More like Cheez Dick Bowl amiright?
The Sooners are putting a bow on another campaign, Brent Venables first as head coach, and it's a bit of a mercy kill. Frankly, it's more than they deserve. A 6-6 campaign is underwhelming by any definition.
Enough of the pessimism though. At least the Sooners play a big name opponent in a warm weather clime. The Seminoles are 9-3, ranked 13 (too high) and are on their way up. They'll be excited to play. The Sooners are dealing with the now all too regular sight of players opting out for the NFL or entering the portal.
Most notably, the Sooners will be without the service of Eric Gray. As such, the Sooners are 9.5 'dogs as of this writing. What the pundits don't recall is that the Sooners rise to the occasion in meaningless bowl games.
Let's do this.
OFFENSE
The opt out of wunderkind Eric Gray makes for a nice opportunity for guys like Javontae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk. One must hope that the dropoff from Gray to Barnes as a feature back is much less than Dillon Gabriel to Davis Beville.
Gabriel, Jalil Farooq and Marvin Mims are all available. Apparently the likes of Wanya Morris and a couple other O-lineman are gone.
What I'm driving at is that Dillon Gabriel is going to have to carry it. Scary as hell but doable.
I'm going with Marvin Mims for OPOG as he's due and that means Gabriel has come to play.
DEFENSE
This is going to sound stupid but I think recent successes on the recruiting trail are going to give this group a boost going into the offseason. Also, they've been playing well enough to win for the last month or so of the season. And, they absolutely won the game against OSU.
Now, I have no idea what FSU brings to the table on offense. Their QB's numbers seem comparable to DG's. The caliber of opponent is almost certainly worse than what OU faced all season. They beat LSU and Florida, OK, and lost to Clemson, NC State and Wake Forest. Unimpressive. Most. Unimpressive.
For my DPOG I'll go Ethan Downs. Why not?
THE SCORE
Well, if you've made it this far you know I have no idea what the fuck to expect. Of course I think the Sooners win.
They'll put up 42 with a slightly modified gameplan that accounts for the loss of Eric Gray but includes the full compliment of outside talent.
The D picks up where it has left off after having played well the last month of the season.
I'm going 42-31 in a pretty fun game to watch.
Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner
