Our expectations became way too much

[lexsooner]

We started the season as a consensus pick to finish second behind Texas in the Big XII South. QB was a big question mark, and we were not a national title contender, pre-season. Then Sam Bradford turned out to be a gem and we beat Texas and a way-overrated Miami team. Nonetheless, as pleasant a surprise as the 2007 team turned out to be, I never thought we were national title material. We had a couple of good wins over UT and Mizzou, but otherwise, we kind of cruised along without doing anything that impressive, and we struggled on the road. If we beat OSU and win the Big XII title game and go to a BCS bowl, we will have had a great year, much better than expected. I just think we expected too much, and should be grateful this team turned out better than what most had predicted before the season.

[yermom]

bah, i'll have none of this "reality" business

i'm still hoping LSU, WV and everyone else drops a game so we can play tOSU in New Orleans

[sooner59]

Im just hoping LSU loses. At least it would cheer me up a little to watch Lester's dream season go down the tubes.

[Collier11]

I was saying this last night before the game, we werent a serious natl title contenter before the year. When Bradford suddenly became a superstar our expectations changed but the reality obviously is that we were still a year away. Now if next year we lay some eggs like colorado, iowa st, tech this year!

[AverageJoe]

As fans It's hard not to have high expectations. Why would you want to have low ones? We are not OSU fans.....................:)

After the Colorado loss it was Oh well, next year, then everyone else starts loosing and I just sat back in wonder of it all. It would have been the most improbable National Championship we ever won. But now we just make sure we beat the Aggots because I seriuosly cannot take Aggot relatives mouths during the holiday's. I really can't. It would probably make the news. "Lone OU fan in family of Aggots kills entire family of Aggots at Christmas Dinner"

As usual I never say a word to them when we beat OSU or when they lose. But OMG, when they beat us or when we lose......................and they wonder why they are Aggots.

AJ

[adoniijahsooner]

We started the season as a consensus pick to finish second behind Texas in the Big XII South. QB was a big question mark, and we were not a national title contender, pre-season. Then Sam Bradford turned out to be a gem and we beat Texas and a way-overrated Miami team. Nonetheless, as pleasant a surprise as the 2007 team turned out to be, I never thought we were national title material. We had a couple of good wins over UT and Mizzou, but otherwise, we kind of cruised along without doing anything that impressive, and we struggled on the road. If we beat OSU and win the Big XII title game and go to a BCS bowl, we will have had a great year, much better than expected. I just think we expected too much, and should be grateful this team turned out better than what most had predicted before the season.

I totally agree; I thought that we would lose two games this year, but I just didnt figure one game would be to colorado, but i did expect us to lose to tech, because I thought they would be much better this year. OU will be dominant next year and i have believed that all along, but we have to get a tough-minded attitude like we possess last year towards the end of the season.

[hink4769]

The expectations for this team were not too high. It doesn't matter what the preseason polls or people's preseason expectations were. With Sam Bradford at QB we have the best team in the Big 12 (OUr play on the field during the season showed this, irregardless of what anyone thought in the preseason before the team took a snap). I can chalk up last nights loss to him going down. But saying our expectations were too high just because of what people thought in the preseason is kinda dumb. With a healthy Bradford I expected this team to win last night and win the Big 12.

[TUSooner]

This wacky CFB season should teach us one thing that we all seem to have forgotten: It takes more than being good to win the BCSMNC. You not only have to be good, you have to be really good, and you must be consistently focused week after week, play after play. And even after that, you still need some luck and some help. There are always a zillion "ifs." UO can say "IF" Dixon doesn't get hurt; we can say "IF" Bradford doesn't get knocked out of the game, etc. It just doesn't pay to get suicidal after a loss, and you can never look past the next game.

[bluedogok]

To win requires you to be good and have a bunch of blind *** luck in terms of injuries, calls and the breaks along the way. The 2000 season was this way, they don't come along that often and we need to be appreciative of the few that do and supportive in those years that fall short.

