The critics are starting to appear, but Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer isn't about to panic.
Oklahoma was placed on three years' probation Monday by the NCAA, and on Tuesday the state's third-largest newspaper called for Switzer's resignation."Why should I (resign)?," Switzer asked. "I know I never asked anybody, coach or alumni, to cheat for me. My violations are things out of not knowing the little rules."
In an editorial, The Tulsa Tribune said Switzer's resignation would help the football program recover from the more than $1 million loss in revenues projected during the team's probation.
"How many violations would occur if head coaches understood that sanctions would be followed by a request for their resignations?," the editorial said. "The NCAA can't impose such conditions, but regents can if they have the courage to start a new tradition at OU.
"Switzer can help by resigning."
The NCAA's sanctions, based on 20 violations, bar the Sooners from bowl games for two years, live television coverage next season and limit the number of football recruits for two years.
Switzer has said he had no knowledge of NCAA rule violations in his program, and said he was not aware that a violation the NCAA said he committed was a breach of the association's rules.
When university officials met the media Monday afternoon to discuss the sanctions, Switzer said he had no plans to resign. The university's interim president, David Swank, said Switzer should stay where he is.
"I think Barry runs a good program, and I have no desire that he resign," Swank said. "I would completely disagree with that editorial."
The newspaper's editorial said "the major infraction ... was committed by Switzer. "He was cited for writing checks out of an account he controlled to pay for bonuses to assistant coaches, salary increases, and rental cars used by student hosts to entertain recruits.
"As always, the innocent athletes and coaches will suffer. That's the NCAA way of justice. But is it the effective answer?
"OU ... can issue pious statements about learning to live with its fate and then lapse into old habits down the line," the editorial stated. "Or, preferably, the university regents can build some institutional memory by conducting their own investigation and rendering some memorable judgments on integrity and accountability.
"A demand that head coach Barry Switzer resign will do for openers."
Meanwhile, former Oklahoma tight end Keith Jackson said Tuesday that he took improper gifts and money from alumni while at the school.
"I got gifts," he said in Philadelphia, where is is an All-Pro tight end with the Eagles. "No, nothing like cars or anything like that.
"If I needed money for a ticket to go home ... an alumni would help me get a ticket. It was nothing really big. Not like they gave me over $1,000."
Jackson said that to his knowledge, Switzer did not know about the gifts.
"This is something you can't police," Switzer said. "As long as the game of football and basketball will be played on the collegiate level, then you're going to have this type of thing occur."
He said he wasn't really surprised by Jackson's comments because "it happens at Nebraska, it happens at Texas, it happens in every major college football program in America."