Russell Athletic Bowl: Venables Returns (and no one cares)

Well Sooner fans, here we are at the closing act of another Sooner football campaign. This season was one of the more disappointing and underwhelming efforts I can remember. That OSU game might be the nadir of my sooner football fandom. I just hope the team can end on a high note. Maybe not as high as last seasons crushing-expectation-creating performance in the cotton bowl, but that seems unlikely in light of the bowl and opponent. Venables of course makes his return after being scape-goated for the poor defense a few years ago. Naturally the savior in Mike Stoops (who I fully admit I wanted as badly as everyone else at that point) hasn't realy changed much as far as results, and Clemson has the top defense by some metric. It will be interesting to see if they just stomp on the collective nuts of the sooner offense. I imagine that would be pretty sweet for ole Brent.

Offense

The Sooners expect back weapons (?) Trevor Knight and (!) Sterling Shepard. Though I heard Shepard is still nursing the hammy that must have been torn completely in two in the ISU game. This I think is good as the forward pass has been advanced calculus for the offense since that time. That said, the emergence of Samaje Perine as a man amongst pre-menarchal girls has proven to be quite a boon for an otherwise sad, unimaginative offense. This is why I'm going with Perine, I just don't think there is anyone else to pick. I think he makes little orange feces out of Clemson.

Defense

As I alluded to in the "intro", the defense sucks. Almost universally, in fact. In spite of that, I'm obliged to pick someone to be player of the game and I'm going to be just as creative as I was on offense. Eric Motherfuckin Striker went absolutely ape-shit the last time he played a bowl game. The fact that Clemson is playing its (far more stationary) back-up QB bodes well for the Sooners getting to the QB. Nobody does that better than MF Striker.

Score

I think the Sooners will have a tough time in this one, if for no other reason than they have a tough time with everyone that doesn't have Eastern, Technical, Dudes name, and State in their name. Clemson plays defense well, we don't play offense really at all. That said, I think OU has a little magic and paradoxically puts up decent points today. Sooners win 34-31.

Until next season,

Boomer to the Motherfuckin Sooner 

Sooners vs. Clemson - Russell Athletic Bowl

The first College Football Championship Game will be played Monday January 12th. Our beloved Sooners were picked by many to be playing in that game. High highs have given way to low lows and an unranked, four times beaten Sooner squad instead finds itself playing at 4PM on Monday December 29th in the Russell Athletic Bowl.

There are many reasons to be the grousing wah-wah Sooner fan about this season and this game. I will try to poke holes in my clouds of doom and let the sunshine pour through.

Let's start on offense where, for a second straight season, nobody has any idea what the offense will look like 17 weeks into the season. Year two of the Trevor Knight roller coaster was only marginally more fun than last year's version. Each was marked by inconsistency mixed with a dash of brilliance only to be cut short by injury then (hopefully) redeemed in the bowl game.

Meanwhile, the loss of Sterling Sheperd has taken away the threat of the forward pass. Not one player has stepped up in Sheperd's absence to give hope for the future of the wide receiving corp. Blake Bell has probably been the most consistent all year and this is his last game. In fairness Cody Thomas has been abysmal in Knight's absence.

You could argue that football in Oklahoma has been set back 30 years if not for the emergence of Samaje Perine. Good Lord what a beast. It took 10 weeks and an historic performance against Kansas to convince Josh Heupel and co. that he deserved 25 carries and the starting job but he did it. This dude is a fucking train and it's a fact that if Joe Mixon didn't beat a gal on his 18th birthday Perine is redshirting right now and is the guy you hear about tearing it up in practice leading up to the bowl game (a la Knight two years ago).

Defensively, the Sooners have been so average to below average that this matchup against Clemson has Sooner nation jealously lusting for the glory days of Brent Venables again. How times change. Three years ago he was paraded out of town and a return to the baby eating days of yore was a foregone conclusion with the triumphant return of Brother Mike. Now people are wondering how Bob is going to get rid of him without making future holidays awkward at Che' Stoops. The 2014 Sooners defense has gotten worse as the year has gone on. They have played better opponents for sure but first tier programs adjust, grow and round into championship form. This team is not first tier. Eric Stiker has been neutralized, the defensive line has been consistently below average to decent. The safeties have been the worst of the Bob Stoops era.

