When Dave Rader had the players he was a damn good football coach.
He had another shot at an HC job when he was OC and babysitter at Alabama. But they were so riddled with probation and he was such an outsider it wasn’t really a fair situation. He’s always struck me as some genius scientist who can’t get the ideas out of his head because the technology doesn’t exist yet. I don’t know a lot of coaches outside the TU tree, but the two I have spoken to were at FSU during his era and they have said his concepts were twenty years ahead of everyone else.
Most of TU's football history has been setting the trend on the offensive side, especially when it comes to the passing game. Dobbs, Rhome, Rader, Malzahn, and Morris. All really innovative stuff.
We also could have had Norvell. Could have probably got Huepel too.
I think you have that backwards. From what I know Riley wanted the job and approached TU about it. We just weren't interested in him.
And a damn fine person , as usual per TU brass , he got crapped on by a bunch of losers with small time agendas . They have always been “Small Potatoes “, except for Stedham .
You win with talent , something Rader had an abundance of in 1991.
How and where and who blocked whom was very innovative at times. So were the passing routes.
That’s correct. I know that for a fact from the highest source. Heupel wasn’t interested and we didn’t have the money anyway.
The reason why we don’t have talent at this point is Monty and his offense for crissakes
Especially Malzahn whose offense is designed to attract players who would otherwise not see the field in other programs and make them productive. It was a perfect fit while it lasted.
It was around 2000-2001, somewhere in there. I think with the money that TPS put into the different stadiums around Tulsa, TPS figured why should they pay a rental fee to TU when they can use the facilities they already have.
Yeah, it was pretty easy to get into the stadium back then. I remember going to the top of the old metal add on bleachers on the west side on July 4th and watching the plethora of fireworks displays in the area.
I hated playing flag football on it, '92-'98 or so. You could start to see the screen mesh that the threads were woven into. Midfield was hard as a freaking rock. The number of times I strained a calf muscle because there was no give or take on that turf. I can't imagine playing soccer on it. Hell, my 13 y.o. son hates playing on the new style turf and he's a GK. I can't imagine what it would have been like to dive on that old turf.
Yeah...and there's a reason why TGs son suddenly left TU to go back to HS coaching
