Sooners

Despite being on vacation I was able to watch most of OU's Fiesta Bowl game against West Virginia at a local brewery/bar/pizzeria (there are a lot of those in Colorado, and they're all good). I kind of wish I hadn't. Offense was decent enough, but the defense, man, done in by a mobile quarterback... again. I really hope after all these years Bob Stoops comes up with a way to deal with duel option quarterbacks like Pat White, Chase Daniel, Vince Young, Brad Smith, and Eric Crouch. They've been killing us for years. That second half was just depressing, every time OU started to give me hope, WV would run for 70 yards on the next play. Nothing like having faint glimmers of hope crushed with regularity every 15 minutes for an hour.

I did get some sympathy from fellow bar goers during the game, as I lay in my bar stool (yes, laying in a bar stool is possible), my head hanging limply over the backrest. One guy was from Illinois, and so had seen USC crush his team the day before. Another guy was from Washington State and had been at the OU/WSU Rose Bowl game in 2003 that I also got to attend. So there was a brief moment of happiness as I recalled that game and reminded myself that while OU was down 48-28 or something, at least I wasn't a Washington State fan. I had even got to watch Wisconsin beat up on them way back in early September.

Things are looking up for OU next though. Pretty much all the stars are back, including Lofton, DeMarco Murray, Bradford, English, etc, hopefully Reggie Smith and Malcolm Kelly decide to stay and increase their draft stock with a good senior year. West Virginia gets to keep White, Devine, and maybe Slaton for next year too. If their defense can keep it together, look for an Oklahoma-West Virginia National Championship next year. You heard it hear first.

Along the line of unsupported factual assertions, look for the Big 12 to surpass the SEC in overall strength next year. Baylor and Iowa State will still probably really suck, but OU will be a championship contender, Texas still has Colt McCoy, Missouri still has Maclin and Daniel, Kansas will have Reesing and probably not be as good, but won't be a push-over either, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M are decent, Colorado is improving, Nebraska will possibly return to its old ways starting on defense under Pellini, and Texas Tech is always good and will still have Harrell and Crabtree. If they learn how to play defense at least as good as a high school team they'll make a lot of noise too.