Kansas State (brace yourself, this isn't a feel good "piece")

Call me a bad fan, call me fairweather, call me doughy ginger, I don't give a shit what you call me. I'm tired of this same routine every season. I'm officially calling for Stoops ouster. It's the same story every year, the same lines about competing for conference championships, the historical win/loss record, hell he's the winningest coach in school history. But there is no accountability, no one questioning his status. We haven't been a realistic national title contender since 2009. If you follow recruiting, and I really don't to be fair, it seems like the guys we sign have it narrowed down to Kentucky, Central Florida and OU, not  even on the big programs radar. I'm tired of it. OU isn't in the business of competing for championships with the word "conference" in front of it. For the record, it's now been more years since our most recent national title, than it was before Stoops delivered us to the promised land in 2000.

It's maddening, and I'm sure a plethora of assistants will be fired after this season, if not sooner. There has been a very consistent lack of fundamentals for years now. If this is just anecdotal bullshit in your eyes, I submit this quote from Bob Stoops after embarrassing themselves in the Cotton Bowl last week: "You can put it all on me, but I don't play." What kind of coach says that, out loud, to the media? That is just absurd, and really demonstrates his line of thinking and attitude toward the team.

The Sooners travel up to Manhattan, KS this weekend to take on Bill Snyder's Wildcats. Speaking of coaching, that is someone who might do more with less than anyone else. I'm not wishing for KState's program, but I'd be delighted to have a coach who got the most out of his players like Snyder does. KState is fresh off a near upset of Top 5 TCU. We all know what the Sooners are coming off of. I don't expect the offensive line issues to be solved this week, so I expect another dose of Baker Mayfield running for his life from the moment the ball is snapped. Hopefully, he can revert to getting out of the pocket more as opposed to last week when he seemed content to let it collapse on him. Hell, maybe he's just tired of running. This has the makings of another Sooner loss. Going on the road and playing a disciplined, fundamentally sound team, and bringing neither of those traits with them. Should be interesting.

Offense

I went with Baker Mayfield last week and that certainly didn't pan out. He did as well as could be expected I guess, given the "protection" he had. My hope is that the Sooners try to slow down the 7 yard dashes of the Wildcat front by throwing a few screens and maybe some well timed draw plays. With that in mind, I am going with Joe Mixon. No, he never plays. No, there isn't a good reason for this that I know of. But, if I'm going to unleash my kiss of death on anyone, I prefer someone who will be on the bench most of the game.

Defense

This feels a bit like last season where I just threw darts at the defensive roster. No one really played well last week, and that crap they called "tackling" was just reheated post-mexican food shit. I'm not sure who informed everyone on the defense that they were Ronnie Lott and wrapping up was ancillary in light of their menacing hitting prowess, but they were full of shit. Again, fundamentals, basic pee-wee league type shit that has clearly not been taught. Anyway, with the fact that I'm obligated to pick someone, I will pick Jordan Evans. Because...might as well.

Score

OU probably will end up losing this game for the plethora of reasons I mentioned above. However, we are the ranked team, and we do only have one loss (however awful it might be). We can occasionally do some things well. I think the Sooners will do enough of them to sneak out of the Little Apple with a W. Sooners take it in an ass-clencher, 31-30.

Apologies for the overriding negative vibe in this post. It's telling that I still feel this way, writing this with a week to chill. It's been building for a few season, and I've just had enough. Still, I root on and hope for the best.

Boomer to the Motherfuckin Sooner. 

The 2015 Oklahoma Sooners Defensive Preview

The 2015 season is nigh upon us and the defense will very likely be what determines if the Sooners can make a run to the playoff, or idle by as also-rans yet again.

When examining the Sooners roster on defense, it's hard not to notice that they are pretty young as a whole. There are only 4 seniors in the two deep, 2 of them start, while no freshman are starting, that unit doesn't scream seasoned vet. There are absolutely some talented guys there, including guys like Dominique Alexander who, though not a senior, has more experience as a junior than most older guys. It's not all doom and gloom, but there needs to be a significant improvement over last season when the Sooner D singlehandedly bought the local Tums salesman's pool.

The defensive backfield was abysmal. These weren't lapses either, though I guess the entire months of September, October, and November are a lapse relative to the age of the Sun. Zack Sanchez looked like he might be the real deal, and as it stands now, is easily our best guy back there. Steven Parker looked very promising as a true frosh last season, he stands to start at NB. Jordan Thomas was truly awful, and completely unprepared to play last season. Let's hope a year of reflection on last season has motivated him to be more prepared to run, tackle, etc this year. I think Hatari "2000" Byrd and Ahmad Thomas showed promise as well. If we squint just right, this could be the most improved group on the team. They damn sure need to be.

