Just a stunning loss for the Sooners in Manhattan which unless the rails come off for Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, and Clemson pretty much allows the selection committee to ignore the Sooners this time around regardless if they finish as a one loss Big 12 champion.
It’s one thing to be a one loss team if the loss is to Texas or Ohio State—it’s another thing when you were hit in the mouth by a Kansas State team which scored 13 points against an Oklahoma State defense which can’t filter air at times.
This time around OU won’t have a resume win or two against a top ten team to give the committee an excuse to match Jalen Hurts against Alabama in the national semi-finals.
One word would describe the Sooners performance for the middle thirty minutes in Manhattan, Kansas…..weak.
The Sooners were weaklings on Saturday versus a Kansas State program in its first season in a while without iconic Bill Snyder on the sideline.
I give the Wildcats credit they got behind 10-0 early, but came back and physically whipped the Sooners in building a 48-23 lead which withstood a furious rally by OU in the game’s final twelve minutes.
It’s one thing to get behind Alabama or Ohio State like this, but you do this against Kansas State and it’s something the committee can’t rationalize even if they want Jalen Hurts vs. Tua in one of their national semi-finals.
Barry Tramel used a great line this week in describing Oklahoma State’s at times invisible defense against Texas Tech and Baylor earlier this season.
Tramel wrote, “Watching the O State defense is like watching a group of sixth grade infidels abuse a bunch of fourth graders during an unsupervised recess.”
Great line. I laughed my ass off. But the bitter truth is that line would be apropos to describe the Sooners on both sides of the ball for the second and third periods on Saturday in Manhattan.
Lincoln Riley’s Sooners have been here before, but never with Ohio State and LSU being this good during the same season.
Live by the graduate transfer quarterback and eventually you’ll die by one as well. As in Joe Burroughs and Justin Fields. That was my line, not Tramel’s.
The goals for OU are now different. Win the Big 12, go to the best New Year’s Day Bowl available, and get Jalen Hurts to New York even if he doesn’t win the Heisman.
Some might say what if Alabama were to beat LSU by three touchdowns or the inverse happens?
I would say, “But neither one of them got their asses kicked by Kansas State for thirty minutes on a good weather day with their quarterback healthy.”
OU hosts Iowa State in two weeks after an off week.
I would guess the Sooners respond, but this was a season the Sooners needed to be unblemished for the committee.