Praise His name the season is finally here. I couldn't handle another puff piece about how Toby used to help his sister raise the family horse and how that work ethic and team first attitude caught Coach Stoops's eye while he was driving his kids to school one day and led to Toby landing an invitation to try and walk-on at the University of Oklahoma.
There are lots of intriguing storylines to pay attention to here for the Sooners in Week 1. Lincoln Riley debuts his Better, Faster, More Offense. Mike Stoops gets to heap his verbal abuse from the safe distance of the press box. Bob Stoops gets a chance to redeem himself and show that he can make in-game decisions worthy of his $5 million dollar salary. Joe Mixon makes his much anticipated debut. Can the Defense hold a wet fart? Can the Sooners go a season (or a game) without calling a timeout on a kickoff or on the backside of a TV timeout?
The Akron Zips are terrible which makes for a nice opportunity for the Sooners to get accustomed to game tempo and let some newcomers settle in to some big time college football. The Zips for their part get an ass-beat, a fat game check and, presumably, some sympathy beej's when they get back to Ohio. So good for them (sarcastically slow clapping).
OFFENSE
It's pretty obvious the Sooners need to lube the ol' offense and get some good reps in at this new pace ASAP. I'm expecting jitters and glitches at the outset. Baker Mayfield gets his first start, there's a new left tackle, it's a new playbook. But if the Sooners can get into the groove as the game goes on and avoid an overabundance of penalties that's a nice day. Scoring is not going to be an issue. Stepping on their own shoe strings may be.
There's many ways to go in choosing an offensive player of the game here. Does Baker Mayfield go crazy? Does Sterling Shepered and Dede Westbrook gain 100+ yards each? Can Semarje pick up where he left off last year? Does Mixon get everyone's forgiveness for being a lady beater? I'm going with Baker Mayfield. I don't think his numbers will be gaudy but I think he'll justify his being named the starter. This alone will put this offense ahead of any point in time last year.
DEFENSE
Mike Stoops is on notice. He's been relegated to the press box and he's lucky he didn't get canned last year. His unit needs to step up in a great way and I'm not seeing anything on paper that leads me to believe it's drastically improved. People like Steven Parker, Ahmad Thomas, Jordan Thomas (aka The Secondary) all have to make the leap. You get no coffee if your name isn't Eric Motherfuckin Striker, Charles Tapper, Zack Sanchez or Dominique Alexander, basically. Coffee is for closers.
Per tradition and in light of the previous paragraph I'm going Eric Motherfuckin Striker here. We don't know who's starting for the Zips but one of their options "is not a running threat". That bodes well not only for the entire defensive unit but for Mr. Striker as well.
THE SCORE
The over-under for this one is 57.5. I'd load up on the over if I was a sinner and gambled. I like the Sooners big here, just huge. I'm going to say 52-14.
Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner.
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