Sometimes on here it seems like I am one of the few that remember the Blake years and how bad things can actually get. Just look at Notre Dame, wasn't it just 2 or 3 years ago that they were in BCS bowl games? Didn't Nebraska play in a BCS championship game a few years ago? It doesn't take long to go from the penthouse to the outhouse, it seems too many around here forget that.

[yermom]

Notre Lame was in a BCS game last year

[NYC Poke]

Didn't most pre-season polls (for whatever they're worth) rank OU around 6-10? Win out and you will have had a good year. I'd belittle and downgrade a reporter for a 2-loss season.

[StoopTroup]

I hope Mangino wins the MNC.;)

[Charla]

We won't be able to get #8 until we build our team on defense. Maybe we should change our names to the Oklahoma Donuts that way we start with D and we have a hole to keep our heads in. And anybody that knows football knows that D is where the nuts are at. It wasn't like Tech is known for their def. but they looked good last night.

[okcusooner]

The expectations for this team were not too high. It doesn't matter what the preseason polls or people's preseason expectations were. With Sam Bradford at QB we have the best team in the Big 12 (OUr play on the field during the season showed this, irregardless of what anyone thought in the preseason before the team took a snap). I can chalk up last nights loss to him going down. But saying our expectations were too high just because of what people thought in the preseason is kinda dumb. With a healthy Bradford I expected this team to win last night and win the Big 12.

I think you're right. With Bradford at QB, OU probably is the best team in the Big 12, with Kansas/Missouri very close behind.

However, a good team must be two-deep at most positions, especially QB. Here, the current OU team has failed.

Halzle should have taken many more snaps this season during 4th quarter blowouts. Last night, we all saw what Halzle can do once he gets loose. Unfortunately, (and no fault of Halzle's) that didn't happen until the beginning of the fourth quarter when time was too far against us.

Great teams get through big games with backup quarterbacks. Remember 1987 when Jamelle went down. Charles Thompson stepped in, went up to Lincoln, and beat the #1 ranked Cornhuskers. Of course, Switzer was very good at replacing the starters when the game was in hand.

[tulsaoilerfan]

could be, but it's disappointing to me that we beat 2 teams we maybe shouldn't have and lost to 2 teams we definitely should have beaten

[East Coast Bias]

I agree with Charla. It looks like our D was overated and definetely has plenty of holes.Last night they played well at the end, put needed to play well earlier to give the offense time to adjust .Last week should have been a big wake up call on defense. I think Reynold's has been a disappointment, losing English put us back to being vulnerable on the end and the defensive tackles are not playing anywhere close to their press. Hat's off to reggie, Dj and the other DB's they have played well considering the support in front of them.

[SOONER44EVER]

I think you're right. With Bradford at QB, OU probably is the best team in the Big 12, with Kansas/Missouri very close behind.

However, a good team must be two-deep at most positions, especially QB. Here, the current OU team has failed.

Halzle should have taken many more snaps this season during 4th quarter blowouts. Last night, we all saw what Halzle can do once he gets loose. Unfortunately, (and no fault of Halzle's) that didn't happen until the beginning of the fourth quarter when time was too far against us.

Great teams get through big games with backup quarterbacks. Remember 1987 when Jamelle went down. Charles Thompson stepped in, went up to Lincoln, and beat the #1 ranked Cornhuskers. Of course, Switzer was very good at replacing the starters when the game was in hand.
Great post. IMO if Joey was better prepared and had game experience we would have won last night in spite of the dumb penalties, bad breaks etc. We beat Baylor 52-21 and Halzle took only 1 snap in the game! Thats just ridiculous.

[Sooner02]

I don't agree. Our expectations were right where they should have been considering almost every team has lost and we were given a fair chance by playing our way back up just as everyone else has.

[jdsooner]

The fact that we lost to two unranked teams says that we were not unrealistic. Of course, injuries at defensive end have hurt us. The year we won the national championship, we were relatively injury free. Next year we should compete for a national championship.

No excuses!

