After last week’s scare, OU should be ready to make a statement against the FEROCIOUS Catamounts.

Despite a rough showing in the season opener, the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners are 1-0 and looking forward to the next challenge that awaits. In this case, that would be the Western Carolina Catamounts out of the FCS. There’s plenty to work on for this championship hopeful team, and with that comes plenty of opportunities to make those improvements.

In case you missed it, the game plan for fans in attendance this weekend is to stripe the stadium in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Additionally, the OU Athletics Department plans to hold a number of special events throughout the day to honor and recognize emergency services personnel, frontline workers and military members.

Date, Time & TV: Saturday, Sept. 11 at 6 p.m. CT on Pay-Per-View

Line: Oklahoma -49.5 (as of Friday at 7 p.m. CT)

O/U: 65

OU vs. WCU Game Notes

Week Two Gambling Picks from Allen & the Skinny

2021 Game Day Polices & Procedures

Fletcher’s Corndogs and more new additions through OU concessions

Major Storylines

Will the real Oklahoma please stand up?

Now that we’ve all had some time to process the surprisingly close result of last weekend’s game against Tulane, I think most OU fans would agree that this team can play to a much higher standard than whatever that was in the season opener. The question is — will this team take that lackluster performance personal, or will this be another ho-hum showing that leaves a lot to be desired?

I’m inclined to believe that OU will use a business-like approach to this game, and it will show both on the field and the scoreboard. There has been some talk going around concerning a select contingent of players who either weren’t dialed against the Green Wave or simply checked out before the game was done. Whatever the case was or wasn’t, this team should be all-in on making a statement after all the noise that has come their way. Is this a top five squad? Dominate WCU, then let the results speak for themselves.

Will Alex Grinch tighten up his defensive rotations?

If it seemed like there was a lot of subbing and rotating going on when Oklahoma’s defense was on the field last week, it’s because there was. Third year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch explained to reporter’s during his weekly press conference that a total of 31 Sooners checked into the game on Saturday. Think about that, folks, 31, all from just one side of the ball in a one score game.

Something has to change going forward, because although it’s a good thing to have experienced depth, at the end of the day, it’s the coaches’ job to put their best players on the field. Fielding the best 11 means building cohesion as a unit and as a group. If this game against Western Carolina plays out the way it should, there will eventually be a good reason to dive deeper into the depth chart, but doing so any other time just invites unnecessary confusion and disorganization when the meat of the schedule is right around the corner.

Will the Sooners’ offense be more balanced?

From a total snaps standpoint, the split between OU’s passing and running plays was nearly even against Tulane — 40 to 35 plays, respectively. However, there was a significant difference in the effectiveness of those plays that needs to be addressed before more capable teams line up against Oklahoma.

However the passing and running plays are divided up in the future, it would probably be in Lincoln Riley’s best interest if the Sooners aren’t throwing for 200 hundred yards more than they’re rushing for in a given contest. Ideally, those statistics ought to be far closer, and if anything, you’d like to see the ground game lead the charge in that regard. Of course, the shallow RB situation is an ongoing predicament that has surely limited these efforts, but it’s time to start building that position up while the opportunity is set up perfectly to do so.

Can the defense disrupt the backfield consistently?

Too often last week, the Sooners weren’t able to consistently disrupt the Tulane QB Michael Pratt in the backfield. With how deep and talented this team is along the D-line and its EDGE rushing corps, recording no more than four sacks is underwhelming to say the least.

Against the mighty Catamounts of Western Carolina, I expected the chaos to increase, and not just because the level of competition is projected to take a step back. Guys like Isaiah Thomas, Nik Bonitto, Perrion Winfrey and Jalen Redmond should be foaming at the mouth after the team’s season opening performance. What that should look like from a total sacks and tackles-for-loss perspective is anybody’s guess, but it should be clear and apparent to the casual observer that wreaking havoc is what this OU team does. The aforementioned bunch and their teammates need to show more of that starting this Saturday.

How much can OU learn about itself in a game like this?

In all honesty, the most anybody would be able to learn about Oklahoma in a game against a building FCS opponent is a killer instinct, because that’s still an issue that, for whatever reason, has continued to plague the Crimson & Cream in the second half of games. If OU is up by more than 20 points by halftime, that should be a sign that the opposition is clearly overmatched, and such a lead should never decrease but rather increase or at the very least maintain itself. This problem starts with Lincoln Riley, and the solution lies within him, as well. He cultivates and drives the mentality going into each game, and however he operates throughout 60 minutes, his players feed off of that energy. Long story short, stop blowing big leads. That (hopefully) isn’t too much to ask for in a game like this.

