nation

Mack Brown

Honorable Mention: Tim Tebow

Most Respected Program

Alabama

Honorable Mention: Nebraska, Duke

Miller Light Award: Most Fun to Have a Beer With

The King

Honorable Mention: Billy Sims, Capital Sooner

Stadium We’d Most Like to Visit

The Big House

Honorable Mention: Neyland Stadium, Bryant-Denny Stadium

Best Timeless Tradition

Cotton Bowl Split Down the Middle

Honorable Mention: “Play Like A Champion Today”

Best Mascot (Other than Boomer and Sooner)

The Stanford Tree

Honorable Mention: Starsky

Best Fight Song (Other than Boomer Sooner)

Hail to the Victors

Honorable Mention: The Aggie War Hymn, Anchors Away

Best Tailgating Spot

Lindsey Street

Honorable Mention: Parking Lot Northeast of the Stadium

Best Tailgate Activity

12 Oz. Curls

Honorable Mention: Cornhole

Best Pregame Spot on Campus

Old O’Connell’s

Honorable Mention: Louie’s

Team that is Owed the Most Payback

Texas

Honorable Mention: USC, LSU, Florida

Help the Dudes get back their “ness” by following them on Facebook.

Some call it stalking. I call it love.

I’m talking about the type of love for which you find yourself, a grown man in your mid twenties, waiting six hours on a New York city street. The big payoff is that you momentarily see your favorite college student take stage clutching a jersey like he is sizing it up in front of a SoHo boutique store mirror. Your wife who understands such matters is alarmed at the number of adult men crammed next to you who find it suitable to wear jean shorts in the world’s fashion capital.

The rampant jorts are not the only indication that getting into the NFL Draft is unique from most other pursuits in our society. For starters, there’s the public urination. Since most around you extend the courtesy of using an empty soda bottle instead of your shoe, this doesn’t bother you. Nor does the six hours on line. It’s the same portion of your life spent bumper-to-bumper on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on your way into Manhattan the previous day. That’s not stalking—That’s love.

I guess you could say what transpires next is debatable. Regardless, I found myself at a midtown New York establishment shaking hands with Trent Williams and Gerald McCoy minutes after they were selected in last month’s NFL Draft. Malcolm Kelly is there too, sitting at the bar, where it is the first round of a different draft. Williams and Kelly, each now a Washington Redskin, are close friends, Kelly mentoring Williams through the burdensome transition of becoming one of the wealthiest men on the planet.

I congratulate Williams on becoming a Redskin as Jermaine Gresham becomes the fourth Sooner taken in the first round on the TV behind us. “Great day for the Sooners,” I told Williams. “Yes sir.” Silverback is a man of few words. He is, however, physically imposing, much more so than he appears on TV.

Just after 10 PM ET, Tim Tebow has just been selected 25th overall by the Denver Broncos. As everyone else watching, Gerald McCoy is highly amused. My wife and I snap a souvenir, excuse ourselves and allow the newest NFL Sooners to enjoy their accomplishments in peace on that fine evening in the Big Apple. It is a great night to be a Sooner.

The University of Oklahoma, said Sam Bradford, is where he dreamed of being his whole life, where he envisioned becoming the next great Sooner. Now, every young man in the state wants to be No. 14, one of the greatest Sooners in a long line of Sooner greats. Read more over at Tilting at Windmills.

The 2009 Sooners are going to have to play their hearts out on the road in order to make it back to the BCS National Championship Game. OU plays against eight teams who went bowling in 2008, and only two of those games (Tulsa and Oklahoma State) come within the confines of the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, where the Sooners are one win away from tying their all-time longest winning streak at 25.

Make the jump to see what will be OU’s six toughest games of the 2009 regular season.

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For the 2009 Sooners, getting back to the BCS National Championship is on everyone’s mind.  In order for it to happen, OU will have to run a veritable gauntlet which is their regular season schedule.

The more you break it down, the more you realize that the Sooners have their work cut out for them, as perhaps their five weakest opponents travel to Norman. For nearly every ranked or near-ranked opponent, OU will go on the road.

Make the jump to see Nos. 7-12 of the Sooners’ 2009 schedule.

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With 20 verbal commitments and 8 scholarships left, Oklahoma’s 2010 recruiting class (currently ranked No. 2 by Scout and No. 3 by Rivals) could be Stoops’ strongest yet. But in order to pull it off, he’ll need to finish strong.

Make the jump to see Oklahoma’s must-gets for 2010.

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Thanks for playing, Fox Sports. But, as any discerning college football fan that read your list immediately thought to themselves, your list sucks.

Here is a more accurate representation of reality. Granted, each person’s respective life experiences alter his list dramatically. Nevertheless, here’s mine and I’m sticking to it.

Make the jump to see the most obnoxious fans in the country.

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The Lost Ogle: New Events for the 2020 Tulsa Summer Olympics
Tilting at Windmills: Bradford is more accurate that McCoy
Rivals: Franklin chooses OU over UT
Blatant Homerism: The 5 most important Sooners in 2009
Red Dirt Kings: Weekend Warriors—What Men Watch

If it’s true that every guy is allowed one platonic man crush (hey, I don’t make the rules), then it only makes sense that every team should be allowed the same.

The fan crush—a collective (and strongly heterosexual) bromance between the majorities of two fan bases. Think Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers, only on a broader scale. Maybe it’s just me, but I think we’ve got one brewing.