The LB spot is pretty solid, I think. Jordan Evans beat out Frank Shannon for one of the starting spots. Both are salty, and I suspect Big Frank will get plenty of reps. It won't shock me a bit to see him starting at some point, but don't sleep on Jordan Evans either. Dominique Alexander is also extremely solid. A tackles machine, he seems to be in the right place on most downs. The entire unit desperately needs to improve in the passing game, however.

Defensive Line has some question marks as well. The DE spots are locked down hard by Eric Motherfuckin Striker and Charles "Ass" Tapper. Both can get to the QB and fly around the field, but the depth behind them is firmly in the "question mark" category. Speaking of, the middle of the line could be trouble. Dimon, Romar, and Wade comprise the most known commodities. Though the Big 12 is pretty pass-happy these days, getting a push from these guys will be crucial in minimizing our DB's exposure. This is starting to feel like a lot of "ifs."

Last season, the defense finished 114 in the nation vs the pass. Some changes have been made, moving full-time to the 4-2-5, or at least as a base package could help. I also read that last season they had two different coaches for the secondary, one for the safeties and one for the corners!? One player said that this season communication has been so much better now that they're all in the same meetings together. Why not have the QB and receivers meet separately and then just figure it out on gameday? (I can't confidently say that didn't happen last year as well.) I'm not even a reasonable facsimile of a pee-wee football coach, but this seems like a pretty damn obvious way to set things up.

There is a lot that has to go right for this defense to push the Sooners to the playoff. Pretty much every unit has to improve...a lot. They aren't going to be the '85 Bears, but maybe they can do enough to get wins. I hope Mitch is right about that 45-55 point per game average. Not only would it be fun, it might be the only way to win.


Boomer to the Motherfuckin' Sooner.

Sooners vs. Iowa State

The Sooners had an extra week to stew on the juices of the devastating K-State loss. They not only wasted the best called game of the season by Jabba the Heupel (that final goal line opportunity excepted) and the best game by far for Trevor Knight, our boys also completely shit on any and all chance to get in the four team playoff.

Having now come to this realization will the Sooners respond by whipping the shit out of the below average Cyclones? Or will they sulk around with their bottom lips stuck out feeling sorry for themselves. It had damn sure better be the former.

OFFENSE

As mentioned, the Sooners are coming off their most "dynamic" performance of the season. They racked up 500 yards, Trevor Knight hit about 80% of his passes and, at times, they were able to move quickly and easily down the field.

This group is still deeply flawed.

For instance, the no huddle does more harm than good when you have no clue what you are running when you get to the line of scrimmage. The only thing that meets the definition of  hurry up is the last 6 seconds of the play clock. Nobody outside of Sterling Sheperd and Blake Bell seem capable of catching a forward pass on the reg.

Still, they should be able to overcome these flaws against Iowa State. I look for Trevor Knight to have another good game. I think the staff feels comfortable again in cutting him loose a little. Cody Thomas showed he can step in and command the offense if need be. And, lest we forget, no title shot this year means you can throw caution to the wind with Knight's health. The real exciting news for me is the presumed return of Keith Ford.

I'm going to throw a little audible here with my OPOG prediction and go Blake Bell. If the Sooners needed to learn anything from K-State it's that you have to score TD's in the red zone. Hopefully they spent the last two weeks figuring out how to do that without handing the ball off and running straight up the middle. That's why I'm taking Bell. I want to see that play action bootleg action with Bell running to the boundary. It works in the NFL about 95% of the time and it, gasp, plays to the strength of your players.

DEFENSE

Lost in the unbelievable Honeycut pant-shitting was the fact that had he made his chip shot field goal the Wildcats still would have had four minutes to try to score and win. And if you need evidence to believe they would have done it just look at how they spent their time killing the clock stomping on the collective dicks of Sooner Nation. They ran seven plays, went 22 yards and killed the whole fricking clock.

They toyed with the defense. It was a cat playing with a yarn ball. Oh the 'Cats need 6 yards on 3rd? They get seven and make it look easy. The Sooners are playing the option read? OK. How about faking that then stepping back into a drop back pass and hitting someone wide open down the middle for 60?

And it was like that all day. This defense has serious problems. Notably, they don't seem to have much idea what's coming at them and their best option, blitzing, is backfiring so badly they are now apparently afraid to try it. However, they are not afraid at all to burn a timeout. Two on the same play if need be. If it's the first drive of the third quarter, so be it. That's the cost of doing business.

Yikes. The Sooners need to get something resembling MOJO back today. Again, I'll pick someone off the standard play sheet. I'm going Jordan Evans here. He occasionally shows flashes. Maybe he forces and/or scoops a fumble and takes it to the house.

SCORE

Well, in spite of my doom and gloom I think the Sooners do come out and make a statement today and start mopping up their soilings from two weeks ago. I think they kick the shit out of the Cyclones and win this one going away, 42-14.

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner.