Just how bad will this season be?

[cherokeebrewer]

Did anyone think we were competing for a NC this season?

In my pipedreams

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

Did anyone think we were competing for a NC this season?

I didn't think we would be a top 10 team in the end but looking at the schedule I thought if we won at Tennessee that the chances were very high that we would be 9-0 and ranked in the top 5-7 before running into TCU,Baylor and OSU. I figured 1-2 in those games but still it would be great to still be in legit contention for a spot in the playoff in November. I would imagine that is what most fans thought.

I thought the home game with WV was going to be a real tough test. I thought playing at KSU could be a trap game. Texas was supposed to be a curb stomping. ALL signs pointed to that. As sad as it sounds I never really even entertained the thought that we would win at Baylor. That statement alone says that we aren't a real NC contender but until we find a way to stop awarding Baylor receivers 8-10 yards every play we won't beat them.

[BoulderSooner79]

Did anyone think we were competing for a NC this season?

I actually doubt it - think most fans have a higher football IQ than that. But there certainly are those that were poised to use the lack of NC competition as something to rail about when it didn't happen.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

I didn't think we would be a top 10 team in the end but looking at the schedule I thought if we won at Tennessee that the chances were very high that we would be 9-0 and ranked in the top 5-7 before running into TCU,Baylor and OSU. I figured 1-2 in those games but still it would be great to still be in legit contention for a spot in the playoff in November. I would imagine that is what most fans thought.

I thought the home game with WV was going to be a real tough test. I thought playing at KSU could be a trap game. Texas was supposed to be a curb stomping. ALL signs pointed to that. As sad as it sounds I never really even entertained the thought that we would win at Baylor. That statement alone says that we aren't a real NC contender but until we find a way to stop awarding Baylor receivers 8-10 yards every play we won't beat them.

Pretty much what I thought about this season, prior to it beginning. Except I didn't really have a formed expectation of the tx whorns game, given our pitiful preparation and effort the previous 2 years.

[rock on sooner]

Did anyone think we were competing for a NC this season?

Yes, right after the Tennessee comeback and then no after WVU....

[FlatLander]

Pretty much what I thought about this season, prior to it beginning. Except I didn't really have a formed expectation of the tx whorns game, given our pitiful preparation and effort the previous 2 years.

My preseason pick was 2-3 losses. But in that, I did not account for saturdays loss. So now it could be four but five is very possible.

After last season I told myself do not form any expectations or get all fired up until after the sexat game. Glad I didn't. Now it is just sit back and see if they get better / worse / stay the same. Could be back-to-back four / five loss seasons. Ughhh.

[cvsooner]

I honestly thought at the start that this was/is a rebuilding year and fully expected to lose three games: TCU/Baylor/ and one more. Stoops' troops always seem good for one inexplicable loss. Hopefully that was Texas.

We've got a makeshift o-line, a new offensive coordinator, had questions at kicker and punter, a shaky receiving group (with one exception), a QB battle, top running backs, a decent front seven and questions in the secondary. Since the first game, we've learned the offensive line is still not together, an offensive coordinator who's still trying to figure out how to work with his personnel (made especially tough by the o-line woes), running backs who can't because of the o-line and they don't pass block so good, a game QB who's really good at scrambling for the most part (which is a symptom of offensive line play), a better receiving corps than I expected, a serviceable front seven and a secondary that outside of the Tulsa game has played fairly well. Except for tackling, which is true of the whole defense, really.

Bright spot is we've got a great punter/kicker for the next three years.

This is really about fundamentals, when you get right down to it. Lombardi said it best: "Football is blocking and tackling." We aren't doing either of those things consistently well, and it's why we've struggled, and it's why we lost to Texas. Talk about attitude, talk about motivation, all you want, and that's part of it. But ultimately we've got some key football players who aren't especially good at football playing. And admittedly I'm starting to wonder about the coaching ability of at least some of our coaches to teach fundamentals, or of the players to learn same, or both.

[cvsooner]

One more thing: it's fully comprehensible we could lose to everybody left on the schedule except Kansas and Iowa State. On the other hand I think we can beat everyone with the exception of Baylor. (Never thought I'd type that sentence.)

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I honestly, and it seems a lot of people put stock in it, wasn't overwhelmed with beating Tennessee..Don't get me wrong, the comeback was amazing, but that was awful football for 3 1/2 quarters against a very average football team. OU could already have 2 losses against not so great teams.

