Stoops would re-think tough non-conference schedule

Watching, listening to, or reading about a Bob Stoops press conference is not a completely unedifying experience.

There is something tasteful about Stoops' candor off-season. (During the season, he comes factory-equipped with tight lips.)  His honesty was in full display last week at the football caravan stop in Tulsa.

Q: DeMarco Murray said he's set a personal goal of 1,500 rushing yards this year. Is that too much considering his history of injuries?

A: I don't think it's enough. I'd like to see him have about 1,900. It's not like we haven't done it. Adrian (Peterson) and Quentin (Griffin) both were over 1,900, so we'll see. Hopefully he can do something like that.

Q: How different is it for Landry Jones going into this season?

A: It's like night and day. How could it not be? I mean, he's had a full season under his belt. He's a totally different guy than he was when he took the field at BYU. He can't help but be a different guy. He had success through the year. A lot of it.  He's in the same mold as the guys we've had and I think he has a chance to be a really good player for us. He is very similar, I think, to the guys we've had. In the way he works, his abilities, his attitude, all of that. That's what I've said to people, we've won six Big 12 championships here in the last 10 or 11 years and had five different quarterbacks. There's no reason he can't be one of those guys.

Q: When you look at the way some teams schedule and get to championship games, does that make you want to rethink playing people like Florida State, Cincinnati or BYU?

A: Definitely. I don't think there's any question it needs to be revisited with (Athletic Director Joe Castiglione) and I. We have talked about it a little bit. You're not rewarded for it. In the end, you could play absolutely the weakest non-conference schedule and just deal with the conference schedule. You see it at the end of the year. All they rank you by is wins and losses. That's just how it goes.

Q: You're committed to playing LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee. Would you reconsider not playing those games or would you just not play such difficult opponents beyond those games?

A: Next coach after me will have it maybe better than I've got.

Q: We're coming up on the 10-year anniversary of the national championship team. When you think about that group, what comes to mind?

A: Just attitude and toughness and just a will to win. It was just incredibly special the way the team pulled together, old guys with young guys, old guys with new guys. Like Josh Heupel, only being there two years. We've got a freshman running back, Quentin (Griffin), a freshman cornerback, Derrick Strait. A bunch of young guys and old guys really blended well together.

Q: Is it that year that drives you, or some of these close calls like 2008?

A: It's not different than when I got here the first year and I wanted to win it all. We work the same all the time. I don't need any motivation. Or just because we won it once, you want to do it again, or just because you lost — you don't know how we work. You just have an obsession with the process of winning in your daily routine and your weekly routine of being prepared to play. And that's what it is. And it's no different today than it was the first day we got here.