Prediction

After the way the season opener played out, I expect to see Oklahoma’s offense start extremely fast with everything it has from the first snap. Additionally, I predict that the defense will look like an almost completely different group than it did a week ago, and that will show itself in several plays for negative yardage and an early takeaway or three. I also expect the running game to pick up tremendously from where it was against Tulane, and if Lincoln Riley isn’t just joshing us, we should finally see a healthy dose of backup RBs Jaden Knowles and Todd Hudson throughout this contest. I don’t envision a world where WCU puts up much of a fight, and by the time this game is done, the sky won’t be as close to falling as it was last Saturday.

Oklahoma 66, Western Carolina 3

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To commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11, OU is putting a different spin on its annual Stripe the Stadium game.

Games covered include the CyHawk game between Iowa and Iowa State, Texas-Arkansas, Michigan-Washington and more.

Blatant Homerism host Allen Kenney and The Skinny reconvene for another episode of their college football handicapping contest. After recapping an uninspiring win by the Oklahoma Sooners over the Tulane Green Wave last week, they break down some of their favorite bets for week two. Games covered include the CyHawk game between Iowa and Iowa State, Texas-Arkansas, Michigan-Washington and more. They close with thoughts on what they want to see from the Oklahoma Sooners this week against the Western Carolina Catamounts.

Make sure to subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice! We’re now on ITunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher. If you enjoy the podcast, make sure to give us a five-star rating on ITunes, as it will help it reach more listeners. You can also catch the episodes live each week on Facebook and Twitter.

(Disclaimer: Picks not guaranteed to make you rich, but they might!)

Alex Grinch says 31 players saw action on defense this past weekend. That’s a lot of subbing in and out…

Happy Tuesday, friends and fans!

After a surprisingly poor showing in Saturday’s season opener, the Oklahoma Sooners have fallen from No. 2 to No. 4 in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll.

Around the Big 12, the Iowa State Cyclones also fell two spots to No. 9, and the Texas Longhorns rose six places to No. 15 after a solid showing against a ranked Louisiana squad. Meanwhile, the TCU Horned Frogs just missed the cut as the team with the most votes outside the poll.

Fortunately for OU, this weekend’s contest against Western Carolina shouldn’t pose any further threat to its ranking. Rather, this is an opportunity for a team that absolutely needs to address the multitude of issues that nearly cost it in shocking fashion. Sure, beating WCU 60-0 wouldn’t necessarily mean everything is fixed considering the competition, but after what happened against Tulane, the soul-searching Sooners have to start somewhere. If not, that meeting with a struggling Nebraska squad on the 18th could loom large for all the wrong reasons.

Now onto today’s Hot Links! Gabe Brkic earns conference player of the week honors, Mark Andrews inks an extension with Baltimore, the Texans name their starting QB and more!

OU Links

• Here’s your friendly reminder to wear the right shirt if you plan on attending this Saturday’s game against Western Carolina. The plan is to stripe the stadium, but this time the goal is to make it resemble the American Flag. Make sure you double-check where your seat is on your ticket so you can help the Sooners make this possible.

• On Monday, redshirt junior placekicker Gabe Brkic was named Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week after setting several program benchmarks in Oklahoma’s season opening win over the Tulane Green Wave.

• During his weekly presser appearance, third year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch revealed that a total of 31 players saw snaps on defense in the season opener. Considering the apparent discombobulated state of things on that side of the ball practically all game long, that staggeringly high number makes sense. Honestly, that’s just absurd.

• The Baltimore Ravens have signed former OU TE Mark Andrews to a four-year, $56 million contract extension. The 2017 Mackey Award winner and 2019 Pro Bowl selection has steadily proven himself as one of the most capable tight ends in the NFL today. Boomer!
• QB Jalen Hurts has been named one of six team captains for the Philadelphia Eagles going into the 2021 NFL regular season. Congratulations to the second year pro!

• In case you missed it, Allen Kenney took a closer look at OU’s near-loss to Tulane, and inspected why Lincoln Riley’s teams have shown a tendency to lose big leads in the second half of games.

Around the Sports World

• After originally announcing this season would be his last, UConn Huskies head coach Randy Edsall is officially out, effective immediately, after a failed second stint in Storrs.
• Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart recently stated that his team is undergoing a spike of COVID-19 cases from a number of players to a couple staff members. UGA is set to host UAB this Saturday.
• Alabama Crimson Tide starting outside linebacker Christopher Allen reportedly suffered a fracture in his foot in a win over the Miami Hurricanes this past weekend. The injury could potentially sideline the redshirt senior for the remainder of the season.
• The Houston Texans have named Tyrod Taylor, not Deshaun Watson, as the starting QB for the team’s Week One bout against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
• The San Francisco 49ers have signed veteran free agent CB Josh Norman to a one-year deal after he spent last season with the Buffalo Bills.