Tuscaloosa and Norman. Bear and Bud. Saban and Stoops. Roll Tide and Boomer Sooner. The Crimson Tide and the Crimson and Cream.

I’m not gonna lie, I lend my fanhood to Bama 90 percent of the time. In the cutthroat landscape of college football, where alliances are broken at the first opportunity to gain traction in the BCS standings, it’s hard to do much better than that.

They’re the anti-LSU—a team that’s been around the block a time or two and acts accordingly. Their tradition is amazing and their collective fanhood is top notch.

While some on each side may disagree, the general attitude between the two schools is one of mutual respect and admiration—a breath of fresh air in the college football world, home to some of the most hated rivals in sports.

It started way back in the day with Bear Bryant and Bud Wilkinson, coaching legends and patriarchs of each respective program. In his autobiography, Good Life and Hard Times as Alabama’s Head Coach, Bryant often reminisces about Wilkinson, whom he considered a close friend and mentor. That alone commands the respect of every living fan of the two programs.

Among serious and discerning college football fans, Alabama and Oklahoma are generally regarded as being in the top five, and perhaps the two most decorated, programs of all time.

They’ve each won seven national championships, putting them in a tie for second all-time along with USC. Only Notre Dame (8) has won more. Minnesota (6), Ohio State (5), Nebraska (5) and Miami (5) are the only other schools that even come close.

Bama has more bowl wins and appearances than any other program with 28 and 52, respectively. OU has been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll more than any other school at 97 weeks.

Bama has more perfect seasons than any other school with eight. OU has the highest wining percentage (.761) since World War II, the years widely regarded as the Modern Era of college football.

Bama is tops in 10-game winning streaks with 21. OU owns the all-time longest winning streak at 47.

Perhaps the only glaring difference between the two in the record books is in the Heisman Trophy column, where OU has claimed five. Despite all its success, no player from Bama has ever won the Heisman.

Their successes span decades. Their histories run deep. And in a recent home-and-home series in 2002 and 2003, their ties were reintroduced to a new generation.

“[Alabama] is a great program,” Stoops said following Oklahoma’s 20-13 victory in 2003, doing his part to set the tone. “Places like this, they appreciate good football. They’ve won enough around here that they’re not jealous of anyone else. They’re a good team, which doesn’t surprise anybody.”

Nick Saban and Bob Stoops, current heads of the programs, appear to have carried on the working relationship established by Bear and Bud years ago. The two are reported to have a mutual respect for one another, if not a genuine friendship. This despite a potential scandal in which Saban (head coach at LSU at the time) had been accused of spying on the Oklahoma’s Superdome practices the week leading up to the game.

Stoops has gone on record saying he does not believe there was any foul play, and I think I speak for most of Sooner Nation when I say that a friend of Bob’s is a friend of mine (Incidentally, LSU fans don’t just hate Saban, they pretty much want him dead. Any human being so despised by LSU has got to be all right.)

The next time you see a Bama fan, show some respect—they deserve it. Chances are, they’ll do the same.

If, for whatever reason, this one just does not work out for you, here is my list of the top ten schools it’s okay for Sooners to fan crush on:

Alabama. See above. OU all-time record: 2-1-1.

Nebraska. Strong feelings have diminished of late, mainly due to the Huskers’ epic fall from grace and former head coach Bill Callahan, who was overheard calling Sooner fans a bunch of “f-ing hillbillies.”  But it’s nearly impossibly to deny that Nebraska has some of the most respectable fans in the nation. It doesn’t hurt that Tom Osborne, the program’s patriarch, was a class act and that current head coach Bo Pellini is a branch on the Bob Stoops coaching tree. OU all-time record: 44-37-3.

Virginia Tech. Tech fans are perhaps the best-kept secret in college football—a passionate, knowledgeable and friendly bunch. I should know, I’m married to one. VT Head Coach Frank Beamer is also a class act. OU all-time record: 1-0.

Wisconsin. Mainly because they’re harmless and pretty much just want to have fun. OU all-time record: 2-0.

Ohio State. This one may be tough to swallow for some, since Ohio State is a clear threat to Oklahoma’s claim to college football supremacy. I include them because I’ve just always liked them, mostly because of my Dad, who attended grad school at tOSU. OU all-time record: 1-1.

Arizona. Head Coach Mike Stoops is Bob’s brother and the man responsible for our best defense in the Bob Stoops era that, incidentally, won us a national title. Another branch on the Stoops coaching tree. OU all time record: 1-1.

Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane is a likeable bunch, mainly because they’re an in-state program with no real threat to OU. Plus they’re always doing something kinda cool with their offense over in T-town. OU all-time record: 15-7-1.

Minnesota. Bet you didn’t know Minnesota has more national championships than Texas, Ohio State, Michigan, Miami and Nebraska. What you also may not have known is that as a player, Bud Wilkinson led the Golden Gophers to three of them in a row back in 1934, 1935 and 1936, respectively. OU all-time record: 2-0.

Army/Navy/Air Force. Who honestly doesn’t have a slight fan crush for one of the teams that risks it all to defend your right to enjoy college football on Saturdays? OU all-time record: Army 2-1, Navy 0-1, Air Force 1-0.

South Carolina. Don’t lie—you’ve got a man crush on The Old Ball Coach. You kinda dig it that he was Stoops’ boss when the Gators won the national title in ’96. Add the fact that the man has a membership at Augusta, and you pretty much want to be him. Points for SC, and maybe even a fan crush. OU all-time record: N/A.