I don't believe it was Barry initiating it. I do believe Lacewell was absolutely doing it. My four years at OU, I was never impressed with Lacewell. I think one of the reasons that Jimmy Johnson left when Barry became HC, was that he thought he should have been the DC. I didn't know at the time that Lacewell was his old buddy. But I also think a bigger factor was that Johnson wanted to move up quickly. I'd say in retropect, he deserved it. And Barry wanted to be at OU for as long as he won, and he obviously accomplished that. He likely wanted somebody who would stay his DC, instead of seeking to move up.
I think the real issue, when Barry said it happened, was did he know at the time. Lacewell had a friend of his do the spying in Austin. I didn't know the allegations includded filming practice. I knew that a few players said they knew about it much later. If Barry said it happened, it didn't know that. I think the real thing is did Barry +orchestrate it. I don't think he did. AND he was OC when the accusations happen in the 27-0 shutout in '72. It wasn't when he was HC. I doubt Barry knew about it.
DKR was butt hurt, because he owned his alma mater from 1958 until 1970. But the biggest factor in that turnaround was that OU was recruiing great black athletes, and Texas he just begun that. Their first African American varsity football player was Junius Whittier I believe in 1970. I know for a fact that when they won the NC in 1969, they were the last all white team to do it. I think Whittier was a freshman, before freshmen could play varsity football in 70 or 71.
And they were very selective about how many AA athletes they recruited. It wasn't about academics that they restricted that, though it was surely a factor some. But they had white guys who were very poor students and had no problem recruiting .them.
I don't think Barry knew that Lacewell was spying in '72. If he fessed up about it later in life, that's because Barry will tell the truth about anything.
I can tell you that I wasn't in any player meeting except for an occastional game day. And I was on the offensie side after the very beginning of my soph year. But I never heard anything about that. Something like players knowing about that, is not something that sits and lays there. I never heard anything about it until Royal's public complaint in 1976, that it happened in 72. 76 was the all time most boring RRR ever.
One other thing. I became convinced by the 80's that in the GOTC which was in 1971, that Nebraska had our offensive signals. If you filmed, they weren't hard to figure out. And Galen wasn't hiding them. Given that, and if it happened, our coaches probably knew.. That the OU accusatitions happened a year later is at least curious. Maybe Lacewell thought it was fair game.
And interesting thing that makes me think the Huskers had our signals, is that we Jack MIldren called his own plays on the short touchdown drive at the end of the half, we cruised though they. Their All Conference db covering Jon Harrison didn't have a clue, and we basically scored in two plays, both long passes to Jon, Jack's high school buddy. THe coverage wasn't close.
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