OU should be good with how their season has headed considering it was always going to be a rebuild transition season of sorts. OU will be headed to friendly AT&T Stadium as the home team in what potentially could be the best bowl matchup of the season minus Alabama vs. Clemson.
No Kennedy Brooks, no Trey Sermon, no Rhamondre Stevenson to start the season. No Ronnie Perkins, no Jalen Redmon, no Caleb Kelly to start the season. A defensive secondary still getting burned deep after the loss in Ames to get out to an 0-2 Big 12 start.
Throw into the mix a redshirt freshman starting at quarterback who didn’t get the benefit of a normal spring season due to COVID-19 and this was by far Lincoln Riley’s best coaching job in Norman.
I look back to the sitting of Spencer Rattler in the Red River Shootout as a turning point of sorts. The season could have gone to hell right there and then, but instead it was born in those four glorious overtimes when Spencer Rattler grew up as a college quarterback.
The moment for me was when Spencer Rattler hit Austin Stogner with a perfect pass through a very tight window at the Texas goaline to just get OU to the second overtime. To live for three more possessions.
If OU had lost that game to start 0-3 in Big 12… we wouldn’t be talking or thinking about the end of this season vs. Florida and what could be ahead for the Sooners next football season.
But to Lincoln Riley’s credit he didn’t panic. He didn’t throw his defense under a bus. He said in his heart they were getting better and would get better.
When Ronnie Perkins and Rhamondre Stevenson came back OU was a different team. They had a power back who could sustain a running game and a pit bull defensive end who was to this OU team what Von Miller is to the Denver Broncos when healthy.
Somebody please tell Spencer Sanders and Mike Gundy it’s okay to come out. You don’t have to hide anymore. Ronnie Perkins isn’t going to hurt you. We promise. Little Perk won’t bite.
OU’s defense with Ronnie Perkins is a different animal. His teammates feed off of him–on both sides of the ball. Lincoln Riley feeds off of him as a coach because he knows for the first time in his coaching career at OU his offense doesn’t have to score 45 points a game to win games.
This OU team with a healthy Austin Stogner couldn’t beat Alabama or Clemson, but they could certainly beat Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Texas A&M on any given Saturday.
Same with Florida. To me Florida is the most goofy team in the country. Lots of talent, but I’m not sure how much team smarts as evidenced by the cleat throwing at the end of the LSU giveaway loss.
Florida’s NFL headed tight end Kyle Pitt is opting out so that’s a big positive for OU. We’ll have to see who opts out for OU to have a clearer picture of what this Cotton Bowl could be by the time the two teams take the field.
But given where it seemed OU’s season was headed if they hadn’t pulled off the miracle ending in the Red River Rivalry…every OU fan should be exited about the Cotton Bowl and what the future could hold next season for this very young football team which is going to have possibly the best recruiting class in the Lincoln Riley era coming to Norman.