[bluedogok]

Handing off the ball in fourth quarter blowouts does not give a backup QB any meaningful game experience. Overmatched defenses are worn out and most of the time it is no better than going against the second team defense in practice, that may even be more meaningful.

You can't compare college football now with that of twenty years ago, they are completely different games. ANY backup QB that has starter potential will transfer if they don't get a starting job, and I don't blame them as there are too many options for players out there nowadays. Every big time program has had QB's transfer because of this, you can't just stockpile talent to keep it away from other teams like you could in Switzer's day. The 25/85 scholarship limits and almost every game being broadcast have created parity.

In this day and age 99% of teams would be severely hurt by a starting QB going down, there are many examples just the past few seasons.

[Desert Sapper]

The fact that we lost to two unranked teams says that we were not unrealistic. Of course, injuries at defensive end have hurt us. The year we won the national championship, we were relatively injury free. Next year we should compete for a national championship.

No excuses!

This is a point that is not often mentioned. We stayed amazingly injury free in 2000. Of course, the time we won it before that, our starter got hurt against Miami, and our Freshman backup took us all the way back to Miami for a very very improbable #6. Losing Williams and English hurt a bunch. Losing Bradford was huge. I just pray we get him back for next week (and hopefully English, too). A Big XII championship is not out of the question, odd year curse or no.

[SOONER44EVER]

Handing off the ball in fourth quarter blowouts does not give a backup QB any meaningful game experience. Overmatched defenses are worn out and most of the time it is no better than going against the second team defense in practice, that may even be more meaningful.

You can't compare college football now with that of twenty years ago, they are completely different games. ANY backup QB that has starter potential will transfer if they don't get a starting job, and I don't blame them as there are too many options for players out there nowadays. Every big time program has had QB's transfer because of this, you can't just stockpile talent to keep it away from other teams like you could in Switzer's day. The 25/85 scholarship limits and almost every game being broadcast have created parity.

In this day and age 99% of teams would be severely hurt by a starting QB going down, there are many examples just the past few seasons.
I agree with most of what you say. The problem is that when most other teams are up by 25-30 they put the backup in. Our backup usually doesn't get into the game until the final series.

[okcusooner]

Handing off the ball in fourth quarter blowouts does not give a backup QB any meaningful game experience. Overmatched defenses are worn out and most of the time it is no better than going against the second team defense in practice, that may even be more meaningful.

You can't compare college football now with that of twenty years ago, they are completely different games. ANY backup QB that has starter potential will transfer if they don't get a starting job, and I don't blame them as there are too many options for players out there nowadays. Every big time program has had QB's transfer because of this, you can't just stockpile talent to keep it away from other teams like you could in Switzer's day. The 25/85 scholarship limits and almost every game being broadcast have created parity.

In this day and age 99% of teams would be severely hurt by a starting QB going down, there are many examples just the past few seasons.

I disagree with your statement that handing off the ball in fourth quarter blowouts does not give a backup QB any meaningful game experience. Last night we saw an example of what happens when a qb gets rusty on the timing of a simple handoff. Particularly, nice rush up the middle called back because the qb's knee was down as he made the handoff after tripping over an offensive lineman's foot.

Where we both probably agree is that the backup quarterback needs to pass in addition to simple hand-offs.

Further, while many backups with starter potential will transfer not ALL do as you claim. Case in point, the guy who backed up Palmer and Leinart for five years but still got drafted in the second round.

[Charla]

The biggest thing between now and Barry Switzer is that he built the team on defense, Barry used to say that three things are gonna happen when you throw the ball and two of them are bad. Barry's attitude about his QB was he was just the first runnin' back to handle the ball and got to decide who would get it next. If we could of ran the option play all those times we had the ball in the red Zone Sat. night the game might of been different. But our biggest problem was giving up over 400 yds. in the air. I'm also thinking that it is OSUx that always talks about next year. We still can be the Big 12 champs and that is something in its self.