I had OU going in losing 4 with the losses being TCU, Baylor, 1 undetermined team(Tennessee or Kstate), and Texas.

[stoopified]

Yeah, and I just want to get regularly invited to the parties at the Playboy Mansion. Hell, we all want things. The very narrow question (the only question) is how likely is it that Bob gets his mojo back? What evidence have we seen over the past 7 years that indicates this will happen?

exactly he was 110-24 his first 10 years and 63-21 since.In other words he would need to go 47-3 to match the record he had in the GOOD YEARS.

[BoomerMcSooner]

One more thing: it's fully comprehensible we could lose to everybody left on the schedule except Kansas and Iowa State. On the other hand I think we can beat everyone with the exception of Baylor. (Never thought I'd type that sentence.)

I'd guess we end up 10-3 when all is said and done.

It is comprehensible that we fall off a cliff and lose a bunch more....But it is also comprehensible that we win out. We still have a lot of upside for offensive improvement with a new o coordinator and a new QB getting experience - probably more upside to improve than anyone else in the conference except Texas.

TCU has been living dangerously and barely winning against overmatched teams...And they barely beat us in Ft Worth last year. There were huge meltdowns when we lost that game, but they were arguably the best team in the country last year, and we took them down to the wire in their own house.

Briles has never won in Stillwater...In fact, Baylor has been blown out in Stillwater every time under Briles. The only team Baylor has played with a pulse this year was Tech in Waco. Their new QB has yet to be hit in the mouth and really tested.....And Briles' defenses give up 40+ four times a year like clockwork (gave up 31 to Lamar!). Don't be shocked when they drop a couple late in the season...Their schedule is totally backloaded.

It is not hard to imagine a scenario where OU-OSU is the game to decide the Big12 champ.

As much as it sucks to lose to Texas, it is probably the best game to lose if you had to pick one this year. If we beat KSU (big if!) there's a good chance we're a 1-loss underdog going into the Baylor game, and I think we can beat them. Things do not seem as bad as they did in 2006 or 2013 following Texas losses.

[BoulderSooner79]

I honestly, and it seems a lot of people put stock in it, wasn't overwhelmed with beating Tennessee..Don't get me wrong, the comeback was amazing, but that was awful football for 3 1/2 quarters against a very average football team. OU could already have 2 losses against not so great teams.

I had OU going in losing 4 with the losses being TCU, Baylor, 1 undetermined team(Tennessee or Kstate), and Texas.

I'd have a similar list. I would not have put the horns on there, but I'm not too surprised. I saw that the horn D-line was disruptive against Cal and Cal also suffers from a weak O-line. Have to put OSU in that undetermined potential 'L' too, especially at their place.

[BoomerMcSooner]

exactly he was 110-24 his first 10 years and 63-21 since.In other words he would need to go 47-3 to match the record he had in the GOOD YEARS.

Stoops has not done as well in his second decade. But in Stoops' bad years, OU is still 8th best winning percentage among power 5 teams...And he is 6th among active power 5 coaches over the period...

We have high expectations because historically we win about 75% of our games, and expect a MNC every 8 years or so. But I can't imagine him being on the hot seat among serious decision makers unless he fails to win 9 games for several years in a row.

[VA Sooner]

You're hypercritical to a fault but actually rooting for failure? Here's a resume and you won't have to guess who it is.

1999 Oklahoma 7-5
2000 Oklahoma 13–0
2001 Oklahoma 11–2
2002 Oklahoma 12–2
2003 Oklahoma 12–2
2004 Oklahoma 12–1
2005 Oklahoma 8–4
2006 Oklahoma 11–3
2007 Oklahoma 11–3
2008 Oklahoma 12–2
2009 Oklahoma 8–5
2010 Oklahoma 12–2
2011 Oklahoma 10–3
2012 Oklahoma 10–3
2013 Oklahoma 11–2
2014 Oklahoma 8–5
2015 Oklahoma 4–1

You will not see many prettier W-L coaching resumes than this especially for Power 5 coaches. 1 in 100 couldn't do it. How many coaches have come and gone in the 16+ years Stoops has been coaching? He's never had a bad stretch and it's good even over the last 5 years and somehow you think Joe C is going to pull some magic out of his backside and find the next budding Knute Rocke? The odds of filling an inside straight are better (literally)

This puts it in to perspective for me. Thanks, SOL. I'm good.

