HERE WE GO BV
- Thread starter DWW7
- Start date
History lesson:
2009 featured a team that had 15 significant injuries including Heisman winner QB Sam Bradford, RB DeMarco Murray, WR Ryan Broyles and TE Germaine Grisham.
The team managed to beat OSU in the last game of the regular season, then beat Stanford in the Sun Bowl after losing very close games to BYU (11-2), Miami (9-4), Texas (13-1), and Nebraska (10-4) ......only losing one lopsided game to Texas Tech (9-4) in Lubbock.
That 2009 team did not embarrass itself and overcame a lot with a decimated roster and a tough schedule and is not deserving of being negatively put down.
Venables has restored OU's recruiting very well with the 2022 class ranked at 8th and the 2023 class ranked 7th (so far)..... but it's very obvious he inherited a team with lesser talent than his predecessors and a group of transfers this season that essentially represent a patchwork of "hand-me-down" talent.
Most of us knew OU faced a transition period..... a period in which topflight talent was less than usual and a roster of players who had too much of Lincoln Riley's fingerprints on it. That's two difficult things for Venables to deal with, and it's apparently not going to be resolved this year.
What matters now, in my opinion, is for this team to improve so it can lay a foundation and gain momentum for next year and beyond. A close game with Texas, even in defeat, would go a long way in showing that this can happen.
OU faces Texas with Gabriel, Gray, Harman, Bowman, Morris, and Wease injured vs TCU...and with Major and Stripling out as well. How many of these players will be ready is unknown right now, but the game looms as a sure win for Texas. Regardless, I'm looking ahead to what I believe will be better times and seeing Venables recruit OU back to relevance.
And right now, ANY bowl berth would be fine with me.
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Yeah, I agree. I watched the Clemson game last night and it’s very obvious Brent had much better defensive talent there than he has at OU. The old saying “it’s not the Xs and Os, it’s the Jimmys and Joes that make the difference” may fit the predicament we’re in but I also think Brent will find a couple of better coaches at the end of the season. BTW, I would like for Brent to work with the defense and call the defensive plays. Depending on how quickly our injured players recover I think we win the Kansas game then we will see what happens.
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The guys on the OU roster are just as talented if not more so than Kansas, K-State, and TCU. If teams like Kansas and Ap State, Middle Tenn, can compete and even beat the better teams, it comes down to coaching. Whatever worked at Clemson isn't working in Norman. Obviously, the coach that came from Bama didn't take pay attention to Saban, cause the corners suck at man coverage. Hall as a safety coach also needs to rethink his practice plan, cause the safeties were out of position all day yesterday. BV needs to take over all linebackers and call all defenses. He needs that fire in his belly that we saw at Clemson, with a get-back coach. Yesterday he looked defeated, he was brought here to lead this team like he led the Clemson defense, IMO he is not doing that.
Read post number 16 from the below linked thread. Very good post by this person
TCU post game sober reaction thread - DirtBurglars
aTm got roasted by Mike Leach / Miss State, so there is that. Something is fundamentally wrong. Not sure if this season can be salvaged. Certainly not optimistic about our chances next weekend. I'm concerned about the affect this might have on home attendance going forward.
www.dirtburglars.com
Agreed.
I think a better comparison would be the 1995 team coached by Schnellenberger. That team was 3-0 and ranked #10 after opening the season against three cupcakes, and a lot of people bought into the fool's gold. The team finished the season unranked at 5-5-1 and got blown out in several conference games.
I am not going to disagree with what you said but maybe BV understands the talent on D is a work in progress. I think we as fans need to give him time to get his type of players in place and I do believe he will do that. Its not an overnight fix.
Maybe that defeated look was more of him thinking “ What the hell do I need to do to get these idiots to play better”
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The 1995 team had very average talent with only TE Alexander and RB's James Allen and Jerald Moore on offense and DE Cedric Jones on defense as the top players.
Five losses were to #4 Colorado, #18 Texas, #7 Kansas, #9 K-State and #1 Nebraska.
Five losses were to #4 Colorado, #18 Texas, #7 Kansas, #9 K-State and #1 Nebraska.
