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  1. #1
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    What went wrong this season.

    This has been the most disappointing season since Stoops arrived in Norman. Last night, after the loss to OSU, I starting thinking about why a team, that was expected to do so much, ended up being so disappointing. So, here's my opinion of why things went the way they did this year:

    1. Over-hyped
    This one is the most obvious. Last year's Sugar Bowl win set the hype machine in motion, and on the surface it made sense. The majority of the defense coming back, almost the entire O-line returning and Knight looked to have turned the corner. We had just beaten the "best" team of the decade, with relative ease, and the conference looked to be a little down going into the season.

    Looking back now, we were fooled (whether through the media, or because it's what we wanted to believe) into thinking this team was one of the best in the country and deserved to be in the national title conversation. Everything was pointing in that direction, and it was easy to get caught up in the hype. For a sunshine pumper like myself, there was so many positives and no glaring negatives. The truth was that there was some major glaring issues, but I (and most of us) didn't want to see them. So, we all went into the season with some expectations that, upon review, were way too lofty.

    2. The conference was better than expected.
    We all knew Texas would be down. There was a time in the Big XII when a down Texas meant a very easy path to a conference title. Those days are gone. Baylor picked right back up where they left off, TCU finally materialized into the team they were supposed to be last year, and Snyder pulled another rabbit out of his hat. Let me be clear, I'm not excusing this year's performance based on the conference being tougher than expected, I'm attributing some of the disappointment to the fact that nobody expected all three of those teams to be good enough to beat us (one or two maybe, but certainly not all three).

    The conference ended up screwing itself. Because there were a larger-than-normal amount of very good teams this year, the conference beat up on each other. Had our conference name been "SEC", that would have been excused...but since we don't have that name, it hurt both TCU and Baylor in the long run. Anyway, that's a discussion for a different thread. The point is that the Big XII ended up being better than most of us expected.

    3. Aaron Colvin & Gabe Lynn was sorely missed -or- We were ridiculously young in the defensive secondary.
    I knew it would be hard to replace Colvin, but I think we underestimated just how much of a loss he would be. Zack Sanchez, when 100%, is a very good defensive back. He's not the greatest to ever wear a Sooner uniform, but he's very good and only being a sophomore points to a continued development. After Zack, we were terribly inexperienced or downright mediocre in the secondary. I expected Quinten Hayes to be a different player this year, and to his credit he did play well at times. However, Hayes never became that leader on the field. At least it looked that way. After Hayes, there was Wilson. Wilson didn't have a terrible year, but this was probably not the best season to make a position change like he did. He had good moments, but there were also times when he looked confused, or in over his head...those things are to be expected when playing a new position, but a late season injury just added to the already building issues in the secondary.

    Then there were the new guys. Ahmad Thomas, Hatari Byrd, Jordan Thomas and Steven Parker had a combined zero starts coming into the season...yet they were all leaned upon heavily to produce. And more times than not, they looked like guys with little experience. All of them had there moments, but it just wasn't enough. Of the entire group, Parker seems to be the one guy that showed major development throughout the year. Mike Stoops has heavily recruited DBs this year, and I think we all know why. This group must get better before next year.

    4. Scheme
    I love what Mike Stoops and Josh Heupel have done for the program in the past. I'm not in love with what they're doing now. I've made it known that I think Heupel get's too much blame for issues on the offense, but when it comes to QB development, that rests squarely on his shoulders. The OU program should never have to be in a situation that requires a redshirt freshman, that isn't ready, to have to come in and play in meaningful games. I realize that Blake Bell's move to TE threw a wrench into the works, but the fact that Thomas isn't ready combined with the fact that the only other option was a true freshman (that isn't ready) shouldn't happen at OU. The only person to blame is Heupel. As for his play calling, I don't have a problem with his body of work over the season. I'm sure there are those of you that disagree, and we can discuss that, but from my perspective the biggest issue Heupel has to face is why we are in the current situation with the QBs.

    I have no idea what's going on with Mike Stoops. I've never seen a defensive coordinator (at OU) play so conservative. What makes it worse is that this defense (his defense) is built to be aggressive. Let's be honest, Eric Striker is a beast off the edge and can play the run pretty damn well...but if he's going to be asked to cover, he's not in the situation that sets him up for success. That's true for several players. I won't rehash the same issues we've seen play out over the season on defense, but either Mike needs to bring in help for the 3-4, go back to the 4-3, or hang it up. What we saw this year was as bad as we've seen in a long time.


