Tramel's ScissorTales: OU & OSU will miss Big 12 football director Ed Stewart
Berry TramelEd Stewart is leaving the Big 12 to become the chief administrator for Southern Cal football.
Stewart has been the Big 12’s chief football executive since 2006. That goes back a long time. Before the departures of Nebraska, Texas A&M, Colorado and Missouri. Before Art Briles arrived at Baylor. Before Mike Gundy had a winning season at OSU.
Stewart is headed to USC to be Lincoln Riley’s liaison as the Trojans’ executive senior associate athletic director. Brandon Sosna, who had held that job and helped recruit Riley to the Trojans, left earlier this year for the Detroit Lions.
Nobody pays attention to Stewart’s Big 12 role until trouble arrives – a scheduling complaint, an officiating controversy, a disciplinary issue. But Stewart will be missed.
Here are several things to cull from Stewart’s departure.
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➤ OSU will miss Stewart. Mike Gundy speaks highly of Stewart, a linebacker for Nebraska in the Cornhuskers’ glory days of the 1990s.
“Ed’s been fantastic,” Gundy said. “Ed’s a former player, he gets it. He’s a good communicator. He’s intelligent. He’s very level-headed. Easy to talk to. Let’s things slide down his back. Doesn’t take things personal. He’s been great for this league. He’s been good for Oklahoma State. I’ve enjoyed my relationship with him.”
OSU, like much of the Big 12, is gung-ho on new commissioner Brett Yormark. But that’s part of the price of a leadership change. Turnover in the conference office.
I asked Gundy exactly what Stewart’s role was.
“He’s the communicator, anytime there was issues, good or bad,” Gundy said. “Things that needed to be changed, from a compliance side to making sure, pregame, their team stays on the 40-(yard line) and our team stays on the 40.
“He had a lot to do with our (league) meetings. Set ‘em up. He’s very organized, very well-spoken, and he’s very intelligent when it comes to being well-rounded in what we do. He communicated with us all the time.”
Stewart would seek coaches’ opinions on legislative issues within the Big 12, Gundy said.
No word yet on who might replace Stewart. The job has not been a revolving door. Basically, Donnie Duncan served as the Big 12’s director of football from the inception of the conference in 1996 until Duncan hired Stewart in 2006. Duncan stayed on four more years helping guide the Big 12 through a variety of issues.
➤ David Flores, the Big 12’s associate commissioner for compliance and governance, will fill Stewart’s role in the interim. A Big 12 source said the conference will conduct a national search but that Flores should be considered a candidate.
Flores played football at Texas-El Paso and has worked in a variety of roles for Texas State, Kansas State, New Mexico, Texas Tech and UTEP.
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➤ The move of Stewart to USC is a sobering reminder for OU.
Clearly, by Stewart heading west to team with Riley, the two had a quality relationship during Riley’s five years as the OU head coach.
The Sooners (and Texas) already had exalted status in the Big 12. They could throw their muscle around the Big 12 meeting rooms. Now we know OU had what at least the head coach considered a friend in a prime position.
Soon enough, OU will join the Southeastern Conference, where the Sooners will not have exalted status and will have to learn to live with SEC administrators.
The SEC recently named long-time coach David Cutliffe as special assistant to the commissioner for football relations. Cutcliffe will provide guidance to the SEC office for the purpose of enhancing the quality of competition, including game management, communications, playing rules, national policies and scheduling models.
But that seems more of an advisory role than a liaison role.
Cutcliffe has been head coach at Duke and Ole Miss, as well as offensive coordinator at Tennessee. He and Brent Venables should know each other well from Atlantic Coast Conference days, but there’s little reason to think he would be the kind of OU ally that the Sooners have come to expect.
The Sooners might have to come to grips with knowing they have few allies in SEC meetings.
Alabama graduate Mark Womack is the SEC’s executive association commissioner and longest-serving employee. He basically serves as the football executive for the conference, and no one in their right mind could argue that SEC has been anything except amazing with Womack’s leadership.
His areas of expertise are television, bowls and scheduling, and frankly, that’s a big three.
Womack has been nothing but helpful in my dealings with him and has expressed great anticipation over the arrival of the Sooners.
But there’s no reason to think OU will have inroads when it comes to SEC administration.
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➤ Stewart’s move to USC can be looked at two ways or both.
His move to Los Angeles clearly is a good move personally, if he hopes to become an athletic director at a major university. Heck, maybe even USC some day.
Stewart is all those things Gundy mentioned. Personable, sharp, accommodating.
But Stewart also is getting out of the Big 12 during an administration change. I have no idea if Stewart sought the commissioner’s job, but he was hard-pressed to be a candidate. The Big 12 was looking for a money man. A man who could make deals and build up the budgets of the conference schools.
Wrong time for Stewart.
