Besides Norman, where is the Oklahoma Sooner program?

By Pete Fiutak | @PeteFiutak

Going into the 17th season of the wildly successful Bob Stoops era, OU is in college football superpower purgatory.

It’s just talented enough and strong enough to come into the season thinking College Football Playoff or bust. If the Sooners can beat Tennessee at Tennessee – that’s the non-conference win Baylor didn’t have last season – and go 11-1, at worst, with a Big 12 title, then it’s in unless something truly crazy happens with the other four Power 5 conferences.

On the flip side, after a lousy conference season, a rough back half of 2014 losing four of the final seven games, and with a bowl loss to Clemson that was every bit as ugly and embarrassing as the shocking 2014 Sugar Bowl win over Alabama was fantastic, there’s a good chance things get uglier before they improve.

If it’s possible to be Oklahoma and be a wild card after 16 seasons of Stoops, that’s what it is.

Oklahoma could absolutely lose on the road to young Tennessee team loaded with talent – and with 21 starters returning. With the Big 12 vastly better than last season, it could certainly lose to Texas on the wrong day, have problems with the strongest West Virginia team yet under Dana Holgorsen, and lose on the road at Kansas State, Baylor, and/or Oklahoma State, not to mention the home game against TCU. And that’s the big problem now. There’s no margin for error.

The Big 12 really will have a One True Champion thing happening this year, and for a Sooner team that certainly looked shaky last year, it has to not only win a conference title, but it can only afford one blip along the way.

So for all of the Big 12 championships and for all the success under Stoops, OU hasn’t gone through a regular season with just one loss since the 2008 Sam Bradford run to the BCS championship loss to the Florida Tebows. Considering the rise of several Big 12 teams, and with the mystique and bad ass aura of Oklahoma football gone, how is this team possibly going to be the one to return things to normal in Norman?

If nothing else, Oklahoma will at least be in the conversation.

The quarterback situation has issues, mainly because all of the key parts are mediocre-to-above-average, and the offensive line needs to reload, and more receiver weapons have to rise up, and the secondary can’t be so awful, and the mistakes have to stop, and there can’t be anymore Russell Athletic Bowl-like performances. But other than that, everything is fine. Really.

It might be an excuse, but Oklahoma was right there with TCU, lost to Kansas State by one, and melted down against Oklahoma State, but the Sooners were eight points away from being three wins better. Excuse the Clemson loss as a team that didn’t have any interest in a meaningless bowl and the Baylor game … there’s no explaining away the 48-14 blasting.

It’s Oklahoma. It could go find its groove and rip through the schedule going 11-1 – it’s Oklahoma, so it’ll gack at some point – or it could just as easily be a 8-4 also-ran.

No matter what, the program is going to be a factor.

What You Need To Know About The Offense: Is it time to party like it’s 2008 with Lincoln Riley coming in as the offensive coordinator? He learned his trade at Texas Tech and put up massive numbers with the East Carolina offense over the last few seasons. But does he have the quarterback who can make it all fly? There are three options led by Trevor Knight and former Texas Tech starter Baker Mayfield, but even with the renewed emphasis on the passing game, it’ll be easier just to hand it off to Samaje Perine and the loaded group of running backs. The receiving corps is bringing in some help for Sterling Shepard, while the rebuilt line should once again be a strength with a little bit of time working around C Ty Darlington. While the Sooners need to be more explosive, now they need to be more consistently great.

What You Need To Know About The Defense: Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops has to get more out of his pass defense. The run D should once again be fantastic with one of the Big 12’s best linebacking corps. Eric Striker leads a deep and talented group working behind yet another good line – even if it needs a little bit of reworking. It’s going to get into the backfield on a regular basis and it’ll be a brick wall against the run at times. Now the secondary has to do its part. Zach Sanchez is a terrific corner to start with, and Ahmad Thomas is a good-looking free safety, but overall the secondary has to hold up against the outstanding Big 12 passing attacks.