    There's much more that could be expounded on, but those are the four major issues I've given thought to, and they're pretty big ones. I do not believe that OU "doesn't have the talent" to compete nowadays. That's just not true. And there were some instances (many instances) when players did fail to execute. But, when that failure to execute continues throughout the year, and it causes 4 losses (3 to teams we were more than capable of beating), then there is a systematic issue.

    If Stoops is the coach we think he is, then he sees everything we see (and probably more). I have no idea if anyone gets fired this year, but I pray that internal changes are made (whatever they may be). I also believe this team was simply not as good as we all thought they were. So, if the youth and inexperience had a lot to do with the season's results, next year should show the improvement that would normally occur.

    I'll of course watch the bowl game, and cheer for a Sooner victory, but as far as I'm concerned this season is officially over. And it couldn't have ended soon enough.

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    (1) Trevor Knight mistaken for a FBS-level quarterback
    (2) Offensive coaches unable to determine Perine was their best weapon until the final week of the season
    (3) Terrible offensive and defensive line coaches

    In my opinion, and I've said it before, Bob Stoops and his coaches are too comfortable. He's constantly given contract extensions and raises. His edge is gone. He's fat with past success in a mediocre league that just got pantsed by the Playoff Committee.

    I'd go ahead and tell you, "I told you so" from the many times I've told you that the Big 12 is overrated. All it took was the Playoff Committee to prove it. And, it was no easier than the answer to the following question: who did TCU and Baylor beat? No one.

    And, sadly, we now fall into the category of, "Oh, they beat OU. Big deal. OU isn't that tough."

    The whole conference is down because, again, DeLoss Dodds and Joe Castiglione did their dead level best to run off the schools with better football tradition in order to take in more of the money and wield the influence.

    The conference competitiveness is now just above AAC/C-USA level. It cost Dodds his job. The greasy Castiglione is still around selling his con to whomever will listen.

    The con only works if you keep winning. Ask former Texas president Powers, ex-AD Dodds, and former head coach Brown.

    We get what we justly deserve for hitching our wagons to Texas' four years ago. It was shameful then, and it's shameful now. The watered down competition we and Texas wanted, we got. And, now, we both field watered down teams.

    Texas at least has some hope with a new AD and coach. Although, their new AD seems to be as much of a power preening prick as Dodds.
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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    ....nepotism and too many pay raises

    ....I'm all for paying the coaches a kazillion dollars if that's what it takes, let's just make it incentive based


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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Over hyping is not a problem unless it affected what happened on the field, and it's a lame excuse to say it did.

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderSooner79 View Post
    Over hyping is not a problem unless it affected what happened on the field, and it's a lame excuse to say it did.
    I'm not talking about the team, I'm talking about the fan base. Clearly this season was over-hyped, and we all bought in (to varying degrees). Had we all thought "this team lost too many key pieces last year, and we're breaking in a lot of young guys" going into the season, I don't think it would have been nearly as disappointing to us as it is.

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    We lost some good players from last year but every team loses good players every year and keep on chuggin'. Hard to imagine those players left that big a hole unless the remaining talent just isn't that good, which I'm inclined to believe. But on the other hand, we were close to being undefeated (and maybe should have been) until the Baylor game. Maybe if we went into that game undefeated the outcome would have been different. But again, if the team was better all around we wouldn't have lost those games and that includes coaching. Like Parcell's said, you are what your record says you are. I think the areas that need to improve are at qb, OC, and defensive line. Games are still won and lost at the l.o.s. A good defensive line that can pressure the qb will do so much for a defense. It leads to bad plays by the qb, turnovers (both fumble and int) and it doesn't expose the secondary as much. While I think we have some decent linemen, I don't think we have any dominant linemen. Remember Cody, Dvoracek, Harris, McCoy, and others. Sometimes it seems the game is all played in the secondary. I don't care if you're Lester Hayes, with todays offenses the secondary is going to be exposed to constant pressure from the offense and eventually is going to break and give up big plays. A good d line can help cover for weaker secondaries and make good ones great. One thing, teams are scoring. Lots. And that's not going to change. Giving up 24 or 30 points is not what it used to be.
    Our qb's and offensive coordinator are average at best. And those two components are intertwined. The oc should know the personnel and play their strengths and away from their weaknesses. Sometimes it seems like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. If we want a pocket passer then recruit one. Personally the game seems to be trending toward mobile qb's that are accurate out of the pocket. JH was not a running qb. He wasn't a great pro style qb but I think that's what he wanted to be. What he really was, was a great competitor. But I think his desire to be known as a pro style coach affects his judgement on what plays to run versus what the personnel is actually better suited for. While the qb position will constantly change, I'm not sure how or what would make JH change his philosophy.

