What a great autumn day of college football as OU beat Texas 34-27 in the Red River Rivalry game to take control of the regular season Big 12 standings as the No. 1 seed for this December’s Big 12 Championship Game.
It was a coming out party for Alex Grinch’s defense as for the first time this season his defense faced an elite national caliber quarterback in Sam Ehrlnger.
For those who didn’t watch—the Sooners sacked Ehrlinger nine times and in total tackled Longhorns behind the line of scrimmage fifteen times on the day.
For the first half of this game what the college football nation saw was a glimpse of the past when a coach named Switzer had his defenses swarming to the ball like a horde of rabid Dobermans with fangs guarding a Trump rally in Alabama.
This wasn’t your OU Mike Stoops Part II defense. This wasn’t the defense Ruffin McNeil ‘coached’ last season either after Mike Stoops was fired the day after the loss to Texas.
This was a defense which held the Longhorns to 340 yards on the day and but three points in the first half. This was a defense which had to bring a smile to both the face of Jalen Hurts and his father. Because they now know if son gets the chance this is a defense which can play with Alabama, Clemson, LSU, and Ohio State if OU gets back to the Final Four.
OU clearly has to stay away from injuries on the defensive side of the ball. OU’s defense is already better than what LSU trots out there right now. This isn’t your normal LSU, this is what LSU would look like if they hired Mike Leach.
Alabama and Clemson are different and Georgia doesn’t have a quarterback to hang with Hurts, Lawrence, Tua, Burrows or Fields. Auburn, Georgia, and Florida are on borrowed time. Depending on what you think of Wisconsin we’re down to five or six teams in the hunt for the national championship.
Did the PAC 12 even field a football conference this season?
But back to Dallas and the Red River Rivalry. This wasn’t Jalen Hurts’ best day and yet there was never a doubt who was the best team on the Cotton Bowl field on this sun drenched crisp October day.
This day belonged to linebacker Kenneth Murray, to wide receiver Ceedee Lamb, to Canadian nose guard Neville Gallimore and to Alex Grinch and to Lincoln Riley.
For those not keeping score—Riley is now 3-1 versus Texas as the head man who took over for Bob Stoops and eventually had to fire his brother one year ago to the day.
The future burns bright for Sooner Nation this Sunday morning. The nation’s best offense for three years running now doesn’t have to play Clemson and the SEC with one arm tied behind their back. In fact…they now have a defense which can cover their back for in reality the first time this decade in the score crazy world of Big 12 football.
OU’s offense and Lincoln Riley now have some drooling Dobermans of their own who can run to the ball and tackle in space.
What a simple plan by Lincoln Riley. Put players on the field who can tackle and run to the ball.
I thought I was putting a Barry Switzer interview on here, but ended up with Barry Sanders instead. I think I’ll leave it though because Switzer to this day says Barry Sanders is the biggest recruiting miss which occurred during his tenure at OU. I’ll do the Coach Switzer interview tomorrow. Small world…my father actually represented Barry Sanders in a lawsuit after his career with the Detroit Lions was over. I have this photo autographed in my study.