There have been some of the dumbest coaching calls you will ever see made by this staff this year which is saying something. Josh Heupel coaches the quarterbacks and they are the weak point of the offense. Brother Mike coaches the weak spot of the defense, the secondary. This season has been a disappointment of historic proportions because of coaching, period.

Who's ready for some football?

OFFENSE

Doom and gloom aside this marks the first time in months where the offense will have an opportunity to have its best eligible players on the field. If Trevor Knight can make good decisions and complete the occasional forward pass and if Sterling Sheperd is indeed back to full strength then maybe some holes can open up for Perine. Sooner Nation and all of America want to see this. Obviously I'm wrapping my arms around my chips and shoving my stack onto Perine's square.

It might take Heupel three series before Perine gets a touch but he's running downhill from there.

DEFENSE

My gut tells me that the aggressive, ears pinned back brand of defense that everyone thought would get trotted out against the Baylor's of the world makes a return today. Nothing to lose except a job, right? That said I'm going Eric Motherfuckin Striker here. There is literally no one behind him you could take and anyone else feels too much like a crapshoot.

SCORE

I think we get a bit of a slugfest today. The Sooners look better than people expect and the D brings the heat.

Sooners 27, Clemson 14

Boomer to the motherfuckin Sooner

OU vs. Texas Tech

OU vs. Baylor

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.

Iowa State

Back again from untamed India, land of tigers, elephants, and unformed stools. As part of my vacation experience I was fortunate enough to miss the KState game. I did read a recap and it sounds like it was an all time classic ball-stomp. The normally reliable Honeycunt failed to come through so many times he'd be falling back on that communications degree if this were the NFL. What a bummer, and it looked like Knight had a reasonably good game. I could well be misinterpreting everything but this is the best I could glean from a recap and box score. Anyway, this weeks post will be brief again but next week should be back up to sub-par crap (from pure dogshit). I don't know a ton about ISU. I know they've lost some stinkers but have played some teams tough. Calzone Mangino is guiding their offense as deftly as he plates up at a buffet. I think it will be a challenge today on the road. I hope the sooners can right the ship and get things going again.

Offense

It's getting awfully hard not to pick Sterling Sheppard. Knight looks to him on nearly every passing down. To Sheppard's credit, he's been pretty lights out. I'm not going to even attempt to resist that temptation and am picking Sterling to have a big day in Ames.

Defense

I'm going with Dominique Alexander here. I think he's due to have a nice day, with no real meaningful thought behind that pick. I like him, and that's enough for me today. (This is exceptionally weak shit today, wow).

Score

Apologies for the garbage today. My trip is coming to a close and with my beloved Royals narrowly missing the completion of their Disney movie, I've paid nearly zero attention to the sports world. That said I still like the Sooners in this one. If they can't win on the road at Iowa State, the problems are much bigger than anyone might've thought. I like OU to get it done with a solid rebound, 34-20.

Boomer to the Motherfuckin Sooner. 

OU - K State

Apologies, folks. This week I've been as worthless as OU's first half offense was against Texas and haven't put shit up on the board here. Nate's in India presumably getting smashed off fermented coconut milk and hanging out with the Growler monkeys, flinging feces at passersby. So I thought I had some time. Well, a win is a win. I'd rather be 5-1 than 4-2 at this point in the game so let's take that golden cowboy hat and haul ass back up to Norman. We have a big one here this week against the Ol' Turtleneck. This one's going to be tough. The Wildcats still have a guy named Lockett who, last time we played, made a mockery of our defense and almost scored himself a trip to New York. OFFENSE Um, we have to get better on first down. And second. And third. I'm really trying to remember a 2nd and short opportunity. TFrye likened Heupel to the dude from A Beautiful Mind where, if something doesn't go just so, he gets all discombobulated. I think that's giving way too much credit. I think Heupel's drawing with crayons on the back of an Applebee's kids menu up in the booth while the defense stays on the field for six minutes at a time. Anyway, I'm going Trevor Knight here. I think he shows signs of, er, something this week. It's at home, big game. Hopefully he can get settled in. DEFENSE Man these guys have got to stop being their own worst enemy on third down. They have to get off the field. K State will try to bruise them and Lockett will possibly make Zack Sanchez look like a cardboard cutout. I'm going Eric Motherfuckin Striker here. Let's blitz a little. Get them out of their gameplan a little bit. SCORE I'm going 24-21 here in a game closer than the score would indicate. BOOMER TO THE MOTHERFUCKIN SOONER