[madillsoonerfan5353]

Im just hoping LSU loses. At least it would cheer me up a little to watch Lester's dream season go down the tubes.

Or pecker slapped in the BCS game! It don't matter which one!



:texan:

[bluedogok]

I disagree with your statement that handing off the ball in fourth quarter blowouts does not give a backup QB any meaningful game experience. Last night we saw an example of what happens when a qb gets rusty on the timing of a simple handoff. Particularly, nice rush up the middle called back because the qb's knee was down as he made the handoff after tripping over an offensive lineman's foot.

Where we both probably agree is that the backup quarterback needs to pass in addition to simple hand-offs.
I have seen even some NFL starters get tripped up by a pulling lineman and have the same thing happen. It happened to the Arizona QB that has started for 3-4 years (Tuiatama) in the Oregon-Arizona, it is just one of those things that happens, and it isn't just from being "rusty".


Further, while many backups with starter potential will transfer not ALL do as you claim. Case in point, the guy who backed up Palmer and Leinart for five years but still got drafted in the second round.
I think the odds of a guy who thinks he should be starting staying behind others is pretty much the exception rather than the rule in this day and age. You stand a much better chance of getting drafted playing for a DI-AA school than you sitting on the bench behind someone else. I also think that if you are a scout/personnel director you might question the motivation of someone who didn't want to put themselves in a position to play. Most will transfer if they have the drive to succeed, there are plenty of examples of that.

[recemp]

Disappointed at the loss, but I was disappointed at the way we played against Baylor. I left the stadium shaking my head and saying that we weren't a very good football team.
With the way things fell, I started hoping that we could put it together. Four games, that's all we needed. It was hoping though and not confidence. I kind of feared another embarrassing bowl game loss.
We are a top ten football team, but we aren't a national champion caliber team.
Yes, because this is Oklahoma we are disappointed with that.
I just hope we win out including our BCS game and Sam doen't take any part time jobs.

[wishbonesooner]

back when Josh was getting big leads in 99, Hybl only got in the game for the last series 2 or 3 times. Bob said we needed reps for the first teamers. he only put JW in the Texas game in 01 because Hybl was beat up pretty badly. Bob, for some reason, just doesn't seem to want to give the 2nd guy any meaningful PT. It hasn't hurt us, until Sat. night.

[KingBarry]

Great post. IMO if Joey was better prepared and had game experience we would have won last night in spite of the dumb penalties, bad breaks etc. We beat Baylor 52-21 and Halzle took only 1 snap in the game! Thats just ridiculous.

You know, I've got the idea in my head that if Bradford had gone down at practice on Monday, Joey takes us to victory.

Asking a guy who hasn't thrown to the 1st team receivers all year to have the timing down immediately is a little unreasonable.

Passing teams can never really rely on a backup to come in and immediately bring them from behind.

You can ask the backup to hold on to keep the stick moving and hold a lead, and you can expect him maybe to get a score or two, but to bring his team back from a big hole on the road is a pretty big challenge.

You only have time to prepare one guy, and you have to prepare the one that you know will play. As someone else said on this board, losing a QB is a death sentence.

[Pieces Hit]

Halzle not getting a lot of snaps in past games would be attributed to us needing "style points" to stay in the BCS hunt.

No?

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

We started the season as a consensus pick to finish second behind Texas in the Big XII South. QB was a big question mark, and we were not a national title contender, pre-season. Then Sam Bradford turned out to be a gem and we beat Texas and a way-overrated Miami team. Nonetheless, as pleasant a surprise as the 2007 team turned out to be, I never thought we were national title material. We had a couple of good wins over UT and Mizzou, but otherwise, we kind of cruised along without doing anything that impressive, and we struggled on the road. If we beat OSU and win the Big XII title game and go to a BCS bowl, we will have had a great year, much better than expected. I just think we expected too much, and should be grateful this team turned out better than what most had predicted before the season.

I agree in general with what I think you are trying to say but didn't you at least think we were NC material immediately before the Colo game?

