Season opener vs Houston time/channel set

[pappy]

The season starts against Houston at 11 AM on ABC.

[BermudaSooner]

Cause the only match-up between top 10 teams opening weekend should probably happen at 11:00am.

[BoulderSooner79]

I prefer the 11am starts, so that's what I requested. Sorry, I should have asked some other fans first - my bad.

[yermom]

Lame.

So it begins.

[Tear Down This Wall]

It's because the opponent is Houston. If it were LSU, A&M, or some real college football team, we'd be playing at night.

I don't care what Houston did in 2015, they graduated a sh*t ton of starters. They'll be facing OU with new starting RBs, #1 WR, all four in the secondary (over half their defense is gone, including leading tackler and TFL guy), and everyone in the special teams - kicker, punter, longsnapper, and return men.

In short, it's going to be ugly for Houston's new starters...and, people who really pay attention to college football know it. All UH has in 2016 is their QB. That may be fine in their little, off brand conference, but...Baker will shred their four new secondary starters, while Mixon and Perine pound away at the new defensemen up front.

It almost makes me feel sorry for Greg Ward having his Heisman bid be snuffed out in Week One...or, not!

If they stay within 28 of us, I'll be mildly surprised.

[Pride1Mom]

It means you can have dinner at a decent time, and watch more football!!

[swardboy]

OU - 71Htown - 17

[Tear Down This Wall]

OU - 71Htown - 17

Sounds about right inasmuch as Baker and Samaje will both be Heisman candidates, and Stoops has a history of leaving Heisman candidates in games late to pile up numbers.

[Pride1Mom]

Just win! Houston is not a cupcake team.

[rock on sooner]

Just win! Houston is not a cupcake team.

Hmmm, yup yup! We need to really fine tune everything first off, then
be plain vanilla the following game 'cause the one after makes...or breaks...
OUr playoff chances.

[BoulderSooner79]

Look at the bright side - a few less hours to wait for OU football!

[Tear Down This Wall]

Just win! Houston is not a cupcake team.

They are a cupcake. They lost most of their offensive starters at RB and WR, their entire secondary, leading tackler, leading TFL, and their entire special teams units - even the longsnapper.

The OU game will be the first collegiate start for over half their team - on both side of the ball and on special teams. And, they'll be playing in a pro football stadium where OU fans will outnumber them by at least 2 to 1.

It will be ugly for Houston. The only questions is, how ugly will it get for them. Again, I'll be shocked if they're within 28 of us - at halftime.

Houston is refried horsesh*t, and they will show it September 3rd. It's embarrassing that they are being considered to join the Big 12. This game will be as thoroughly uninteresting as an Iowa State game.

That's right, I said it. Throw f*cking Iowa State in the America Athletic Conference, and they'd likely go 13-1 as well every four years or so when they have a senior-laden team like Houston did last year.

But, that was last year. The majority of those guys are gone. And, so, Houston, will be fighting to get to seven wins this, so that they can pin the "we qualified for a bowl game again!" ribbon on their chests, like Texas Tech.

F*ck Houston. They are nothing but Texas Tech South, if you ask me. I hope Perine goes off for 300 yards on them, and Mayfield and Mixon get 100 a piece.

Bay City Buttholes. Stay out of our conference! We already have enough sh*tty former SWC schools in our conference, starting with the main sh*thole of them all, the one in Austin!

Houston. I'd rather eat a bucket a fresh goat puke than share a conference with those bottom feeding sea roaches.

[soonerstan56]

Let's kick their asses early and rest up the starters !

[oudivesherpa]

I'm an OU fan living in Houston and the airwaves are covered with U of H fans boasting about how they are going to kick OU ***. It is like a three foot redneck midget bragging on how he is going to F*#! the crap out of a beautiful six foot Hollywood starlet. He has great expectations with very little abilities to achieve his goals.

[JLEW1818]

I learned my lesson week 1 of 2009 against BYU.
We had a Heisman winner at QB.
Yes he got hurt right before half, but we still sucked in the first half.

We will be favored and should win. But still, it's week 1.