Damn the media for getting my hopes up but more so for me in believing the hype. Too early in the season, lots of football to come. The season is what I expected... young o-line, young secondary, and new offensive scheme.

[FlatLander]

Stoops has not done as well in his second decade. But in Stoops' bad years, OU is still 8th best winning percentage among power 5 teams...And he is 6th among active power 5 coaches over the period...

We have high expectations because historically we win about 75% of our games, and expect a MNC every 8 years or so. But I can't imagine him being on the hot seat among serious decision makers unless he fails to win 9 games for several years in a row.

Unfortunately 2 in a row is very likely now. More than that and recruiting is really going to fall off. Then it could take a while to get back to what we expect.

[BoomerMcSooner]

Unfortunately 2 in a row is very likely now. More than that and recruiting is really going to fall off. Then it could take a while to get back to what we expect.

I dunno. Things change pretty quick. After an 8-4 season in '05, and a 3-2 start in '06, nobody believed we were going to win out and take the Big12. Again in 2010 after an 8-5 season and getting beat bad by A&M for our 2nd loss, nobody thought we would win out.

I think recruiting concerns are overrated. Stoops' '99 and '00 classes were unranked, yet among his best. The 2003 class was the highest ranked of Stoops' first 6 classes (ranked #4), but in hindsight it was the worst of his first 6 classes. The 2006 class was probably Stoops' best ever, but it was ranked #9, and is essentially the same ranking quality as his 2015 class. In the end, there isn't a high correlation between the rankings of his classes and how well they have panned out. Teams like Baylor and TCU are nowhere in the rankings. Yet even non-producing SEC teams are all over the top rankings.

I do not believe that teams like Tennessee, Georgia, Auburn, Miss St., South Carolina, etc., are far more talented than teams like TCU and Baylor as recruit rankings would insist. I think it is just a case of the recruiting services keying in on the SEC and their recruiting battles because that is where fan interest (and thus money) is highest. We continue to rank in recruiting pretty much where we have since 2001 relative to other Big12 teams and continue to have the same amount of players drafted as we always have under Stoops.

Stoops made big changes this off season. We will know in a few years if these changes were successful. But it is way to soon to judge.

[OUmillenium]

Your arguments might have some validity if Stoops could at least beat a 1-4 Texas team or a 7-5 Oklahoma State team. Forget the national championship, we can't even beat a horrible Texas team that was on the verge of complete collapse at this point. Instead of delivering the knockout blow to Charlie Strong and their entire program, we watch them run the ball down our throats all game.

In a perfect world, I'd love for Bob to get back to where we were in the early 2000s, when we played for NCs every single year. But right now, we're an afterthought in our own CONFERENCE, at a time when the conference isn't even as strong as it was in earlier years.

This is what disappoints. I predicted potentially 5 losses for this team but coming into the UTerus game, this was not going to be an "acceptable" loss for this season and it is not.

[SoonerMarkVA]

Unfortunately, I think the only lock left is KU. We should probably beat ISU, maybe a slight advantage with Tech since it's at home, and against the odds for any of the rest.

Hard to believe how ugly things have become for us. I can't help but wonder where we'd be if we had left for the SEC with A&M. How might that have influenced recruiting? How much more urgency with playing "big games" more often, although that fact at this point maybe doesn't make much difference. We're middle of the pack where we are and, so, any urgency should be felt full force right now.

Bob should have fully cleaned house last year. Mike and Kish should have been fired, and I also felt Bedenbaugh wasn't effective; I feel even more that way this year. If he had kept Gundy, Boulware, and Montgomery only, firstly I wonder of Monty would have stayed, but then we could have had a chance to bring in fresh coordinators for both the O and D, and maybe have a chance for effective LB play.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

exactly he was 110-24 his first 10 years and 63-21 since.In other words he would need to go 47-3 to match the record he had in the GOOD YEARS.

This isn't out of the realm of possibility. What a lot of people forget is that it only takes 1-2 recruiting classes (think 1999 and 2000) to get there

[BoulderSooner79]

...
Stoops made big changes this off season. We will know in a few years if these changes were successful. But it is way to soon to judge.

It won't take a few years, nor should it. But it is too soon to judge after 5 games. Looking back at this season when it is complete should give a pretty good indication of the direction.

But it is never too soon for a message board to go berserk!