2023-11-12 11:30:39
Oklahoma Sooners WR Drake Stoops talks regarding win vs. West Virginia
Oklahoma Sooners WR Drake Stoops talks regarding OU football win vs. West Virginia
NORMAN — With the lights at Owen Field flashing on and off, Drake Stoops looked up as he laid flat on the grass.
The longtime Sooners wide receiver had gotten the wind knocked out of him following making a touchdown catch in the fourth quarter of OU’s 59-20 win over West Virginia on Saturday. All Stoops saw was the culprit, Anthony Wilson, standing over him in a taunting manner following delivering the monster hit.
Then chaos ensued.
With the lights still flashing — something OU does when it scores a touchdown during night games — the two teams got into a scuffle.
“I look up and there’s a brawl going on,” Stoops said. “I was like, ‘Man, I just love my teammates.’ That just shows it right there.”
More: OU football grades vs. West Virginia: Drake Stoops, ‘Unity’ uniforms shine for Sooners
One player in the thick of it was Dillon Gabriel.
The redshirt senior quarterback finished with eight total touchdowns in the win, which is the most ever by an OU quarterback. But that didn’t stop Gabriel from getting his hands dirty and defending Stoops.
“It’s football,” Gabriel said of the scuffle. “It’s competitive. If you want to watch tennis or watch something that’s not as competitive, you can flip the channel. … (Stoops) is my brother. It’s someone that I love a bunch.
“So seeing him go down and me questioning what it looked like from my angle, I had some words to say to (Wilson).”
After official review, Wilson wasn’t called for targeting.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
OU made the ensuing extra point, and redshirt senior offensive lineman McKade Mettauer got into it with Wilson followingwards. Mettauer got penalized twice for unsportsmanlike conduct, which resulted in his ejection.
As Mettauer walked off the field, he received a round of applause from the crowd and a fist bump from OU president Joseph Harroz. Still, head coach Brent Venables clarified his stance on the incident following the game.
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“We had a couple of moments where we didn’t represent ourselves the right way from an emotional standpoint,” Venables said. “There’s some regret there. How we do what we do is important to me. A lot of people are counting on us to represent Oklahoma the right way.
“There’s a couple moments that we’re not really proud of that we’ve got to learn from, grow up. It’s an emotional, intense game, but we can’t lose our poise in those moments. That’s not representative of who we’ve been.”
Fortunately for OU, it still cruised to a comfortable win without Mettauer. The starting right guard will be available for a road game once morest BYU next Saturday at 11 a.m.
Stoops also emerged unharmed from the hit by Wilson. The former Norman North standout finished with 10 catches for a career-high 164 yards to go along with three touchdowns.
Mettauer even apologized to his teammates in the locker room following the game. And with that, the Sooners put the incident behind them.
“He just got lost in an emotional moment,” Stoops said of Mettauer. “Emotions kind of hijacked him, and that’s not who he is. That’s not the type of player he is. We all know that. So I’m saying that now so everyone knows that too.
“I appreciate him always having my back. We just got a little lost in the moment.”
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