[Tear Down This Wall]

I learned my lesson week 1 of 2009 against BYU.
We had a Heisman winner at QB.
Yes he got hurt right before half, but we still sucked in the first half.

We will be favored and should win. But still, it's week 1.

Not the same. Houston has inexperience all around, BYU was loaded with upperclassmen all around.

In their starting 22, plus special teams, BYU only had three or four underclassmen starting. The majority of their starter in 2009, offensive, defensive, and special teams, was comprised of seniors.

Factor in that many of those seniors were also two years older because many go on two year missions, and you had a exceptionally experienced squad in 2009. They went 11-2. They next season, with the majority of their starters gone, they went 7-6.

Houston is nowhere near where BYU was in 2009 as far as roster. Houston's senior and junior-laden squad was last season's. The comparison of the two programs is laughable.

We will run roughshod over Houston young defense, and overpower their your offense. Their special teams - deep snapper, returners, kickers, and the punt - all new in 2016. No telling how many mistakes they'll make in a game against OU at a pro football stadium. I'd bet at least two.

[Scott D]

I learned my lesson week 1 of 2009 against BYU.
We had a Heisman winner at QB.
Yes he got hurt right before half, but we still sucked in the first half.

We will be favored and should win. But still, it's week 1.

Meh, half of BYU's roster are old enough to drink (if they did so) by the time they first set foot on a football field in college.

[oudivesherpa]

The BYU freshman is 21 versus 18, they don't drink, smoke or have premarital sex. They are frustrated as hell and they take it out on the football field.

[JLEW1818]

I still don't like opening the season like this.

[Tear Down This Wall]

I still don't like opening the season like this.

You don't like opening the season with a team:
(1) From an inferior conference
(2) Rebuilding its defense, including replacing all secondary starters
(3) Replacing all of its offensive yardage leaders except at QB
(4) Replacing every member of its special teams
(5) At a pro football stadium?

It's a cake walk. The only thing I hope is that when it gets out of hand, Stoops will keep the following week's Ohio State tilt in mind and get the starters out of the game in the third quarter instead of waiting until midway through the fourth, which has been his career M.O. during blowouts.

It's great that it's in Houston as well because it is supposedly a Texas A&M recruiting stronghold, and A&M is suffering right now a bit. Go in there and blow out the Cougars while A&M is still off balance. That's a plus for us in recruiting.

Beat an extremely overrated Houston while f*cking over A&M...how is that a bad way to start the season?

[BoulderSooner79]

First games can be weird as Stanford found out losing to Northwestern on opening day last year. NW posted a 10-3 record, but all 3 losses were blowouts to Michigan, Iowa and Tennessee (they didn't play tOSU). Had they played Stanford any other weekend of the year, Stanford would have blown them out too. It's a good thing too, as Stanford would have taken our place in the CFP had they even scraped by NW. But hey, every team has to get by their first game and the better teams usually get it done. As TDTW says, Houston looks to be over-rated, but we'll get too much credit for the win if we get it done.

[Tear Down This Wall]

First games can be weird as Stanford found out losing to Northwestern on opening day last year. NW posted a 10-3 record, but all 3 losses were blowouts to Michigan, Iowa and Tennessee (they didn't play tOSU). Had they played Stanford any other weekend of the year, Stanford would have blown them out too. It's a good thing too, as Stanford would have taken our place in the CFP had they even scraped by NW. But hey, every team has to get by their first game and the better teams usually get it done. As TDTW says, Houston looks to be over-rated, but we'll get too much credit for the win if we get it done.

So, where is the similarity to Houston...other than it's the first game of the year?

Am I now pretending that Houston with a depleted roster in 2016 is the same as Stanford and Northwestern in 2015?

Sorry, can't go there. Houston gets by in a lesser conference, with less talented players, and on September 3, 2016 they will face us breaking in new starters on almost very unit- offense, defense, and special teams.