The Big 12 figures to become a more money-oriented, marketing organization. Football people don’t always thrive in such an environment.
So it’s off to Los Angeles for Stewart, whose move tells us he was considered a friend by the Sooners, and Gundy says the Cowboys were quite partial to Stewart, too.
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Lee Roy Smith Jr. joins his brothers
The Oklahoma chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame has created a new award, to be given to a family that has had great success in wrestling and brought credit to the sport in the state.
I assume there was no question about who should be the first honoree. I also assume there was no question about for whom the award should be named.
The only question, do you do both for the Smith family of Del City? The answer was yes, so the Smiths are the inaugural winner of the Madalene and Lee Roy Smith Family Wrestling Award.
The award was announced last Friday. Excellent timing, considering next week, Lee Roy Smith Jr. goes into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, joining brothers John and Pat, making the Smiths the first family with three inductees.
“I led my brothers into the sport, and I think they led me into this Hall of Fame,” Lee Roy Smith Jr. said.
Our series on the Hall of Fame inductees continues today with Smith. John Smith, a six-time world or Olympic champion, is considered America’s greatest wrestler. Pat Smith was the first four-time NCAA champion. Lee Roy, while a champion wrestler himself, has impacted his sport in a variety of ways. All three Smith brothers wrestled at OSU.
Lee Roy Smith Jr., executive director of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, has steered that organization from the brink of bankruptcy to financial solvency.
Smith started his family’s wrestling tradition, going out for the sport in fourth grade. Soon enough, Smith was a Del City High School and then an OSU and international star, and his brothers followed along.
Smith, a two-time Oklahoma state high school champion and the 1980 NCAA champ at 142 pounds, also was the first Oklahoman to win two national junior freestyle championships.
Smith missed out on a 1984 Olympic berth. He lost a best-of-three series against Randy Lewis in the Olympic Trials but won a protest and thus got a rematch with Lewis. Smith won that rematch, but a USA Wrestling arbitrator ruled that the final 84 seconds of the deciding Smith-Lewis match be re-wrestled, and Lewis won that rematch en route to Olympic gold.
Smith went on to become USA Wrestling’s national freestyle coach, Arizona State’s head coach and the Wrestling Hall of Fame’s director, for the last 18 years.
“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized,” Smith said of the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, “but it is even more meaningful because it is my home state, a state that has an amazing and rich athletic history, particularly in our great sport of wrestling.
“I have had the pleasure of watching many of the honorees and the opportunity to join my brothers, John and Pat, makes it special.”
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OBU sets aim on Arkansas teams
On November 4, 2017, the Oklahoma Baptist University football team played in Alva against Northwestern Oklahoma State. OBU lost 24-21.
That verdict is significant. It’s the last time the Bison lost to an Oklahoma team. Our series of state-college football previews continues today with OBU, which has won 16 straight against Oklahoma schools, a notable achievement for a school that brought back football in 2013, after a 73-year absence.
Of course, in the Great American Conference, there’s more to success than just beating the schools on the west side of the Oklahoma/Arkansas line.
“Those teams at the top, the Hardings, the Ouachita Baptists, the Henderson States, they’ve had a stronghold for a long time,” said OBU coach Chris Jensen, hired more than a decade ago to start the program and still on the job.
“That’s the question, going in, for us. Especially with the turnover we’ve had. We’ve lost some really good players. Now we’ll see how strong that culture has taken hold. With the turnover, if your culture’s going the right direction, you have guys stepping in.”
The Bison figure to be led by offensive lineman Zach Frazier (McKinney, Texas); wide receiver Keilahn Harris (Richardson, Texas); and linebacker Nick Boone (Allen, Texas).
Harris is drawing attention from National Football League scouts.
But OBU must replace quarterback Preston Haire, a two-season standout.
“We lost a lot of guys,” Jensen said. “We’ve got to have guys step up in those roles."
But OBU keeps adding to its milestones. In 2019, the Bison notched their first win in the state of Arkansas, at Arkansas Tech. Last year, the Bison beat Southern Arkansas, 44-40, for the first time. And OBU beat Texas-Permian Basin 24-21 in the Heritage Bowl at Corsicana, Texas.
“I think what we’re trying to build this program on is a culture,” Jensen said. “The talent comes and goes. The teams that are the best, the teams that set the championship standard, are the teams that do the right things every time.”
2022 OBU football schedule
Sept. 1 Ouachita Baptist 6 p.m.
Sept. 10 at Arkansas-Monticello 6 p.m.
Sept. 17 at Northwestern Oklahoma State 6 p.m.
Sept. 24 Southwestern Oklahoma State 6 p.m.
Oct. 1 at Harding 2 p.m.
Oct. 8 Arkansas Tech 6 p.m.
Oct. 15 East Central 6 p.m.
