The Football Brainiacs

So if you’re anything like me, you’re like a kid waiting for Christmas morning.  We’re only a little over a week away from kickoff now.  I already had to tell the wife that since the UTEP game is an afternoon kickoff that we needed to clear the schedule for that afternoon.  Fortunately, ol’ man-cub (who is now three, believe it or not) is well into his afternoon nap at that time so when he wakes up he can help me yell at the TV.  I’ll set em up on the iPad to check out some fire trucks & police cars and he’ll be good to go.

I was just as shocked as anyone else when I first heard that Bob Stoops had decided to retire.  I have and always will have a ton of respect and admiration for Coach Stoops.  His strength over the years to be stubborn and stay the course is something that I think I admire about him the most.  He brought Oklahoma back from the cellar when he took over and kept the Sooners at or near the top of College football for almost 20 years.  One of my weaknesses has always been loyalty.  While that may be a head-scratching statement for some, I, especially in younger years, would click my heels and charge the hill with no questions asked.

As I’ve gotten older and more secure in myself, I’ve come to question things a bit more than I did as a young man.

One of the things I could never fathom was why the Sooners weren’t as aggressive on the recruiting trail as other schools.  I also couldn’t understand why every kid out there wouldn’t want to be a Sooner, as that was always my dream school.

Officially, I’ve been following Sooner recruiting now for right at 15 years.  I was an avid reader of anything Sooners and would jump at anything I could find that had information.  Over that time, I’ve learned that kids that have choices of where they want to go to school need to be courted or wooed.  To a hardnosed guy like myself and a lot of you, that bothers me a bit, but again I was raised in a military style family that basically said you do what you’re told and be thankful for what you have.  So when a kid has options, like a lot of guys do who are good enough to be a Sooner, and they chose to go somewhere else, I just believed it was someone we were better off without.

Fast Forward a few years and I now understand how things work more than I used to, and I’m not so quick to side with the establishment without at least questioning it.

What’s been refreshing about the new regime to this point is that it seems that there’s a bit more pep in the step when it comes to recruiting.  Whether in the professional world or in the sports world, people in general just want to feel like they’re a priority.

Some wisdom that I’ve come to understand is that, if a coach recruits you hard, then he’s going to be invested in your success.  Meaning that if that coach is going out on a limb selling you as someone he wants for his position group, then he’s more likely to back you up when you make a mistake.  You need to be successful for his job’s sake, if you will.  So to kids who have someone who has been in the recruiting world before around them, this can be explained to them and their parents to help them have a greater sense of stability and security.  I know in any environment that, while competition is healthy, constantly looking over your shoulder and wondering if someone has your back is not a good environment to be in.

Long story short, before I get into what I hope to see on the field, I want to see the sustained recruiting effort we’ve seen thus far under Coach Riley.  I truly believe that Oklahoma can recruit with any program out there, but it has to be a priority.  With Coach Riley, I think it might be if the emphasis remains on it like it has been to this point.

The other thing I hope to see is the end of the roller coaster ride; of wondering who’s going to show up.  Last year when Ohio State came calling, OU looked as unprepared as I’ve ever seen a Sooner team look.  The defense truly struggled to get lined up properly and, due to that, a very physical Buckeye team looked like they were 1995 Nebraska running the ball.  Then, at year end, the Sooners look like world beaters against a very good Auburn team.

There are going to be great moments this year.  If you were hoping for a prediction out of this post as to what I think will happen, I may need a couple of games before I can do that.  But really what I hope to see is this:

1. As outlined above, a sustained effort on prioritization of top tier recruits throughout the year.

2. Elimination of wondering which team is going show up in big moments.

3. Clean execution at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

1. Can they get lined up?

2. Can they eliminate pre-snap penalties?

4. How sharp are the Sooners in doing the little things right?

1. Ball security.

2. No forced mistakes

3. Playing within yourself and taking what is there.

5. Can the Sooners be the most physically dominant team up front on both sides of the ball?

1. Can the offensive and defensive lines for the Sooners this year become as feared as the skill positions for the Sooners have been in the past few years?

6. Does the defense swarm to the ball?

1. Do we see some of the old 10 guys around the football forcing the issue and dictating to the offense what will happen.

7. Everything has to be contested defensively.

1. If there’s a pass, the QB’s getting hit, and then the DB is either crushing the receiver, knocking it down, or picking it off.

With the amount of talent the Sooners have offensively and defensively, I’ll be disappointed if they don’t do the little things that take care of the big things.  Ultimately, we’re going to find out fairly quickly how much they’ve done their homework this offseason.

The best teams are often the ones that make the fewest mistakes.  Workmanlike efforts from supremely talented groups are the ones that win championships.  This year, my focus will be on looking for the indicators that take care of the bigger picture.