That was not the case with Stanford versus Northwestern in 2015:
-Houston isn't returning a 1,000 rusher at tailback, as Northwestern was.
-Houston isn't returning it's leading receiver, as Northwestern was.
-Houston isn't returning it's starting secondary, as Northwestern was.
-Houston isn't returning it's starting DTs, as Northwestern was.
-Houston isn't returning it's placekicker, as Northwestern was.
-Houston isn't returning it's top kick returner, as Northwestern was.
-Houston isn't even returning it's deep snapper, as Northwestern was.

That Houston 2016 will be anything like Houston 2015 is nothing but fantasy. The majority of those players are gone. You are wanting me to pretend that Houston is like Alabama and just reloads every year no matter who leaves.

That's a joke. Sorry. Houston is likey to be bowl eligible because they are in a conference with the likes of Tulsa and Tulane. Congratulations. But, they will be crushed early and often in the game against us.

If the television people really thought it would be a marquee game with Houston even have a slim chance of winning, they wouldn't have stuck the game at 11:00 a.m.

Whatever the line is for OU, take it if you are the betting type, because we will more than cover it.

[BoulderSooner79]

Boy, you put way more effort into that post than needed. You can list all the pros about NW that you want, but the bottom line is that they were not a great team, but I'm not comparing them to Houston. Stanford should have beaten them and would have any other game of the year other than week 1. That's the only comparison I was making. Game #1 was weird and it cost Stanford dearly - end of story. I watched the game and Stanford's offense was totally out of sync and they could have been taken down by any number of inferior teams that day. The rest of the year, they were very good and would have matched up better than OU did against Clemson in the CFP, IMO.

[oudivesherpa]

U of H is only a 9.5 dog in Houston, that's hardly a cakewalk. Next week at home is ULM, that's a cakewalk.

[Tear Down This Wall]

Boy, you put way more effort into that post than needed. You can list all the pros about NW that you want, but the bottom line is that they were not a great team, but I'm not comparing them to Houston. Stanford should have beaten them and would have any other game of the year other than week 1. That's the only comparison I was making. Game #1 was weird and it cost Stanford dearly - end of story. I watched the game and Stanford's offense was totally out of sync and they could have been taken down by any number of inferior teams that day. The rest of the year, they were very good and would have matched up better than OU did against Clemson in the CFP, IMO.

Northwestern had an experienced squad facing fellow P5er Stanford. Nothing weird happened.

2016 Houston is still rife with G5 talent without a lot of experience. We will blow them out easily. Again...hence, the 11 a.m. kickoff. TV and Vegas know it will be a yawner.

[Tear Down This Wall]

U of H is only a 9.5 dog in Houston, that's hardly a cakewalk. Next week at home is ULM, that's a cakewalk.

You're making my argument for me. Houston is already almost a double digit dog...at "home." Vegas knows Houston will not have any "home" advantage at the pro stadium. And, unlike many college football fans, they don't make their bones in fantasyland.

They've checked out the rosters, seen who's returning and who isn't from both squads, and correctly pegged Houston at almost double digits. My guess is, it'll be OU by 12 to 14 by game time.

Again, take OU and the line because it'll be OU by at least 28 when the dust settles.

[BoulderSooner79]

Northwestern had an experienced squad facing fellow P5er Stanford. Nothing weird happened.

2016 Houston is still rife with G5 talent without a lot of experience. We will blow them out easily. Again...hence, the 11 a.m. kickoff. TV and Vegas know it will be a yawner.

Which part of I'm not comparing NW to Houston did you not understand? I said yes, all I am saying is that in that particular case, a lesser team beat a much better team on the first weekend of the season when it was unlikely to happen the rest of the year. Maybe not weird as sometimes teams start off slowly on offense before they mesh gears. But Stanford had no reason to start slowly as they had a QB going into his 4th year as a starter and a returning RB that would run for 2000 yds and set a zillion records. They also ended up good enough for the CFP while NW got blown out by the other good teams they played.

That game was an 11am kickoff too, so TV and Vegas knew it would be a yawner.

BTW, I expect this to be an easy OU win and we have no reason to start out slowly on offense with a proven QB and an elite level RB. If OU struggles even in a too-close win, I would consider it weird.