The Football Brainiacs

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I had originally planned to write something yesterday about OU guys who have something to prove in this game, but I figured it would pretty much carry over into this weekly post. So in knowing that, this will probably read a little differently. Or maybe it will read exactly the same and you want me to just shut up and get to the point.

* Trevor Knight – Duh, right? Coming off arguably the worst game of his young career, it’s the most obvious of Captain Obvious type of statement to include him as a guy with something to prove. There’s virtually nothing I can tell you about what he needs to do Saturday (and going forward) that you haven’t already heard and/or read this past week. So I’ll just add this simple caveat.

My issue isn’t nearly so much with Knight as it is Josh Heupel, and I suppose to some extent Bob Stoops. To be fair, at the end of the day Knight is the one on the field and the one who has to ultimately make the plays. BUT he’s also not being put in the best position to be successful, at least not in my opinion, by Stoops and Heupel.

Why bother making the very clear change in recruiting strategy from QBs like Sam Bradford and Landry Jones to guys like Knight and Justice Hansen if you’re just going to try and jam that square peg (Knight) into that round hole (pocket passer) if it’s the last g.d. thing you do? It’s not like things were going poorly under guys like Bradford/Jones and you needed some sort of program altering shift in offensive philosophy by recruiting a dual-threat QB. You (Stoops/Heupel) made a conscious effort to change the style of QB you were bringing into the program and yet now here you/we are with you refusing to utilize the full aspects of said dual-threat QB and/or your offense.

Why does the ‘next man up’ philosophy appear to apply to every other position besides quarterback? Is Trevor Knight a good player? We’d all like to believe so. But should your entire season hinge on him to the point you’re playing “not to lose” with your offense, rather than dictating to others what you’re going to do and force them to adjust?

* Zack Sanchez  *name redacted* – I mean what’s the point in continuing to list *name redacted*? We know his play has been sub-par. He knows his play has been sub-par. And yet I read this earlier in the week and couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Couple things before I make my point/s. (1) Fully on board with the comments regarding people talking s#$% on Twitter. If you’re someone who directly contacts these guys to tell them they suck, or whatever other super clever burns you think you have that are super or clever, seek help. (2) Sitting in front of a bunch of guys with tape recorders in your face always makes me feel like they (the media) are egging these type of comments on, sometimes intentionally and I’d argue more often not so. But be all of that as it may, I’m confused why *name redacted* can publicly admit (and respect for doing so) his recent play is unacceptable but we as fans can’t agree with him.

Again, I’d agree with him 1000% that the only people he has to answer to are the other guys with him in the locker room and his coaches. He doesn’t have to answer to the fans, but don’t call us out for something you yourself have already admitted.

* Alex Ross – I don’t know what else Heupel or Cale Gundy need to see to understand running Ross between the tackles simply does not make sense. Either design some plays to get him out in space (a toss, or a sweep, or an option play, or what happened to those swing passes to the RBs…I could keep going, but I don’t get paid six figures to come up with this stuff) or it’s time to give someone else a chance at these carries.

Which is not to say there should be no role for Ross in this offense. Simply that much like they’re doing with Knight, trying to force this guy to do something he’s proved not to excel at makes no sense.

Honestly, I’d like to see Daniel Brooks get some carries in this game. I said on Twitter yesterday I think he’s could actually prove to be a better compliment to Samaje Perine than Ross has been thus far. Brooks has similar top end speed like Ross and is a much shiftier runner. I don’t know what goes on in practice, so I can’t say why they were using three backs before Keith Ford went down and now only using two.

But I do know what we’ve seen in the five games they’ve actually played and that’s a guy in Ross who has really struggled as a running back.

* Offensive line – This is a unit that clearly struggled with TCU’s defensive front and it won’t get any easier on Saturday. This is also a unit that some were calling OU’s best since that ridiculous 2008 o-line, but have quite a ways to go at this point before even coming close to that praise.

Against this Texas front, I’ll be really focusing on the interior of OU’s offensive line. Because as you’re no doubt tired of hearing me say, I firmly believe Malcom Brown and Hasan Ridgeway are going to give OU’s interior guys everything they can handle and then some.

I’ve been told I am giving Texas’ front a little too much credit and if you look at the Baylor box score (the Bears put up 278 yards on 60 carries) that might be fair. But at the same time, outside of Sterling Shepard, OU doesn’t have anything even remotely resembling the threat Baylor does at receiver (or run four & five wide sets) to get those extra defenders out of the box.

Maybe they can throw the ball well enough to do so, but at this point I’m going to have to see it before I believe it.

* KJ Young and/or Michiah Quick – While I wouldn’t go so far as to say Durron Neal has proved himself a reliable target, he’s light years ahead of where any other OU receiver is at right now. Quite frankly I don’t care who the guy is, they just need a guy to step up. I’d love to see them try and get Blake Bell more involved in the passing game. Or Dimitri Flowers. Or after all we heard about how great Quick was in fall camp, try and design some plays specifically with the goal of getting him the ball in space (Like, I don’t know, a reverse, maybe?).

I think Young could be a guy you count on in this offense, but thru five games he hasn’t been so at what point do you try and give somebody else a legitimate chance? Why just keep doing the same thing every game hoping this might be the time it works?

* Bob Stoops/Mike Stoops/Josh Heupel – I can’t even begin to describe to you how much I despise this ‘playing not to lose’ mentality I believe OU has been playing with thru these first five games. I said it elsewhere on the site, but every single thing they’ve done with being afraid to run Knight absolutely reeks of ‘playing not to lose.’ And we all saw last Saturday what happens when you coach a guy not to run, then expect he’ll be able to just flip the switch and ignore all of that previous coaching. At what point and how do you decide ‘Okay, this game is important enough we’re going to really let Trevor loose’?

You’re only guaranteed 12 games and, yeah, some of those are gonna be gimmies, but clearly that was not the case last Saturday.

There are a plethora of cautionary tales of teams that thought they could just ‘flip the switch’ when it mattered only to fail to do so. It doesn’t work (or at best it rarely works) and now you have a loss to show for it.

So will they learn from it? Or will they repeat their mistake and risk another loss? A second of which will all but end any hope for a Big 12 championship and a spot in the playoff. Because last time I checked, at the University of Oklahoma, it’s about winning championships.

I keep hearing you say we share that same goal/standard, yet what I see you doing contradicts that. And that’s gonna be a problem, fellas.

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What will you be watching for Saturday morning afternoon?

#TexasSucks