Oct. 22 at Southeastern Oklahoma State 2 p.m.
Oct. 29 Southern Arkansas 2 p.m.
Nov. 5 at Henderson State 2 p.m.
Nov. 12 Southern Nazarene 6 p.m.
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The List: Longest-serving OU assistant coaches
Cale Gundy’s sudden resignation Sunday leaves him one season shy of being the longest-serving assistant coach in OU football history:
1. Hugh McDermott, 24, 1921-44: The long-time OU basketball coach is listed in Sooner records as a 24-year football assistant. And McDermott was an OU football player of some note in the ‘10s under Bennie Owen. However, McDermott is listed as a “scout” for football, working under Owen, Ad Lindsey, Lewie Hardage, Biff Jones, Tom Stidham and Snorter Luster. Was he an assistant coach? What did assistant coaches do in those days? Even OU historian Mike Brooks admits he doesn’t know what to do with McDermott. He’s No. 1 with an asterisk.
2. Cale Gundy 23, 1999-2021: As a player or coach, Gundy was part of 277 Sooner victories, 30% of OU’s all-time total. Barry Switzer is second on the list, at 215.
3. Bobby Proctor 19, 1973-91: The hard-edged but beloved Proctor was Barry Switzer’s first hire as head coach, then lasted three years into the Gary Gibbs era.
3. Lucious Selmon 19, 1976-94: Sometimes we forget how long Selmon was associated with the Sooners. From 1970 through the Gibbs era, Selmon was part of every team except 1974 and 1975, when he was playing in the World Football League.
5. Merv Johnson, 18, 1979-96: Came to OU as Switzer’s assistant head coach and lasted all the way to John Blake’s first season.
5. Galen Hall 18, 1966-83: Switzer’s 11-year offensive coordinator was part of Jim Mackenzie’s staff that came on in 1966 and transformed OU football.
7. Gomer Jones 17, 1947-63: Bud Wilkinson’s lieutenant the entirety of Wilkinson’s head-coaching career in Norman. Then Jones was head coach for two seasons.
8. Mike Jones 16, 1979-94: Ten years on Switzer staffs, then six more with Gibbs.
8. Charley North 16, 1979-94: Same script as Mike Jones.
8. Bobby Jack Wright, 16 1999-2014: An original on the Bob Stoops staff.
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Mailbag: Saban/Stoops story
I wrote recently about the crazy story of Nick Saban and Bob Stoops’ uncle, also named Bob Stoops, sitting in a Youngstown, Ohio, bar in the 1980s, so engrossed in talking football that they were oblivious to the bar being robbed. And readers found the story quite compelling.
Rich: “Great story. Being a lifelong resident of Youngstown, I enjoyed it. As a side note, the bar they were in was owned and operated by the brother of Bob Commings, the former Iowa coach.”
Tramel: Well now, that’s a nugget.
Commings is an oft-forgot part of the Bob Stoops story. Commings is the Iowa coach who recruited Stoops to Iowa City.
Commings, too, was a Youngstown kid who signed with Iowa. He played for the Hawkeyes in 1953, 1956 and 1957, with a break for the Korean War. Commings, a lineman, was well-regarded at Iowa; he started on the Hawkeyes’ 1956 Rose Bowl team and on the 1957 team that featured Alex Karras, went 7-1-1 and finished No. 6 in The Associated Press poll. Karras won the 1957 Outland Trophy; Commings was voted Iowa’s most valuable player that season.
Commings spent two years on the Hawkeye staff after his playing career was over. Then he began a regal, 12-year run as a high school coach in Ohio, including a 43-6-2 record in five years at fabled Massillon Washington.
Iowa noticed and hired Commings as head coach after the 1973 season.
The Hawkeyes of that day were not the Hawkeyes you know today. Iowa was 4-28-1 in its previous three years and had gone 12 years without a winning season.
Commings lasted five years, with records of 3-8, 3-8, 5-6, 4-7, 2-9. His Big Ten record was either 2-6 or 3-5 every year.
In February 1978, in Commings’ final recruiting class, the Hawkeyes signed Stoops, a safety from Cardinal Mooney in Youngstown.
Stoops redshirted in 1978, then Commings was fired, Hayden Fry was hired and the Hawkeyes have been at least relevant, if not Big Ten contenders, for more than 40 years.
Stoops played as a redshirt freshman – his first game was on Owen Field, where Iowa played OU tough before losing 21-6.
Bob Commings was well-respected in Iowa. In 1979, he was a radio analyst for the Hawkeyes.
But Commings wasn’t finished with coaching. A year later, he returned to the high school ranks and began a 12-year run at GlenOak High School in Canton, Ohio, compiling a 76-44-1 record.
Commings was diagnosed with cancer in 1991 and died in 1992 at the age of 59.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.