The Real Season is Underway

October 5th, 2005

By Justin Waganer
Senior Sports Writer

It’s a shame you can’t be respected and play in the same conference as Montana State, Florida Atlantic, and Arkansas State. It’s also a shame when you make adjustments to your offense that make you better against UCLA and Kansas State than you did against TCU and Tulsa, then you can’t go back and play those two again. Last weekend the real college football season started, conference play, and everything started to become a little clearer.

Oklahoma State looked about as good offensively as Chris Berman in a thong, and for that matter, the defense wasn’t something to rave about itself. Why does this surprise you? It really doesn’t surprise anyone that they lost, or even that it wasn’t close, after all they didn’t exactly rout the Bobcats, Owls, or Indians. But just how bad they were was appalling and almost offensive as a sports fan.

The Cowboys racked up all of 208 yards on offense against Colorado. Granted, the Buffaloes aren’t as bad as the previous opponents for the Pokes, but they aren’t clearly the best team in the Big 12 North either. Getting shutout and dominated at home by a team that may be the best in the crapshoot that is the North is beyond embarrassing. Other dubious stats included giving up over five yards-per-carry defensively, one less first down achieved by penalty than by passing, and the Pokes rocked along at 12% on third down.

Anybody willing to put their house on OSU winning another game? Obviously, as OU has proven, teams can improve, but through four games these guys may have gotten worse. They aren’t beating Missouri this weekend, don’t have a prayer in College Station or Ames, won’t beat Texas or Texas Tech in Stillwater, and have little chance in Norman to finish the season. They better hope Baylor remembers how to suck or they are staring 3-8 in the face.

Just a short drive South things are really starting to look up. The Sooners looked about as good as they did on an off-day the last few seasons, but this performance gave fans hope for the future, and not just the distant future. Beating Texas is obviously a stretch, though karma does seem to be on the Sooners side lately, but after that OU could reel off about six wins in a row.

Don’t laugh, who should Sooner fans fear? Not Kansas or Baylor, the talent level is still ridiculously out of whack. Not Nebraska, Callahan scares nobody. Texas Tech presents problems, but they always do and are always slammed, while Texas A&M won’t take Norman by storm. Oklahoma State poses little threat. Crazy as it sounded a few weeks ago, the South title may still be on the line this weekend.

There’s no argument that Oklahoma has oodles of talent that is raw and inexperienced playing a goodly amount of time. These guys can and will get better. They could still drop one to Nebraska and beat Texas, young teams are notoriously erratic.

I’ll finish with a quick quote for those Oklahoma fans who are being told that the mental aspect of the Sooners streak in the Red River Shootout isn’t worth anything. In the words of Yogi Berra, “Half this game is ninety percent mental.”

Entry Filed under: Oklahoma Sports