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tear Down This Wall View Post
    (1) Trevor Knight mistaken for a FBS-level quarterback
    (2) Offensive coaches unable to determine Perine was their best weapon until the final week of the season
    (3) Terrible offensive and defensive line coaches

    In my opinion, and I've said it before, Bob Stoops and his coaches are too comfortable. He's constantly given contract extensions and raises. His edge is gone. He's fat with past success in a mediocre league that just got pantsed by the Playoff Committee.

    I'd go ahead and tell you, "I told you so" from the many times I've told you that the Big 12 is overrated. All it took was the Playoff Committee to prove it. And, it was no easier than the answer to the following question: who did TCU and Baylor beat? No one.

    And, sadly, we now fall into the category of, "Oh, they beat OU. Big deal. OU isn't that tough."

    The whole conference is down because, again, DeLoss Dodds and Joe Castiglione did their dead level best to run off the schools with better football tradition in order to take in more of the money and wield the influence.

    The conference competitiveness is now just above AAC/C-USA level. It cost Dodds his job. The greasy Castiglione is still around selling his con to whomever will listen.

    The con only works if you keep winning. Ask former Texas president Powers, ex-AD Dodds, and former head coach Brown.

    We get what we justly deserve for hitching our wagons to Texas' four years ago. It was shameful then, and it's shameful now. The watered down competition we and Texas wanted, we got. And, now, we both field watered down teams.


    Texas at least has some hope with a new AD and coach. Although, their new AD seems to be as much of a power preening prick as Dodds.
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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    One word...COMPLACENCY. I was appalled at the number of "fans" holding up tickets outside of the stadium. We were begging for an afternoon game and still people did not show up. The weather was not that bad for a December game. People leaving after the third quarter like the game was not worth watching, and the BIGGEST rub of all is how many OSU fans were in the stands. SHAME ON THE THE REGULAR TICKET HOLDERS FOR NOT SHOWING UP!!! And all year we have had players thinking we had already won the game and not playing to the final end. We saw this in the Texas game when OU was up 31-13 and watch Texas make it a 5 point game. I point this loss towards the COACHES, in realizing that you HAVE to get a first down when there are 4 minutes left in the game and you are up 14 points, because 14 points isn't good enough anymore.

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by Pride1Mom View Post
    One word...COMPLACENCY. I was appalled at the number of "fans" holding up tickets outside of the stadium. We were begging for an afternoon game and still people did not show up. The weather was not that bad for a December game. People leaving after the third quarter like the game was not worth watching, and the BIGGEST rub of all is how many OSU fans were in the stands. SHAME ON THE THE REGULAR TICKET HOLDERS FOR NOT SHOWING UP!!! And all year we have had players thinking we had already won the game and not playing to the final end. We saw this in the Texas game when OU was up 31-13 and watch Texas make it a 5 point game. I point this loss towards the COACHES, in realizing that you HAVE to get a first down when there are 4 minutes left in the game and you are up 14 points, because 14 points isn't good enough anymore.
    Texas dominated us. We were lucky to win that game. We made their awful quarterback look like a Heisman candidate.

    Crazy how terribly coached our quarterbacks and Texas' quarterbacks have been this season. Worse yet, I fear that even if we did have a decent QB coach, the talent may not be there.
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  10. #10

    Re: What went wrong this season.

    no disagreement on the causes. they are multiple. they do go back a number of years however. this coach started out doing more with less, and now he does less with more.

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by aero View Post
    But I think his [Heupul] desire to be known as a pro style coach affects his judgement on what plays to run versus what the personnel is actually better suited for. While the qb position will constantly change, I'm not sure how or what would make JH change his philosophy.
    That's been my assessment of him. He still plays qb vicariously through his players, and will call plays based on what he thinks would have worked for him as qb. He needs to be calling plays to reality; i.e. why in the hell did we come out passing in OT??

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by kenth68 View Post
    That's been my assessment of him. He still plays qb vicariously through his players, and will call plays based on what he thinks would have worked for him as qb. He needs to be calling plays to reality; i.e. why in the hell did we come out passing in OT??
    Could it be because we had failed to make even a single 1st down in 3 possessions by running to end the game?

