In 4 BCS title games.....

[tulsaoilerfan]

..... we are averaging 15 points per game;not gonna win many crystal balls with that kind of production

[BoulderSooner79]

Come on; haven't you heard? Defense wins championships. We should be have 4 titles after winning 15-0 4 times.

[OUTromBoNado]

Yeah, and I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that in BCS title games you tend to play the highest quality opponents with high quality defenses that have over a month to prepare for all aspects of your offense. Meanwhile, the time off tends to hurt offenses like OU that are highly tuned and dependent upon rhythm.

33 days is a long time without a game for an offense. With the exception of the 2005 Orange Bowl, neither offense (OU or the opponent) were very productive point-wise.

[OU-HSV]

Just some facts here...
-24 points beats 14 points all day long, any day, any time, anywhere.
-Florida had 33 days off, OU had 33 days off
-Florida was capable of producing enough offense to win, we weren't.

Using the excuse of 33 days off doesn't satisfy my frustration/concerns

[Crucifax Autumn]

While you are right, OUr O really does depend so heavily on timing and so forth that it is entirely possible that the layoff affected us more.

That said...we oughtta come up with some kinda damn way to score 50 in the BCS Championship we'll be playing next year.

[tulsaoilerfan]

Yeah, and I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that in BCS title games you tend to play the highest quality opponents with high quality defenses that have over a month to prepare for all aspects of your offense. Meanwhile, the time off tends to hurt offenses like OU that are highly tuned and dependent upon rhythm.

33 days is a long time without a game for an offense. With the exception of the 2005 Orange Bowl, neither offense (OU or the opponent) were very productive point-wise.

I believe Fla scored 41 on TOSU; LSU scored quite a few last year, and even going further back Miami scored at least 24 in their back to back appearances; sorry, the time off is an excuse(albeit a somewhat valid one) that only we seem to have a CONSISTENT problem with

[Harry Beanbag]

I've always thought the problem was our coaching staff's arrogance or inability to scout themselves leading to predictability. JMO though.

[OUAlumni1990]

Maybe its not so much arrogance, but we all put Stoops on a pedestal. Don't get me wrong, I think Stoops is a very very very competent coach, but even the best make mistakes and have blinders on at times. Even the best have room to get better. When no one questions you, how are you going to get better? College Football is so competitive that you always need to be getting better just to keep up. What worked 8 years ago doesn't necessarily work as well today.

[delhalew]

I've always thought the problem was our coaching staff's arrogance or inability to scout themselves leading to predictability. JMO though.

Well some of that is valid. Just an example, after a long off period of 33 days you should defer till the second half. You know let your offense shake off the cobwebs.

If anything our offense seems much less creative and unpredictable. I'm not saying we bring the circus to town maybe just dont run the same play twice in the red to the outside were the gator speed is when your having success up the middle. Just saying.

Its possible I'm still to angry to be posting I'm trying to break myself in slowly.

[lank77]

OU has turned in to a REGIONAL Power hence the B12 championships. They are no longer a NATIONAL power hence losses to USC (Pac 10) LSU, FLA (SEC) Boise St (Mount West?) and W. Virginia (Big East)

[Harry Beanbag]

OU has turned in to a REGIONAL Power hence the B12 championships. They are no longer a NATIONAL power hence losses to USC (Pac 10) LSU, FLA (SEC) Boise St (Mount West?) and W. Virginia (Big East)

You are retarded.

[OUAlumni1990]

Someone needs to call the shortbus and have this guy picked up

[StoopTroup]

Someone needs to call the shortbus and have this guy picked up

If you can find NickZepp's number...he's got a bunch of others on his list.

Lank...stay calm...Nick will make all his stops. He always comes through for guys like you.

[RacerX]

SEARCH BUTTON!!!!

[Mr2Cents]

In defense of Oklahoma, they've had to play in what were essentially home games for their opponents in three of those title games:

vs. FSU in Florida
vs. LSU in Louisiana
vs. UF in Florida

The Sooners hardly embarrassed themselves in those contests and had to deal with a decided crowd advantage favoring the other team. Just for kicks, I crunched some numbers and see OU held the opposition to an average of 15.667 points in those games and shut out FSU's most prolific offense ever. Not shabby at all.

I share your sentiments about the lengthy layoff. The "rust" factor certainly seems to be more evident after the 30-day-off mark.

[OUTromBoNado]

I'm not saying that's it's so much of a "rust" factor for our offense, although I think that does play a small role. I think it's more of a factor that the opposing defense has an extremely large amount of time to prepare.

To be honest, I think what's hurting us the most in the BCS bowls is how good we are in the regular season. It gives us a false sense of security. Hear me out on this.

With nothing really to gain and everything to lose, the BCS pretty much discourages us from playing any non-conference opponent that would be of the same caliber as what we would see in a BCS bowl game. Sure, OU plays some good non-conference foes, but they are nowhere near the "elite" of college football. Also, OU's own "eliteness" makes teams afraid to play us. Thus, we get schools backing outing of contracts and teams get forced to schedule D1-AA schools as last minute replacements just to fulfill the required 12-game schedule.

Now, you might counter, "Oh, but we see the some of the nation's elite every year in the Big 12." I think that actually hurts us. We see these same teams every year...most of teams keep the majority of their teams coaching staffs (thus defensive and offensive styles) intact from year to year. So, we basically are seeing the exact same thing from our opponents year in and year out. I think that gives us a false sense of security. Sure, we're doing good in the fact that we remain ahead of our conference foes, but we don't get any exposure to any of the other teams and the other styles being run across the country...and that hurts us when we head into these bowl games.

That being said...overall, I was pretty happy with our offense and defense this time around. They looked like they wanted it, and were well prepared (for the most part). Hell, even our special teams were pretty good (minus the blocked field goal). Two drives doomed us. I don't care what team you're playing against...you're not going to win if you get within the 5-yard line twice and walk away with zero points both times.

[ZookSucks]

While you are right, OUr O really does depend so heavily on timing and so forth that it is entirely possible that the layoff affected us more.you could also argue that the time off affected florida's offense and greatly helped ou's defense.

[SoonerFanInAustin]

I hate losing just as much as the other guy....we just didn't make the plays against Florida. We had our chances earlier to make that game ugly. Just stating facts from other post, (the holding penalty in the 1st qtr and the 2 red zone drives that led to nothing)....if we do what we have done all yr and punch those in for TD's, then we would be talking about how awesome our offense was all yr. Instead we are talking about how we don't show up for big games. Out of the last 5 BCS games, we at least showed up to this one. So I personally think we did some things different to get ready for the game. It just wasn't our yr. In the past games, we could possibly say our coaches didn't have the guys ready. We can't say that this yr.

I hate losing just as any other SOONER fan, we just haven't been able to get over the hump. I rather have a chance of playing for a Natl. Champion and lose. Then go play in the Cotton or Holiday Bowl. Heck I'm not that excited about playing in the Fiesta Bowl, like last yr. The only good thing about playing in the Fiesta Bowl is knowing you are Big XII Champ.

I know a lot of you may disagree, that is fine....but just realize no other team in D-I can say they have played for a Natl Championship 4 out of 9 yrs with the new BCS format....