Sooners Get No Respect

I am not a pessimistic Oklahoma Sooners fan. I will admit, however, the older I get, the more realistic fan I have become.  Last season finished on a sour note when the Sooners were humiliated by Johnny (and all I got was this lousy autograph) Manziel and Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.  The past two seasons have produced some of the worst defense in OU football history.  To be honest, the past four seasons have been frustrating for Sooners fans.  It started in 2009 when numerous injuries derailed a potential national championship team.  In each of the next three seasons OU squandered winnable games eliminating championship hopes.

Until now I have approached this coming season realistically.  The Sooners are breaking in a new starting quarterback and lost seven of eleven starters from a defense that finished last season humbled.  That said, a realistic approach to the season was admitting the Sooners probably wouldn't win the national championship.  I still expected them to win the conference, beat Texas and Oklahoma State, and play in the Fiesta Bowl.  Realistic.

Those realistic goals are similar to what the Sooners have produced the past five seasons.  Since 2008, the Sooners have played for a national championship, won three Big XII championships and went 3-2 in bowl games including a BCS bowl victory.  Despite this, pollspeak.com rated OU as the most overrated college football team of the last five years.  The site compared teams preseason ranking with final rankings and calculated the difference.

I know what you're thinking.

With their resume, how are the Sooners considered overrated?

No?  That's not what you were thinking?

Then, you were probably thinking the bulk of the poll differential (-49 from preseason rankings) came in 2009 when they began the year ranked 3rd only to finish unranked after Sam Bradford's injury.

No again? Okay, I got it.

You're thinking, who the hell is pollspeak.com and why the hell would I care what they say?

That's exactly what I was thinking too when I read it.  But apparently I'm not the only person that noticed.  The moniker of overrated has been tossed OU's way after losing back to back national championship games in 2003 and 2004.  It's funny that being one of the final two teams would earn you an overrated label, but that's what happened.  Now this pollspeak article appeared and gave detractors all the ammunition they need to insult OU football, and they are taking advantage.

The Sooners start the season ranked 16th in the coaches poll.  Probably fair aside from being ranked behind Texas and Oklahoma State.  In three college football preview shows I watched, analysts unanimously trashed the Sooners. One went so far as to say Oklahoma State has taken over as the best program in Oklahoma.

What a joke!  OSU has exactly one series win in the last decade.  ONE!  In a DECADE.  The all-time record is 83-17-7 in favor of the Sooners.  One win per decade is all OSU fans need to be the most obnoxious in college football.  So many years of living in big brother's shadow has left Poke fans with very low self esteem.  The Mets have a better chance of taking New York from the Yankees than the Cowboys have of taking Oklahoma from the Sooners.  OSU will always find a way to lose if they are expected to win, so I guess it's good that everyone outside of Norman expects the Cowboys to beat the Sooners this season. 

Speaking of obnoxious, the pundits also predicted Texas would beat OU even though the Sooners have won the last three games by a combined 88 points (their overrated years, don't forget).  Texas hasn't even been competitive the last two games allowing the Sooners to score 55 and 63 points.  I understand that Texas has talent, but when have they not had talent under Mack Brown?  The problem is you actually have to coach and develop that talent, neither of which are strong suits for Texas.  As long as Brown is on the burnt orange sideline, I will never worry about a disparity in talent.  Never.  Outside of Stoops, Brown is my favorite head coach.

That's not all.  Apparently, TCU is also going to beat OU, and if the Sooners aren't careful, Baylor will get them too.  Not one analyst had anything positive to say about OU.

After hearing all that my blood boiled.  My transformation into Football Blake is nearly complete and I am sick of the Sooners getting disrespected.  Screw being rational or realistic, here's what I know.  Since 2000, the Sooners have won eight of the 13 conference championships.  With six different quarterbacks.  For those who think the Sooners will suffer without Landry Jones, it looks like Stoops has a pretty good idea what he's doing.  They won't be the most talented or deep Sooners ever, but I don't see them dropping off into mediocrity, and I sure as hell don't see them losing to Texas or Baylor.

Maybe this is the kick in the ass the Sooners needed, coaches and players alike.  They are no longer college football royalty and the SEC has a strangle hold on championship football.  I used to hope the Sooners weren't reading their headlines.  Now, I hope to hell they are.  No one has OU in the championship hunt.  No one has OU even being dangerous.  Not even in a conference they have owned for 13 years.  I can't wait to see how they respond.

The Sooners have a roster full of potential and an offense that should average 45 points a game.  Josh Heupel needs to do a better job of staying balanced and getting the ball to Trey Millard often.  He has as much to prove as Blake Bell or whoever the Sooners name as the starting quarterback.

The defense has even more to prove along with Mike Stoops entering his second year in his second tenure as defensive coordinator for the Sooners.  The defense might not dominate against the spread attacks they will face in conference, but I expect great athletes with pride.  I don't know who will step up, but someone will.  I feel it now where I didn't before.  No matter who takes the field August 31, they will have Sooners written across their chest, 80,000 fans wearing crimson and both Stoops patrolling the sidelines.  I like our chances.  It's time to unleash the beast.