- Morgan Freeman (Red), Shawshank Redemption
And why not? The college football offseason, the longest in sports, was finally over. The Sooners were ranked #9 in the preseason polls and despite facing one of the most brutal schedules in the country, most pundits had the Sooners as a solid choice to make the CFP. Hell, there were a few ‘college football experts’ out there that were choosing the Sooners as their dark horse national champions pick. We had flasks of liquor, hall passes from our bosses, and a 380-mile round trip forum to talk all things Sooners. Yes, we were both a little giddy because … It was football time in Oklahoma.
When it comes to having answers, regardless of the subject, you’d be hard pressed to find two guys who have more of them than Styx and me. Never is that more true than when the subject is Oklahoma Sooners football. I’ve even heard some people say we are like the Styx Switzer and Buddy Wilkinson of the Sooner Nation. I also pretty sure that a couple of those people meant it as a compliment.
“I read where the coaches changed the blocking scheme for the offensive lineman, less zone blocking, more man-on-man. That should have them firing off the ball instead of their first move being to stand up, which drives me crazy,” Styx stated.
“Speaking of the offensive line, this should be the most improved position group on the team. Frankly, the o-line had been horrible the last couple of years, but a large part of that futility last season can be written off to the unit being decimated by injuries. I can’t imagine them being snake-bitten like that a second year in a row,” I offered.
“Improved o-line means improved running game. When you can run the football, that forces defenses to drop a safety down in the box to help try and stop it, which in turn, will open up things in the passing game,” Styx pointed out.
“I agree. Not being so one-dimensional will help take the pressure off of Mateer … and let’s face it, there is absolutely no way that Mateer can be as bad again this season as he was last year,” I said with absolute conviction.
Okay, so maybe we are more like Styx Schnellenberger and Buddy Blake of the Sooner Nation. But in our defense, I’m not sure anyone could’ve predicted that a mere 23-days later, the Sooners would be entering into their by-week with their season teetering on the brink of disaster. But it is.
After 4-games the Sooners find themselves at 2-2, 0-1 in conference, and unranked for the first time since 2024. Look, in-and-of-itself, there are worse things that can happen to a program than losing to Michigan and Georgia on the road (although the loss to Michigan looks worse and worse), but it is the manner in which they lost those two games (and survived New Mexico), that is of concern.
I don’t think you’ll find anyone to argue that this team has issues. The debate starts when defining exactly what the issues are and the argument starts on what needs to be done to fix them.
The debate and argument in PART II
