There is only one Oklahoma…
This is one of those times when we have to be reminded of this fact. We knew going into the Alabama game that beating these guys would be a major stretch. With the Notre Dame/Clemson blowout serving as a pregame show, we knew we were headed for a train wreck, but we couldn’t help ourselves, we had to look.
I thought going into the game that the 14 point Vegas spread was a pretty good estimate of our chances… after all these guys do this stuff for a living and yes, this was Alabama. My hope was to beat those odds. At 28-0, I was craving that 14 point spread. I was concerned that we might be in for another bloodletting like we have seen in bowl games in previous years. Getting over those losses seemed to take forever. We can recover from this loss.
For OU to get off the mat and lose by only 11 after being down by 28 showed a lot of grit. I know the typical OU fan will blame the OU defense and be disheartened with this loss, but I implore OU fans to take a step back and think about the challenge of this game and the future of this team. This team could have crumbled like Notre Dame did against Clemson. We are also dealing with a new college football landscape with the championship system.
For the foreseeable future there are only a handful of teams that can compete for a National Championship. In my opinion the National Champion will come from the SEC, Clemson or from Oklahoma. I say Oklahoma because OU is the only program in America that can recruit the kind of talent to compete with the SEC and/or Clemson. A quick look at this year’s recruiting rankings will bear me out. The top four teams in this year’s Rivals rankings were from the SEC with Clemson and OU rounding out the top six.
Granted more talent comes out of those states in one year than comes out of Oklahoma in several decades, but we have the OU name that will allow us to recruit Texas and nation-wide. I don’t see any other program in the country being able to stockpile enough talent to combat the Alabama’s and the Clemson’s of the world. We can also become America’s team because people will tire of the same old bunch winning this thing every year.
OU will also have to change their mindset about paying assistant coaches. Quality offensive and defensive coordinators are making $2 million dollars a year these days. We need to find our own T. Boone to compete against the rising cost of competing in college football’s new normal.
Unlike the day when OU could win a National Championship by beating a weak Florida State team in the Orange Bowl the current challenge will be much more daunting, but I believe that Lincoln can get it done. We are now recruiting the kind of players that can compete against these teams…we must add hiring top tier coaches to our wish list.
Boomer Sooner…