Stoops Likes Team's Attitude for Orange Bowl

NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said Tuesday he thinks his team has a better attitude heading into the national championship game this year than it did a year ago.

The main difference: the Sooners (12-0) enter the title game this year off a convincing win in the Big 12 championship game, rather than a lopsided loss.

"Our routine doesn't vary a whole lot, but there seems to be a stronger attitude and a better feel coming into the game for many reasons," Stoops said. "As well, healthwise we're a lot better of than we were a year ago.

Sooner National Championship Central

"Hopefully, that'll give us an opportunity to play better and a better opportunity to win."

Offensive coordinator Chuck Long said there's also a difference in how the Sooners are perceived this year.

"When you're coming off a loss, there's a lot of people who think we didn't deserve to be in there," Long said. "We deserve to be in there now."

Quarterback Jason White faces an entirely different scenario heading into the Orange Bowl against Southern California than he did before the Sugar Bowl last season.

Besides a healthy set of knees, White doesn't have the distraction of being the Heisman Trophy winner.

"Last year at this time, I had interviews every day with different people about the Heisman ... ," White said. "It's definitely less attention for me."

With a full month to prepare for the Jan. 4 game, Stoops said the Sooners are trying to make sure they don't wear players out with too many practices or bore them with too few.

"Sometimes you can allow it to drag, and we don't want it to," Stoops said. "What we've done this week is we treated it like a game week."

Stoops said the Sooners treated Sunday as though it was Monday of a game week, and coaches want the team to be prepared as if there was a game Friday.

"It may not totally be there, of course, but at least we're close," Stoops said. "We've got a strong feel for what we like and what we're prepared to do."

Stoops said Oklahoma did not plan to use the extra three weeks for a massive retooling in any area. Prior to the 2000 Orange Bowl, the Sooners implemented a series of new blitzes and coverage schemes that proved useful in a 13-2 win against Florida State.

"We will have our wrinkles and change-ups, but in the end we feel with the structure and how we've been playing," Stoops said. "We feel pretty comfortable with where we're at and we're confident in the way we can play."

Stoops said the Sooners were well past their back-to-back postseason losses last year.

"There's nothing at this point to go back and rehash that I feel would help us right now," Stoops said.

White said he thought the experience of last year's title game would help the Sooners this year.

"Last year, there were a lot of distrations with the media attention, fans and stuff," White said. "We've kind of got a little comfort zone now that we've been there."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Stoops Likes Team's Attitude for Orange Bowl

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