What to watch for on offense: It’s not just that the OU quarterback position is up for grabs between four decent options; it’s that the entire offensive make-up could change wildly depending on who gets the gig. That’s sort of a problem considering offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley wants to wing it around the yard with an Air Raid style. Cody Thomas is promising, but if he’s starting, the coaching staff is making a Trevor Knight-starting-in-2013 type of statement that the two most viable options aren’t stepping up. Knight is sort of a runner, but he’s getting beaten up a bit and he’s just not consistently accurate enough. Former Texas Tech starter Baker Mayfield isn’t a runner in any way, so if he’s under center the Sooners are throwing, throwing, and handing off to Samaje Perine. If it’s Knight, the Sooners are handing off to Perine, Knight is balling, and maybe there will be some throwing.

What to watch for on defense: The pass defense just can’t be that awful again. Unless you have a 2008 Oklahoma-like offense that can keep up any pace, you can’t be as miserable as the Sooners were against the pass last season. The pass rush was good enough, and there’s talent in the secondary, but the superstar Big 12 passing offenses lit up OU like the Fourth of July with Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and West Virginia all rolling up more than 300 yards. That’s okay considering their offenses, but Texas? Oklahoma made Tyrone Swoopes look ready to take over the New England job after throwing for 334 yards. Clemson ended the pain as the sixth team on the year to hit the 300-yard mark. The Big 12 passing league excuse only goes so far, though. How many teams hit OU for 300 passing yards in 2013? Three. Texas Tech (fair enough), Kansas State, and Alabama.

The team will be far better if … there’s some semblance of consistency in the passing game. Yes, Oklahoma has the defensive talent, and yes, it has to be better in the secondary, but you can’t win the Big 12 championship unless you can week-in-and-week-out handle yourself in a firefight. Granted, Samaje Perine’s record-setting day had a wee bit to do with it, but you can’t complete 3-of-13 passes for 39 yards against Kansas. You can’t hit 46% of your passes with no scores and three picks against Clemson. Outside of the first few weeks of the season, OU just never seemed to get the same solid performance from the passing game two weeks in a row.

The schedule: In a league that doesn’t extend itself in non-conference play, going to Tennessee qualifies as a huge road game for the Sooners. That might be a make-or-break moment for the league’s reputation early on.
– It’s an interesting schedule in terms of timing. There aren’t two true home games in a row after the week off in late September. Counting the neutral site game against Texas, the Sooners won’t ever be comfortable at home.
– It’s all about the last few weeks. Going to Kansas State in the middle of the year won’t be easy, but closing out at Baylor, against TCU and at Oklahoma State will be a fight.
– OU has to rock in the middle of the season with West Virginia, the Texas game, Texas Tech, at Kansas and Iowa State wrapped around the date at Kansas State. This is where the team has to gel.
– WATCH OUT FOR … Texas Tech. This might be a brain-slip game if the Sooners aren’t focused coming off the road game at Kansas State.

Best offensive player: Sophomore RB Samaje Perine. The running back situation was a bit of a concern with star prospect Joe Mixon out of the mix, and then Perine turned in a special season, even by Oklahoma standards. There’s no need to carry the entire workload anymore after carrying the mail 263 times with so many other good backs ready to see time and with the Air Raid offense looking to throw so more. Even so, it’s nice to have a guy in the backfield good enough to rip off lots and lots of yards in chunks.

Best defensive player: Senior LB Eric Striker. A bit of a shocker that he decided to come back for another year, he has 2016 NFL top 50 draft pick potential with great pass rushing potential and excellent versatility. Depending on what might happen with the Frank Shannon situation, the Sooner linebacking corps should be loaded and talented, and Striker will be the best of the lot on the outside in a 3-4, or as more of a pass rushing end at times in the 4-3.

