Oklahoma was ranked No. 3 and Ohio State No. 4.
Advertisement
And pretty much any coach will tell you that in college football, it’s often much more about the Jimmys and the Joes than the Xs and the Os.
Oklahoma notes: The Sooners lost their opener 33-23 to Houston at NRG Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans. Will the Sooners get back in the mix for a playoff spot?
If Stoops can outfox the collective coaching minds of Meyer and Herman, it will be a season-changer for the Sooners.
But after crushing an undermanned Louisiana-Monroe team last week, Oklahoma is only two games removed from College Football Playoff berth. It’s the 11 men running it. Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett has already thrown seven touchdown passes and run for three in the first two games. Both are in position to vault into the forefront of the conversation.
Saturday night, two of the most storied programs in college football history will meet for just the third time.
Ohio State’s defense was the story in the win over Tulsa. The Gators won the 2008 national championship, 24-14, in the Orange Bowl. In order to beat them, the Sooners will have to take some chances by going for it on fourth down early in the game and not being afraid to send pressure after Barrett. “They’re exciting for everybody”.
No. 21 Baylor (minus 30½) at Rice: OK, Owls, win as a four-plus-touchdown underdog and you’re in the Big 12.
“That’s the only thing with a young team, the newness of what happens on the road as opposed to focusing on their assignments”, coach Urban Meyer said. “I also know I’ve got to push a little bit harder, got to push those guys (teammates) a little bit more”. “We’re facing a very good team”. Ohio State (2-0) this year had no trouble handling Bowling Green and Tulsa by a combined score of 125-13. (Ward rushed 16 times for.14 yards against the Sooners D, and Houston’s offense was just fine.) In the first half against Tulsa, Meyer leaned nearly exclusively on a very vanilla read-option look that resulted in just six points total; the talk around the water cooler is that Meyer probably didn’t want to show too much to Bob Stoops. Oklahoma doesn’t need Perine and Mixon to both reach the 100-yard mark, but this duo has to be more productive and needs more overall opportunities to run the ball than they did against Houston. Big 12 offenses don’t typically do well against faster teams and the Buckeyes have the best speed in the secondary they’ll see. Just as Houston looked to exploit the side of the field opposite Jordan Thomas, you can guarantee Barrett and Urban Meyer will look to do the exact same thing.
Blevins, who bounced back after throwing two interceptions earlier in the game, connected on a 18-yard pass to Steve Rhodes. Running back Ezekiel Elliott was a first-round pick by the Cowboys, and five of the team’s top six receivers also did not return for 2016.
OHIO STATE D: The Buckeyes have allowed just two field goals this season. The Falcons and Golden Hurricane scored a total of 144 touchdowns in 2015.
If they succeed in shutting down the Buckeye ground attack, Barrett can toss the pigskin to Samuel, who is just as unsafe catching the ball with 14 grabs for 261 yards and a couple of scores. If I am not good enough to play there, then I’m not going to play there. Do you have fortunate things happen off bad plays, like (former tailback) Ezekiel Elliott breaking a lot of tackles a year ago?
Advertisement
While his heart was with Texas – he probably would have signed with the Longhorns if they’d offered – Barrett did watch some Oklahoma games while growing up and had a few recruiting conversations with their coaching staff.