Ok. I know there are many on here that knows much more about football mechanics than I but am I wrong when I say a 3 man defensive front is wrong for this team? Do we have a real nose guard on this team? Our D is getting beat bad at the line of scrimmage from the snap. This seems like it opens up everything to our weaknesses. TCU run and pass found wide open spaces after the LOS broke down.
I understand our best having issues at the start. Gabriel could not hit a wide open receiver in the first quarter. He missed 6 of 7 that were on him pure and simple. Why not call a time out and settle him down. It just seemed that our coaching staff was caught off guard and stayed off guard for 60 minutes. I am disappointed in our reaction to getting punched early and often. Based on what I saw at Fort Worth I wonder if we can beat anyone left on our schedule. I will be in Dallas on Saturday!!!!
BTW: I am a huge fan of Kanak. When this guy is in the game he is around the football. He has a high motor and gives it 100% every snap. He should be starting. He have some very average play from our D secondary. It seems that we have true or redshirt freshman that are far better than our upper classmen.
I understand our best having issues at the start. Gabriel could not hit a wide open receiver in the first quarter. He missed 6 of 7 that were on him pure and simple. Why not call a time out and settle him down. It just seemed that our coaching staff was caught off guard and stayed off guard for 60 minutes. I am disappointed in our reaction to getting punched early and often. Based on what I saw at Fort Worth I wonder if we can beat anyone left on our schedule. I will be in Dallas on Saturday!!!!
BTW: I am a huge fan of Kanak. When this guy is in the game he is around the football. He has a high motor and gives it 100% every snap. He should be starting. He have some very average play from our D secondary. It seems that we have true or redshirt freshman that are far better than our upper classmen.
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I didn't get to see the game as we were playing but I was and still am at a loss for words. Every time I heard the tent groan I knew something bad had happened. I can only hope Brent can piece this thing back together. Actually, I hope it's fixable.
There are a few things that I'm fundamentally on a different page from BV. Not trying to claim I'm smarter than him. That would be ridiculous. But I have a diametrically opposite view.
I think it was my junior year at OU, maybe a year earlier. But I heard Chuck Fairbanks address something that I needed to hear, not that he owed me any explanation. When I was a Plano, we were really good .... in AA high school football. And our players hit three practices a week. Lots of contact. That wasn't the case at OU.
During the season, especially on offense, there was very little full go contact. You did your hitting in the spring when jobs were being earned. But even the defense didn't drive people to the ground. I thought it made us a little soft on defense. But Fairbanks told the team that we couldn't hit much, because we wanted to keep injuries to a minimum. In retrospect, 50 years ago, it made sense. It made more sense when we went 11-1 back to back my junior and senior year and finished number two in the country. Then the three years after I graduated, Barry took over, and we went 32-1-1 and won two natty's.
My point is that Team 128 is taking a lot of pride in how much live hitting they do. I fear they are beating themselves down, and wearing themselves down. And we're losing a step of difference in the process. And the injury list is growing. I'm not sure that's not a coincidence. Then you add to that the number of plays we're running. Warp speed increases the number of snaps on both sides of the ball. More attrition.
I agree with LR when he slowed it down and reduced his players' exposure to more plays and more injuries.
I was thrilled when BV returned, and I still am. But he's going to go through some growing pains. The shortage of talent on this roster is going to make that tougher to endure. And OUr lack of offensive difference makers is a big deal. Right now, we don't have hardly anybody who threatens a defense with great speed, at rb or at wr. Mims is a really good player. But I'll be very surprised if he runs under 4.5 at the combine.
I think we have one freshman who is a THREAT. But he may not see the field this season.
So the answer is this will get fixed. But I don't think it will this season.
We all need a word of wisdom and opinion from Seniorita Sooner to calm our minds.
We all hope to hear from her sooner
We all hope to hear from her sooner
I think we may start seeing some of the young kids Brent had hope to RS starting this Saturday…
this defense is not resonating with last years starters…
OU is currently 109th nationally in total defense (out of 131 FBS teams). To put that in perspective, as horrible as Alex Grinch's defenses were, his last two defensive squads were 60th and 67th in total defense.
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