Key player to a successful season: Junior QB Trevor Knight, Junior QB Baker Mayfield, Sophomore QB Cody Thomas, and/or Redshirt Freshman QB Justin Hansen. The Sooners have to get better, sharper, more consistent quarterback play, and it’s not enough just to find a guy from the group who can run the attack. Oklahoma needs to win because its quarterback is really, really good, and Knight hasn’t been able to be that sort of a player for long stretches. Mayfield is the right fit for the return to the high-octane passing style, but it just doesn’t seem like the coaches are ready to jump on board quite yet. No matter who gets the call, it’s not a big stretch to call this the most important position battle of the Big 12 season.

The season will be a success if … Oklahoma wins the Big 12 championship. It’s not a good enough team to go unbeaten, and it’s not going to be consistent enough to get to 11-1, but there’s still more talent across the board than anyone else in the Big 12 and the pieces overall are still in place to get to a championship level. The playoff is the dream, but for this team, coming off of last year, a 10-2 season with a championship t-shirt would be good enough.

Key game: Nov. 14 at Baylor. Okay, Oklahoma. Enough is enough. To put what Baylor is to Oklahoma into perspective, before Robert Griffin III’s magical Heisman-winning performance to beat the Sooners in one of 2011’s best games, Oklahoma’s all-time record vs. Baylor was 19-0. OU made it 20-1 after beating the Bears in a 2012 firefight, and then came two complete and total butt kickings losing 41-12 in 2013 and 48-14 last season. OU has to come up with a win over Texas, and beating Tennessee would be nice, and getting by Kansas State on the road and TCU at home are musts, but after the last two years, Oklahoma has to show once again that it’s better than Baylor.

2014 Fun Stats:
– Sacks: Oklahoma 32 for 204 yards – Opponents 9 for 58 yards
– Rushing TDs: Oklahoma 40 – Opponents 15
– Punt Return Average: Opponents 10.6 yards – Oklahoma 5.8 yards

Players You Need To Know

1. RB Samaje Perine, Soph.
Perine was a nice recruit for the program, but he was hardly any sort of jaw-dropping, program-changing get who was going to make anyone forget about Adrian Peterson. But suspensions and injuries helped put him into the No. 1 role as a true freshman, and he showed just how fantastic he could be once he got his chance. At 5-11 and 237 pounds, he’s a very big, very tough workhorse back with great quickness, balance and vision, rolling for 1,713 yards and 21 touchdowns averaging 6.5 yards per pop. He can catch the ball a little bit, making 15 grabs, but he was at his best when he got into a lather with the ground attack, blowing up on West Virginia for 242 yards and four scores on 34 carries in the win, and going on a 100-yard roll over the second half of the season, hitting the mark five times in the final six games highlighted by his NCAA record-setting day against Kansas with 427 yards and five touchdowns. Don’t expect the same sort of numbers with several other good backs in the rotation, along with a change in offensive styles, but he’s still going to be special whenever he gets the chance.

2. LB Eric Striker, Sr.
One of the team’s most versatile defenders, and one of the Big 12’s best pass rushers, the 6-0, 223-pounder will work at linebacker, but he might see time in different packages like a really big, really active safety and will spend plenty of time like a hybrid pass rushing end. Great two years ago with 50 tackles with 6.5 sacks, he was even more active last season making 68 tackles with nine sacks and 17 tackles for loss. While he’s a bit undersized to be a true NFL pass rusher, he has first round potential because his versatility and explosive play. One of the only bright spots in the bowl loss to Clemson, he came up with 12 sacks with 1.5 sacks and three tackles for loss after coming up with three sacks in the Sugar Bowl win the year before against Alabama. He’s very smart, very quick, and very, very good as the star of a strong linebacking corps.

3. WR Sterling Shepard, Sr.
The key part of the receiving corps for the last three years, he made 96 grabs in his first two years before exploding last season. He made 51 catches in 2013 for 603 yards, but last year he made more and more big plays with 970 yards on the same 51 grabs with five touchdowns averaging 19 yards per catch. Even more impressively, he did all of that in just nine games, missing the back half of the season with a groin injury. At 5-10 and 191 pounds, he has decent enough size to go along with excellent speed and NFL potential, and now he should do even more as a deep threat with more help around him. Really, really quick, he can be used as a punt returner and can make plays in the open field, but he’s at his best as the No. 1 target. Steady throughout the year, he blew up against Kansas State with 15 catches for 197 yards and a touchdown and nailed TCU with 215 yards on seven carries. There’s a lot more where that came from.