Yes, this team has some flaws that have been exposed and we haven't had a bunch of breaks go our way. At the same time I don't see any team out there this year that is dominant. I thought our chances were real good if we had won in Lubbock to win this week, win in San Antonio and play in the NC where if we played anyone but LSU we would have probably been favored.

If we go on and win a Big 12 Championship I'll be plenty excited with what we accomplished this year but there is no reason that we can't be NC contenders.

[Blues1]

We had a "Chance" to tie this game and go into over time - But as the old saying goes "The ball didn't bounce our way" - (On side kick) - Sorry to say 'LUCK' plays a bigger role than many of us want to admit..I could on and on about different plays over the years that have gone our way and others that didn't...A few inches here or few inches there - All seem to boil down just a matter of plain simple LUCK - JMHO...!!!

[medstudent24]

We started the season as a consensus pick to finish second behind Texas in the Big XII South. QB was a big question mark, and we were not a national title contender, pre-season. Then Sam Bradford turned out to be a gem and we beat Texas and a way-overrated Miami team. Nonetheless, as pleasant a surprise as the 2007 team turned out to be, I never thought we were national title material. We had a couple of good wins over UT and Mizzou, but otherwise, we kind of cruised along without doing anything that impressive, and we struggled on the road. If we beat OSU and win the Big XII title game and go to a BCS bowl, we will have had a great year, much better than expected. I just think we expected too much, and should be grateful this team turned out better than what most had predicted before the season.


I never thought we were NC contenders at any point in the season due to our defense. I'm pretty sure LSU would have ***-raped us if we had gotten the chance to play them in their house.

[medstudent24]

The expectations for this team were not too high. It doesn't matter what the preseason polls or people's preseason expectations were. With Sam Bradford at QB we have the best team in the Big 12 (OUr play on the field during the season showed this, irregardless of what anyone thought in the preseason before the team took a snap). I can chalk up last nights loss to him going down. But saying our expectations were too high just because of what people thought in the preseason is kinda dumb. With a healthy Bradford I expected this team to win last night and win the Big 12.

I dont think OU should ever lose to 2 unranked teams in a single season. I think thats definitely below expectations. If we lose in the Big 12 champ game, fine. If we lose to Texas, fine. If we had lost to Mizzou, fine. Those are all very good teams and its not reasonable to expect to win all of those. But I do think its reasonable to expect to beat the unranked teams.

[medstudent24]

We won't be able to get #8 until we build our team on defense. Maybe we should change our names to the Oklahoma Donuts that way we start with D and we have a hole to keep our heads in. And anybody that knows football knows that D is where the nuts are at. It wasn't like Tech is known for their def. but they looked good last night.

Amen. Give us across the board top 5 defense in every category and only a mediocre #50s/60s ranked offense and thats when we will pose a serious challenge for the NC

[1890MilesToNorman]

On another thread I said I was pleased as I can be with this years team, no one expected us to be where we are right now. The kids are gaining good experience for next year and I bet the Sooners are ranked in the top 3 (if not #1) in next years pre-season polls. A Big XII championship would be wonderful this year considering how young the team is.

Boomer Sooner

[lexsooner]

Folks, I think we came upon the right answer: our D is good, but not worthy of a national title team. If you go back, just about every NC team and all of our teams which won or played for the title had really strong defenses. The 2000 national championship team scored only 13 on Florida State but still won by 11 - Roy Williams and crew. Our BCS title game defensve teams in 2003-04 had Tommie Harris, Lehman, Mitchell, etc., and ranked near the top nationwide in total defense.

Also, our nervous, mistake-filled play in road games tells me we are just not there yet to be a NC contender. Bradford or no Bradford, our play in the first quarter was plain awful - fumble the first snap, drive a defender into the first row after a long gain, penalty on a long kickoff return, face mask, etc. etc.

Next year should really be our year, although we have a tougher road schedule than this season.