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderSooner79 View Post
    Could it be because we had failed to make even a single 1st down in 3 possessions by running to end the game?
    Re-hashed that this morning in the office. We get the ball back with 6:50 left and a 14 point lead, one of three full possessions at the end of the half, and we don't get dick out of handing the ball off the Ford and Ross, mainly Ross.

    Pathetic. And, it isn't like this Poke defense is like the thrashing Miami Hurricane crews of the late 80s to mid 90s. Only Tech, Kansas, and Iowa State gave up more points than the Pokes this year, and we couldn't move them ten yards in three different tries to nail the dadgum game down.
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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    I had no problem with passing in OT. I pretty much figured the pokes were going to win once they tied it given that Perine was out. Had we just run it, we probably end up with a FG and OSU beats us with a TD on their possession. The only way we win in OT is if our QB makes a play, we force a 2nd OT and our defense actually holds them to a FG and then we manage to score another TD. All pretty much unlikely. Heck, even with Perine in there, they put up a pretty stout goal line defense and it took us 2 PI penalties to finally punch it in after what? 8 plays? No, the way to win was in regulation and with Perine out, our QB was going to have to make at least 1 play with them stacking the box. We didn't try it and it didn't look like he was likely to succeed if we did. Of course, not kicking to Hill *might* have done it, but they did still have a minute against our D in that case

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Here are the problems as I see them...

    1- Our coaching staff has failed in developing talent. Nowhere is that more evident than at QB, WR, LB, and DB. We flat out suck in all those positions. We simply have no depth there and having one player who can play the position isn't going to cut it when there are multiple people playing those positions. At QB, we haven't developed anybody since Josh went upstairs. Landry didn't develop any after his sophomore year, Blake never really panned out, and we know what we have now with TK.

    2- Our coaching staff lacks situational awareness. The worst example of this was this past Saturday with the re-punt. But we see it time and time again with mystery offensive play calling and with timeout management. It is really just mindboggling at times, and it has only gotten worse, not better. There is no reason to think this will improve. By now, it is ingrained.

    3- Bob's habit of not developing backup QBs. The only time we have ever had a serviceable backup is when we have a QB controversy and they are splitting time with the first teamers. That has happened 3 times in 16 years-- White/Hybl, Thompson/Bomar, and Bell/Knight. All 3 of those situations were brought about due to losing a starting QB to graduation. You would expect a certain dropoff in quality from the 1st to 2nd QB, but we tend to have the basejumping off the Sears Tower kind of dropoff. This year, we've managed to find a QB who can't hit the broad side of a barn. There is no excuse for that. It's not like Cody wasn't sought by other programs. Something is wrong with the way these guys are being coached and developed.

    This is Bob's problem, and we see it time and again with coaches who stay loyal to staff members. Jim Grobe had a job for life if he wanted it at Wake Forest, but his insistence on keeping an OC who couldn't coach or recruit doomed him. Bob isn't going anywhere unless he resigns (I doubt he'd "resign" like Grobe, who was really shown the door and given a face-saving option), but he has to rid himself of dead weight. He has to reinvent the program from the top down, and if he isn't willing to do that, he needs to move on. Unlike some, I really don't think Mike Stoops is a problem, or at least he isn't as much as Heupel, Kish, BJW, and Norvell. He is an obvious improvement over Venables, but that doesn't mean he's the answer either. I don't see the newest additions of Montgomery and Bedenbough as problems at all. Our offensive and defensive lines are strengths. The fact that they couldn't carry the rest of this team is not their fault. We need to have guys who can make plays at all positions on the field, and not just on the lines.

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tear Down This Wall View Post
    Re-hashed that this morning in the office. We get the ball back with 6:50 left and a 14 point lead, one of three full possessions at the end of the half, and we don't get dick out of handing the ball off the Ford and Ross, mainly Ross.

    Pathetic. And, it isn't like this Poke defense is like the thrashing Miami Hurricane crews of the late 80s to mid 90s. Only Tech, Kansas, and Iowa State gave up more points than the Pokes this year, and we couldn't move them ten yards in three different tries to nail the dadgum game down.
    The problem wasn't with running Ford and Ross. The problem is that we ran the same damn run-out-the-clock play each time. There have been numerous situations this year where the defense was just begging for a QB bootleg that would get a first down and more, but Josh would always call what the defense and every Sooner fan knew he would call (hint: it wasn't a QB bootleg!).