4. CB Zack Sanchez, Jr.
One of the few bright spots in a bad year for the secondary, the 5-11, 175-pounder earned all-star honors making 43 tackles with six interceptions and eight broken up passes, following up a 46-tackle, two-pick, 13 breakup season. A starter in his first two years, he’s a big play defender who knows how to attack the ball and isn’t afraid to come up with big hits in the open field. He’s not huge and he’s not a blazer, but he has next-level skills, but first he’ll spend at least one more year as the corner everyone has to avoid.

5. DE Charles Tapper, Sr.
The 6-4, 283-pound end didn’t exactly regress, but he didn’t crank things up to a whole other level like he was expected to after a dominant performance in the 2014 Sugar Bowl to close out a great sophomore season. He was good last year with 37 tackles and three sacks with 7.5 tackles for loss, but his worth goes beyond the numbers. While he doesn’t necessarily have NFL pass rushing tools – he just doesn’t have the speed burst – he’s a big, tough lineman who knows how to hold his own while always fighting to get to the ball. He has prototype skills in several facets of his game, but he’s just not flashy in a world that’s looking for the big splash.

6. OG Nila Kasitati, Sr.
At 6-4 and 315 pounds, he’s not a massive body for the interior by today’s next-level standards, but he’s a rock-solid guard at either spot earning all-star honors from the Big 12 coaches last season. More of a right guard with the ability to kick outside to tackle if needed, the former tight end can move and can maul for the ground game. Now he has to stay healthy, suffering a knee injury early in his career and missing spring ball banged up. He might not be the most sensational part of the line, but he’ll be steady.

7. C Ty Darlington, Sr.
Very smart and very steady as an underappreciated leader of the line, the 6-2, 299-pound veteran has been a rock. A good get for the program out of Florida four years ago, he’s quick off the ball and shows excellent power when he gets to blast away for the ground game. He doesn’t make mistakes, he’s technically sound, and if all goes according to plan, he should be considered among the nation’s top centers.

8. LB Frank Shannon, Sr.
Suspended from the team for a year following a Title IX sexual misconduct allegation, he’s expected to be back and part of the mix by the start of the season. Will he be guaranteed a starting spot again? Not necessarily considering how deep the linebacking corps is, but assuming he’s back, he could be the team’s best defensive player right away. The former safety prospect bulked up and turned his speed and athleticism into a killer of a linebacker coming up with a team-leading 92 tackles with a pick, two sacks and seven tackles for loss in 2013. The 6-1, 238-pounder has hit the weights hard since first arriving in Norman and handles himself well in the middle with great range and hitting ability. A guided missile, he’ll be a highlight reel star if and when he plays again.

9. RB Joe Mixon, RFr.
Back with the team after getting suspended following misdemeanor charges of hitting a female student, will he get to show off why he was such a superstar recruit? He was supposed to do what Samaje Perine came up with, and now he’ll be part of a rotation. However, when he gets his chances, watch out. The 6-2, 217-pounder was just about everyone’s No. 1 running back prospect with speed, power, and everything you’d want in a tailback, and now the California native should be a major factor. Perine might be the main man now, but Mixon has more talent.

10. WR Dede Westbrook, Jr.
Superstar JUCO transfer prospects don’t always translate into actual players, but Westbrook should be ready to produce right away. Built for the Air Raid offense the Sooners are going to run, he’s a rail thin 6-1 and 167 pounds, but he’s quick with the ball in his hands and he knows how to get open. The hot guy throughout spring ball, he’s too good not to be a devastating playmaker as both a runner and a receiver.