Attended the University of Wyoming. The Bucks and the Sooners will finally meet this Saturday night in Norman after a lot of built up hype and anticipation.
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The insane thing about this Saturday night game is that it’ll mark just the third time that two of college football’s most prestigious programs have played against one another. Ohio State has played Bowling Green and Tulsa to open the 2016 season and entered the year needing to replace eight defensive starters.
Ohio State’s players have seen what he said and they reacted in appropriate form on Twitter. Oklahoma did lose Sterling Shepard, the Sooners’ best WR from a year ago, but have a talented WR corps headed by Dede Westbrook; the matchup between Westbrook and the Buckeye secondary will be one of the more interesting ones in this game.
Oklahoma (1-1), No. 2 in the all-time rankings, is No. 14 this season after losing its season opener to Houston.
Mayfield walked on at Texas Tech and played there as a freshman in 2013 before transferring to Oklahoma and sitting out a year. But when the Sooners get rolling on the ground with Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon, they are hard to stop. Both Cougars’ quarterback Greg Ward Jr. and Barrett are dynamic runners that learned from Houston head coach and former Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman. The contract for this series was signed back in January 2008, when the majority of these players were still in grade school, and Jim Tressel was patrolling the sidelines for Ohio State. Ohio State needs to shut down the Oklahoma running attack, or at least keep the Sooners in obvious passing situations. Perine and Mixon form one of the top running back combos in the country, and Perine’s power and Mixon’s versatility form the flawless complement.
“I think they have a really basic defense”, said Kendall, the backup to Baker Mayfield, on Sooner Sports. But he demonstrated last season that he’s a tremendous big-moment passer. I have it Ohio State 27, Oklahoma 24.
And 3) Does he realize that Ohio State’s defense has given up all of two field goals in its two games this season? Mayfield will obviously provide his toughest test to date, but he could be Ohio State’s best option to neutralize the playmaking quarterback.
BIG ANDREWS: Oklahoma’s 6-foot-5, 250-pound tight end Mark Andrews has five catches and three touchdowns this season. Through 15 games, Andrews has 10 touchdown grabs, including three already this season. Not only did Mayfield have to try and produce against a really good Tiger defense in January, he was beat up in Week 1 against an aggressive Houston defense (in a neutral-site game that felt like a Cougar home game). I think this one will come down to the wire, but I am thinking the hero of this one is going to be Ohio State PK Tyler Durbin, the walk-on of whom Coach Meyer has jokingly suggested that Meyer does not even know his name. Ohio State, 37-34. Before that, it was when Oregons Marcus Mariota and Florida States Jameis Winston met in the College Football Playoff after the 2014 season. But as an underdog, Bob Stoops is usually at his best.
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The Sooners are 4-0 in their last four against the spread after allowing 20 points or less in their previous game. His consistency and pure playmaking ability practically make him a lock for the first round in next year’s National Football League draft and he will be looking to make a statement this Saturday.