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by EatLeadCommie View Post
    The problem wasn't with running Ford and Ross. The problem is that we ran the same damn run-out-the-clock play each time. There have been numerous situations this year where the defense was just begging for a QB bootleg that would get a first down and more, but Josh would always call what the defense and every Sooner fan knew he would call (hint: it wasn't a QB bootleg!).
    I'm not on the "Fire Heupel" badwagon, but I couldn't agree more with your point. There were several occasions Saturday when I thought "a naked bootleg, off of a fake handoff, would put a dagger in OSU's defensive front." Toward the end of the game, they were over-committing so aggressively that a play like that would have had a very high success rate.

    So, in that instance, I'm not sure why that didn't dawn on Heupel. If you and I are thinking about it, he should have been too.

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by EatLeadCommie View Post
    The problem wasn't with running Ford and Ross. The problem is that we ran the same damn run-out-the-clock play each time. There have been numerous situations this year where the defense was just begging for a QB bootleg that would get a first down and more, but Josh would always call what the defense and every Sooner fan knew he would call (hint: it wasn't a QB bootleg!).
    They did try to bootleg Thomas during one of those final possessions and he got smothered. But, you can't bootleg with eight in the box. With eight in, you have have your OL whipping their assignments and getting you three to four a pop.

    Our OL wasn't dominating. We were getting one or two per pop.
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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    Quote Originally Posted by EatLeadCommie View Post
    Here are the problems as I see them...

    1- Our coaching staff has failed in developing talent. Nowhere is that more evident than at QB, WR, LB, and DB. We flat out suck in all those positions. We simply have no depth there and having one player who can play the position isn't going to cut it when there are multiple people playing those positions. At QB, we haven't developed anybody since Josh went upstairs. Landry didn't develop any after his sophomore year, Blake never really panned out, and we know what we have now with TK.

    2- Our coaching staff lacks situational awareness. The worst example of this was this past Saturday with the re-punt. But we see it time and time again with mystery offensive play calling and with timeout management. It is really just mindboggling at times, and it has only gotten worse, not better. There is no reason to think this will improve. By now, it is ingrained.

    3- Bob's habit of not developing backup QBs. The only time we have ever had a serviceable backup is when we have a QB controversy and they are splitting time with the first teamers. That has happened 3 times in 16 years-- White/Hybl, Thompson/Bomar, and Bell/Knight. All 3 of those situations were brought about due to losing a starting QB to graduation. You would expect a certain dropoff in quality from the 1st to 2nd QB, but we tend to have the basejumping off the Sears Tower kind of dropoff. This year, we've managed to find a QB who can't hit the broad side of a barn. There is no excuse for that. It's not like Cody wasn't sought by other programs. Something is wrong with the way these guys are being coached and developed.

    This is Bob's problem, and we see it time and again with coaches who stay loyal to staff members. Jim Grobe had a job for life if he wanted it at Wake Forest, but his insistence on keeping an OC who couldn't coach or recruit doomed him. Bob isn't going anywhere unless he resigns (I doubt he'd "resign" like Grobe, who was really shown the door and given a face-saving option), but he has to rid himself of dead weight. He has to reinvent the program from the top down, and if he isn't willing to do that, he needs to move on. Unlike some, I really don't think Mike Stoops is a problem, or at least he isn't as much as Heupel, Kish, BJW, and Norvell. He is an obvious improvement over Venables, but that doesn't mean he's the answer either. I don't see the newest additions of Montgomery and Bedenbough as problems at all. Our offensive and defensive lines are strengths. The fact that they couldn't carry the rest of this team is not their fault. We need to have guys who can make plays at all positions on the field, and not just on the lines.
    Quote Originally Posted by EatLeadCommie View Post
    The problem wasn't with running Ford and Ross. The problem is that we ran the same damn run-out-the-clock play each time. There have been numerous situations this year where the defense was just begging for a QB bootleg that would get a first down and more, but Josh would always call what the defense and every Sooner fan knew he would call (hint: it wasn't a QB bootleg!).
    great posts. I absolutely agree.

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    Re: What went wrong this season.

    By the way, this is also where we should be chiming in on the "where is the TE threat" to make the defense honest.

    I love Blake Bell, but...in the end, he wasn't a tight end that defensive coordinators were all that worried about. OSU wasn't in the least bit concerned that we might waggle Bell out for 6-12 yard pattern and catching them with too many committed to the run.
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    President Ronald Reagan at the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987

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