Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 28, 1995 TAG: 9502280103
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When the identity of the new University of Oklahoma football coach at long last was revealed, probably more than a few followers of the college game were left puzzled and pondering.
Why would Howard Schnellenberger want to go to Norman?
Why would a 60-year-old man, secure and beloved at the University of Louisville, want the Sooners' job? For a gentleman renowned in the art and science of football program rebuilding, where is the joy in taking over at a school where college football has been considered almost a birthright for nearly a century?
``I thought I was going to stay at Louisville,'' said Schnellenberger, in town Monday to speak at the Roanoke Valley Sports Club's meeting. ``Louisville is my hometown. We just built a nice house there. My family is there. But when they decided that they were no longer committed to winning a national championship there, that's when I decided that it was time to get out.''
That may be news to some of the Cardinals' fans, but that's the way Schnellenberger sees it. The end of Louisville's commitment to big-time football, by his reckoning, was the moment the school threw in its lot with the new all-sports conference that includes football members Memphis, Southern Mississippi, Cincinnati, Tulane, Houston and Alabama-Birmingham. (UAB won't be Division I-A in football until 1996.)
Schnellenberger said Louisville stood a better chance of winning a national championship as an independent than it did as a member of the new league.
The pipe-puffing football boss was reminded that conventional wisdom had held for years that the life of a Division I-A independent was a lonely and arduous one. That was, unless you were Notre Dame.
``Did you see who's going to be in that new conference?'' he said.
The point is well-taken. Until there is a playoff system, those who vote in the polls judge programs by the company they keep.
And none of Louisville's new playmates will be mistaken for Oklahoma.
The Sooners may not be a developing program, such as the ones Schnellenberger took over at Miami (where his 1983 team did win a national crown) and Louisville, but the Sooners have grown markedly threadbare since the last of their six national crowns 10 seasons ago.
``This is my last football coaching assignment,'' Schnellenberger said. ``I've signed a five-year contract. I could go for 15.''
Should Schnellenberger duplicate the accomplishment of illustrious predecessors such as Bud Wilkinson and Barry Switzer and guide Oklahoma back to the top of the college football universe, he would be the first Division I-A coach to win titles at two schools.
Schnellenberger has a 95-71-2 record in 15 years as a college head coach.
In the 10 weeks since he took over as Oklahoma's coach, Schnellenberger has visited 100 homes and signed 21 of the 25 recruits he intends to bring in this year.
How Schnellenberger's labors will be judged by the geniuses who pump out the recruiting newsletters is of minimal importance to him.
``You recruit tall, fast guys who are coachable and you'll win,'' Schnellenberger said.
The guest speaker for the sports club's next meeting, March 27 at the Roanoke Civic Center, is ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan.
by CNB