Oklahoma (10-2) and Auburn (8-4) will square off in Monday’s Allstate Sugar Bowl as both teams look to snag momentum heading into next season.
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The Sooners have Baker Mayfield, arguably college football’s top quarterback.
The Biletnikoff Award victor as the nation’s top receiver, the senior had 1,435 receiving yards with 16 touchdown catches and finished seventh nationally in reception yards per game average.
Despite only being on campus for three seasons, OU running back Samaje Perine is only 83 yards away from becoming the Sooners’ all-time leading rusher.
“If you look at it, they’re very explosive”, Malzahn said after arriving in New Orleans to finish up bowl preparations. He’s an outstanding player. First, the Tulsa World reported that star Sooners receiver Dede Westbrook had twice been arrested in Texas for allegedly causing physical harm to the mother of his two children.
“Anytime you have your first-string running back and first-string quarterback healthy, it’s huge”, Auburn offensive lineman Alex Kozan said. “To see our conference doing well, no matter if it’s Oklahoma State or whoever, I think that speaks volumes”. Certainly a team that has had as many problems defending against the pass would be better at stopping the run.
Mike Stoops made it clear where the message orginated from when he conceded Auburn might be the “most physical test” Oklahoma has faced all season.
No. 17 Auburn (8-4) fell in the AP poll from No. 8 during November because of losses in its final two Southeastern Conference games against Georgia and Alabama.
Mayfield won’t post his usual output against a very good Auburn defense. They rank fifth nationally with 15.6 points and 20th with 342.8 yards allowed per game. The defensive line and secondary has depth and has players ready in the wings to replace Adams and Carl Lawson. Despite nagging injuries, cornerback Joshua Holsey has been solid and will be needed to keep Westbrook under control.
“Kyler has done a great job for us”, he said. Assuming he doesn’t transfer again, Franklin could be a weapon used to get the edge on jet sweeps or a stretch defenses vertically on deep passes, which Stidham should be able to throw better than White. But we are close to 100 percent. We had some talent. “He really developed strong relationships early with our guys”. It’s a fun, special atmosphere, and it’s even better when after the really big games the current players, coaches, former players, and even the band comes up and joins in. This team and the way they try and run the football with the quarterback as well as all of the different motions and the number of running backs they get in the backfield at one time, you’re going to see three of them back there or motioning a receiver back there a lot. “We were picked either last or next to last in our league or in our division”.
Robert Leff and the Auburn football team practice for the Sugar Bowl.
One of the major topics of the bowl season has been players skipping them to avoid an injury prior the NFL Draft. Four coordinators in five years to be exact with Rodney Garner having the longest tenure of any defensive position coach now on the staff. It features two teams who, despite being highly ranked, failed to ever truly contend for the College Football Playoff.
The Oklahoma Sooners are 9-0 straight up and 6-3 against the spread in their last nine games overall. But, “our defense has played well all year”, Malzahn said. A video was released publicly three weeks ago that showed the attack. Every day we come out, we do it for him. We saw as the season went on how effective he was over the top but it’s that threat that has opened everything else up for the offense. “Our guys are anxious to do that”.
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Oklahoma defense sees the Sugar Bowl as a chance at redemption.
