Turning Point

Oklahoma’s game with Tulsa this Saturday could be a turning point for Sooner fans. After this game fans will either start to think about winning out and hoping other teams lose in order for Oklahoma to make it back to the BCS championship game or they will start calling for some coach’s heads. In Oklahoma, you either win every game or you start taking some heat. Sooner fans aren’t used to seeing their team lose two games before conference games begin. Bob Stoops will have to get his team to show some real improvement in order to keep that from happening. Especially now that Miami has proven to be a real threat.

If you are wanting to know what to expect from this team, just take a look at the past decade. Since Stoops has been in Norman there have been a few times when things were looking pretty dark for the Sooners early in the year. However, this coaching staff has always found a way to turn things around.

After Oklahoma lost to TCU in 2005 the Sooners may have finished with an 8-4 record, but that was also the last time they won a bowl game. The difference this year is that Stoops and Kevin Wilson can look forward to getting a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback to return to the roster in the next couple of weeks.

The very next year after Rhett Bomar was dismissed from the team before the season started, the Sooners lost to Oregon and Texas. Don’t forget that it didn’t take too long for Adrian Peterson to suffer his injury and fans were wondering how the Sooners would even make it to a descent bowl game. However, Stoops turned things around and won his fourth Big 12 championship.

The bottom line is that the Oklahoma coach’s have proven theirselves over and over. The difference between Oklahoma suffering a few setbacks and a team like Oklahoma State suffering a few setbacks is that the Sooners consistently recruit the best football players in the country and have the talent to cover up a lot of the holes left by injuries. College football is still all about coaching and recruiting and Oklahoma has not slacked off in either of those two areas.

My bet is that the Sooners find a way to shore up the offensive line this week, prove that they can stop a dynamic offense like the one Tulsa will bring, and will get Sam Bradford back during the off week. Therefore, it’s not too much of a stretch to think that the Sooners could find a way to lose no more than 1 or 2 more games this season. They still have to be considered the number 2 favorite in the Big 12 and anything can happen in the game against Texas.

Don’t be surprised if Oklahoma finds a way to win another confernece title or even make it’s way back into the BCS championship. They still have championship caliber talent on the field.

Sorry Sam

As bad as OU fans might feel after watching that pitiful effort on Saturday versus BYU, the person you really have to feel sorry for is Sam Bradford. In a shocking move over the offseason, Bradford showed his team colors by deciding to come back for one more season. It was very clear that the only reason he came back was for a shot at a national championship. That goal lasted all of one half.

Actually, it didn’t even last that long. Even with Bradford in the lineup for the first half, you could already tell that this would be a long year for the offense. Not only did the line fail to block or fail to know the snap count, but the play calling brought back memories of the Chuck Long days. Kevin Wilson’s play calling was more conservative than Rush Limbaugh.

There’s something wrong with an offensive coordinator that won’t throw the ball when you have a quarterback that just won the Heisman Trophy and has recorded possibly the best two seasons as a passer in the history of college football. Running the ball over and over isn’t exactly the way to break in an inexperienced line.

The fact that Jermain Gresham was unable to play also played a big part in the defeat. Oklahoma was just 2 for 11 on 3rd down conversions. That stat alone shows how much the Sooners missed Gresham. The All-American is a go-to receiver on 3rd down that nobody in the country can cover.

If the offensive line doesn’t improve it’s protection of the quarterback, Wilson may have to go to third string quarterback Drew Allen by the second quarter of the Idaho State game. Let’s just say that this edition of the o-line won’t be asked to pull secret service duty any time soon. The biggest question is at what point in time did these linemen forget that you can’t move until the ball is snapped? Hopefully today they are in a class room learning about snap counts.

Bradford could possibly be back for the Miami game. Unfortunately, that could be his death penalty. With the current protection he has, that could possibly be the last time he suits up in a college game. Let’s not even talk about what Texas would do to him.

In all actuality, not all is lost for the Sooners. They have played for a national title with one loss before. Also, this is not the first time that Bob Stoops has had to do damage control after the first game. If the Sooners can get some good news over the next two weeks, all of their goals could still be in place. The good news is that the defense looks like the defense that we are used to seeing at Oklahoma. But, you gotta feel bad for a quarterback that passed up millions just to bring the Sooner Nation another title and gets rewarded with a banged up shoulder.