[MclOUvin]

I am more surprised than anything that our touted all-conf/all-american potential corners have so many busts. Im sure we just notice it more cus we watch every down of Ou football but we seem to have way too many busts in our secondary

[aero]

We started the season as a consensus pick to finish second behind Texas in the Big XII South. QB was a big question mark, and we were not a national title contender, pre-season.
Not sure what polls you were looking at but every pre-season poll I seen this year had us in the top ten, most no lower than 8th. Also, most of the analyst were saying the only reason we weren't #1 was due to the question mark at qb. I would agree our expectations were too high but only because the team doesn't appear to be as good as expected. I think we very well may have won the TT game if SB had not got hurt especially if we also had English. We should have won at Colorado but gave it away. We did beat an apparently decent Missouri team as well as Texas, who may not be as good as other years but still a decent team. Once we got through the easy, early part of the schedule we did not play as well as a legit NC team should have. Players, coaching, the bounce of the ball - whatever reason, probably a combination, we did not show to have what it took. We're still a good team. You can look at most of the teams this year and they were in the same boat. I think we may see more seasons like this as more teams are scheduling lesser opponents early in the season. Mangino stated a simple fact when he alluded to them scheduling weak teams early to build confidence and a winning attitude in his team. Since the BCS took away S.O.S. there is not much reason to schedule tough teams. Look where KU is. Similar to when BYU won the NC. Just go undefeated, get in the NC and you've got a chance to win the NC. Go undefeated, not get in the NC and you've got bitchin' rights plus it can only help recruiting as well as future rankings. While we can agree this team did not perform to expectations, we will need to see how the year finishes out. Win out with a B12 title and BCS win and we will look back at what could have been and look forward to the next few years. Lose and we will wonder where we are and where we're going.

[cvsooner]

The frustrating part to me is we dominated for the first five minutes and played great the last fifteen. It's the 40 minutes in between that killed us.

[soonerboy_odanorth]

I haven't read the posts... the whole title is just wrong.

Simply put: Do you think Bob's and the team's goals (expectations) included competing for a Big 12 and ultimately a national championship?

Of course they did. Certainly. No doubt.

So by no means is it wrong for us as fans to adopt those expectations.

What is wrong for us as fans to do is if those expectations aren't met to quit supporting the team as they push for the next best realizable expectation.

That would be a Big 12 Championship.

Beat the LoSuRs!

[Dan Thompson]

Being lucky never hurt a team.

[TXBOOMER]

I disagree. We should expect to beat teams that do not have the depth of talent we have. We have not played a team that has more talent than we do all year. When your QB goes down all bets are off.

[stoopified]

Ithink the way the season has gone on a national basis we had every right to expect OU to compete for the NC and if not for THE ANSWER going down in the first 5 minutes of the TT game we would still be in the hunt.

If anyone has watched LSU play they are far from bulletproof and could easily be a three loss team.TOSU looked good until they played ILLINOIS then poof(it should be noted TOSU has no top 20 wins),ASU wasw exposed by UO,UO was beaten after stud QB Dixon goes downand out for the season,Missouri has played 2 top 20 teams and was soundly beaten by one of them(us,in a game not as close as the score indicates),KU has played no one yet,WV lost to USF which though highly rated earlier this season is a 3 loss team.My point is prior to Sam,DeMarco,Auston going down OUr claim to play for the NC was as strong as anyones.

Don't get me wrong I realize OU,even with a healthy Bradford,Murray and English had shortcomings but so does EVERY OTHER TEAM in contention.Do you realize for example that THE GREAT LSU D has surrendered 24+points 5 times this year including 43 in their loss to UK.I think parirty has truly arrived and the days of dominant teams are now few and far between.In this world and at least for this season a flawed SOONER team(with a healthy Sam,DeMarco,Auston) was as good as any in the land.

[Johnny Utah]

I think that even with SB going down, our chances of beating TTU would have been better if we'd have pounded the ball at their sorry run defense (ala Texas the week before), while keeping their offense off the field. Then just take one game at a time from there ... but what do I know, I'm not a coach.