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Why does OU continue to squander big leads in games?

Watching the Tulane Green Wave storm back in a near-upset of the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday brought back familiar feelings for OU fans.

OU went into the halftime break with a 37-14 lead, on the verge of cruising to an easy win. About 28 minutes of game time later, Tulane had the ball near midfield with a chance to take the lead. The Sooners pulled out a 40-35 victory, but it seemed eerily reminiscent of a slew of performances from 2020.

For example, OU led Kansas State by three touchdowns in the third quarter of their game last year; the Sooners ended up on the losing end of a 38-35 final. OU coughed up a 14-point lead in the final four minutes of what became an overtime victory against the Texas Longhorns. The Sooners were up by 17 points over the Iowa State Cyclones at halftime of the 2020 Big 12 title game, and ISU still had a chance to win late in the contest.

Although teams squandering leads is far from uncommon in college football, this seems to be happening to the Sooners too often. Explaining why it is happening is tough, but we do know something about the “how.” Put simply, some plays in football are more important than others in influencing the outcome of a game, and the Sooners are ending up on the wrong end of too many of them. Two stood out in the second half.

In the middle of the third quarter, OU is leading by 23 points and facing fourth down and a yard to go at its own 46 yard line. Rolling with 12 personnel, OU lines up with H-back Brayden Willis at tight end to the right side of the line. Quarterback Spencer Rattler sets up in the shotgun with H-back Jeremiah Hall directly to his left and running back Kennedy Brooks directly to his right.

Tulane matches OU’s heavy personnel package with four defensive linemen and three linebackers. The Green Wave essentially put seven defenders in the box, loading up to stop the run.

The play call is split zone: The OU offensive line blocks down to the left, with Hall blocking across the flow of the play to the backside. Unfortunately for the Sooners, Tulane LB Kevin Henry (No. 33) is in a run blitz. From a standup position on Willis’ outside shoulder, Henry builds up a head of steam and jumps the snap call to knife through the gap between Willis and right tackle Tyrese Robinson. Brooks takes the handoff from Rattler and finds Henry, Willis and Hall all in his immediate path, so he bounces right and heads outside into Tulane’s pursuing defenders. The play results in a four-yard loss.

If this call looked familiar at the time, that’s because OU had run the exact same play on a successful fourth-down conversion in the second quarter.

The decision to go for it? Fine. A handoff into a stuffed run box? Not so fine. Calling the same play Tulane just saw? Hubris.

The second example sees OU commit an unforced error that again gifts Tulane the ball in plus territory.

Up 18 near the start of the fourth quarter, the Sooners are looking at third-and-nine from their own 26. Tulane is running its third-down package, bringing a blitzer from depth off the left side of OU’s offensive line and dropping seven players into coverage. RB Eric Gray snuffs out the blitz, giving Rattler a clean pocket. An off-target throw from OU’s QB ends up in the hands of a Tulane DB, however, giving the Green Wave the ball at the OU 46.

Did Rattler sail the throw? Did H-back Austin Stogner blow the route? Was there a miscommunication between the two? Whatever the case may be, an INT is an absolutely unacceptable outcome there. Throwing high in the middle of the field constitutes an unnecessary risk.

It’s also fair to wonder why OU is throwing the ball at all in this situation. A run call admittedly has a lower chance of gaining the first down, but it keeps the clock running. Meanwhile, an OU punt means Tulane likely gets the ball around its own 20 with 13 minutes left needing scores on three possessions.

It’s very easy to sit down days after a game and nitpick every decision a coach makes that didn’t work in the course of the contest. If Riley had the benefit of hindsight, he also would have done things differently.

Nevertheless, OU essentially handed Tulane these two opportunities in plus territory to get back in the game. The Green Wave made the most of them, putting two touchdowns on the board. (It bears mentioning that the Sooners didn’t capitalize on similar Tulane miscues – three Green Wave fumbles in the first half yielded three OU field goals.)

In the end, Tulane looked like a team that was trying to beat Oklahoma. Tulane’s superb coach Willie Fritz and his staff clearly scouted OU well leading up to the game. Meanwhile, Fritz hired a great offensive coordinator in the offseason in Chip Long, who installed a new offensive scheme in time for the matchup. Adding a QB like Will Pratt to the mix made the Green Wave even more formidable.

For their part, the Sooners gave off big “dress rehearsal” energy. The odds are much better than not that they will shape up in the coming weeks. But Riley should still evaluate how he is contributing to the malaise that continues to creep in in these situations for his team.