On Saturday, the Buckeyes ran over the Golden Hurricane for 268 yards and 4 touchdowns, putting quarterback J.T. Barrett in the position of caretaker as opposed to playmaker (he threw for only 149 yards and 0 touchdowns).
Advertisement
“I remember watching them when I was in late elementary school and junior high when Sam Bradford was there and Adrian Peterson and even in high school when Landry Jones was there”, Barrett said earlier this week.
I am willing to bet that Greg Schiano has shown this play multiple times in film to his safeties this week, in an effort to tell them to stay home on any play action fakes.
“When we lost Thomas Lott, it turned to hell”, said former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer. After making a few attempts to move farther down the field, the Sooners found themselves fourth-and-one at Ohio State’s 23-yard line. “Nah”, he said with a laugh. They did a good job of game planning. This game shoud hold as much weight as the previous two. “I don’t think it’s different than any other big games like the Big Ten games we have”, he said. Most people would probably agree with that argument too.
The Oklahoma Sooners might have disappointed their fans in a loss to Houston in their opener but they certainly scheduled the right opponent to rebound against.
On the practice field, the Sooners started working on the similarities about two weeks before the Houston game. I expect Ohio State to run plenty of jet sweeps and flares out to the running back, particularly with Curtis Samuel to keep him away from the big interior of the Sooner front.
The Buckeyes ranked seventh in total defense last season and second in points allowed per game at just 14.
That kind of track record helps attract assistant coaches like Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, who came to Norman from East Carolina two years ago.
Ohio State has won 18 consecutive games in opponents’ stadiums.
According to Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, it’s establishing the run against the big, talented Oklahoma offensive line. His skillset is similar to that of Ohio State’s Noah Brown, who could use his big frame for a big day against the Oklahoma corners.
This summer, the Associated Press ranked the top 100 college football teams since 1936 and Ohio State was ranked No. 1 and Oklahoma No. 2.
That said, Week 3 at Oklahoma will be a whole new challenge. “Half of it was real and half of it was made up”, Meyer once said. Of if you have lucky drawers. A win would springboard Oklahoma into the CFP picture while a loss – which would be the team’s second of the season – would effectively take the Sooners out of the CFP hunt. There’s nothing luck has to do with it. “It has a lot of things that could happen after”. That’s being prepared and part of our workouts. “I haven’t heard what the gentleman said, about the quarterback is going to light us up or something”.
J.T. Barrett (16) throws a pass against Bowling Green.
Advertisement
Urban Meyer won’t have to make up any bulletin board motivational stuff this week for Saturday’s nationally televised showdown between No. 3 Ohio State and No. 14 Oklahoma in Norman.
