I was so busy this week-end… I didn’t have time to blog. On Friday night… I attended a party of older players from the Oklahoma Racquetball Association and had a ball. It was truly a blast and now they know….I’m alive and healthy. I had tears in my eyes at the end of the evening.
On Saturday evening we attended the Annual Johnny Bermuda North Edmond Big 12 Octoberfest and had a wonderful time as well. Probably 90% of this group were O Stater’s and emeshed in various conversations as to how they feel about one Michael Gundy. Very dark comments.
Given I’m a compassionate human…I ‘intially’ abstained from said conversations. But when Sooner DB Key Lawrence went whiff on an early game oskie attempt and an Iowa State touchdown ensued….a catcall was directed my way from an agitated O Stater to the effect, “Same old Sooner defense.”
I cooly replied, ” Don’t fret it. Key’s just amped for Dallas. We’ll be okay. He wanted a Pick Six to follow Billy Bowman’s. Don’t worry…this is the last year you have to get your ass beat in Bedlam and next season it’ll be Utah, BYU, Colorado Cincy, K State, Kansas, UCF, and whoever playing the part of Big Daddy. 92-19-7….get off the drugs and deal with it.”
And then on Sunday…I watched Baker and Jalen direct the Tampa Bay Bucs and Philadelphia Eagles to thrilling victories. I think everyone knew Philly would be a serious contender, but Baker’s 3-1 Bucs are one of the NFL surprise stories one-fourth of the way thru this season. I’m happy for Baker.
As far as the Sooners…they are now 5-0 and ranked No. 12 in this week’s rankings. I think that’s about right. I’m not in any way fretting OU’s ranking at all. If you’re good…you’re good, and the Sooners will have a chance to prove it starting Saturday.
OU is a five point Vegas dog here on Monday. It will be interesting to see how the spread moves during the week. I think OU is pretty good and clearly headed in the right direction. But I’m not sure yet if the Sooners have the interior toughness to beat Texas in this ‘first’ Red River Rivalry of the season.
For me the thing with OU…is get incrementally better every week and just get to Jerry’s World to play in the Dr. Pepper Big 12 Championship Game. Just do the little things as a team thoughout the season to get to Jerry’s World and the rankings will take care of themselves.
So far…both Dillion Gabriel and Danny Stutsman have been stellar leaders. This is what you need. Mature leadership from within the team to in essence coach the team from within. It can’t just be coaches screaming and yelling to play the ‘right way’. It has to be a roster filled with leadership from top to bottom. That’s what it takes to become a championship team.
Dillion Gabriel has a chance this week-end to propel himself into the Heisman conversation with a clean performance against Texas. This will the first game to date the Horns have played against a stellar QB this season given the rawness of Alabama’s Jalen Milroe in the early season.
In reality….we really don’t know all that much about the back seven of Texas because they haven’t to date played against an offense which can do the things the Sooners are capable of doing offensively.
I’m circling the health availability of Horns’ tight end Sanders as a big key to the game. He and Xavier Worthy scare me. Those two dudes are both the type of receivers the Green Bay Packers need to add to their team to help Jordan Love evolve as a significant NFL starting QB.
Up top is the video of the kid from Los Alamos, Calfornia the Sooners just signed. OU sorely needs to improve at the TE position heading into the much overhyped SEC.
I mean…other than Georgia at Athens, LSU at Baton Rouge, and Alabama at Tuscaloossa…I’m not seeing anything from the rest of the league that has me all that concerned as long as Coach Venables keeps the Sooners on their current rebuild track.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if OU ended up playing a third game at Jerry’s World this season vs. the defenseless USC Trojans?
Peace.
MJ