Schnellenberger Reportedly Mistreated Players

Howard Schnellenberger, who resigned as Oklahoma football coach last week, lost favor with university president David Boren because of the harsh way he treated his players, according to a published report.

The Sunday Oklahoman, citing an unidentified source, said Boren felt the most serious complaint against Schnellenberger was the coach’s treatment of his players.

Boren, who has declined comment on the situation, decided the coach “was a guy who didn’t care about his players too much,” the source said in the copyright story. “When you get careless about their health, that’s a difficult thing. The chemistry was really bad.”

Boren apparently became concerned when two players were treated for heat exhaustion during the start of fall practice in August.

One of the players, Aaron Findley, quit the team to recover from his health problems. Another player, freshman defensive tackle Brian Ailey, apparently came close to death because of the heat.

A senior player, who didn’t want to be identified, told the Oklahoman that before Schnellenberger arrived, he had not seen “the verbal abuse and them grabbing you by the face mask and jerking you. I’ve seen more verbal abuse this past year than I have previous years.”

Asked whether Schnellenberger resigned voluntarily or was forced to leave, the source said, “It was really a combination of both. He was nudged, but he made the decision to go.”