CW had some freshman gaffs, but he was clearly the main reason OU won 6 of its last 8 games with him starting despite the overall lackluster performance by the entire team and a distracted head coach who was secretly scheming for an "escape" immediately after the OSU game.
Nice to get 11 wins and a bowl win during a pandemic, players bailing out of bowl games and a coach who denied OU of his best effort throughout the year....but the 2021 Sooners were far removed from being considered one of OU's historically better teams.
Some fans regarded the games won as if that was all that mattered. Winning ugly seemed to be all that mattered.
Some fans were observing that the team was plagued by poor effort, poor discipline and poor coaching.....and that the team was not showing any real improvement as the season went on, even with a roster full of talent.
In watching Alabama and Georgia, I saw two teams that would have mauled OU. The two teams played harder, pursued better, were very physical and made tackles. OU and Venables have much to do to get this program to the level of Georgia and Alabama.....but at least there is a template to follow.