Four ways to look at today's huge game
Michigan coming to Norman may well hold key to Sooners' whole season
THE HOME OFFICE — Forever at The Norman Transcript, each Saturday the Sooners faced an opponent, we’d put out the Gameday section.
Most years I designed the whole thing, which was no small thing, what with picking the games, editing stories, finding photos, drawing every text box, placing every story, writing every headline, cutline, the works.
Thankfully, the original writing I had to do for it wasn’t too much. A 650-word or so column was all and I could always produce another 650 words on Sooner football.
It’s Sooner football.
It was, most of the time, a “scene-setter,” placing the game in a context through which to approach and watch.
I want to keep writing those columns and, yeah, good chance they’ll run more than 650 words at a time most of what I write now goes about 1,100.
The thing about those old columns is they tended to be fairly breezy, making them fun to write, easy to read, requiring little heavy lifting from either of us.
I’m hoping to recapture that tone with today’s entry, Michigan walking into Owen Field for a 6:30 p.m. Saturday kick.
And, this time at least, it will be formatted into a quartet of chapters.
So, please enjoy, “Four Different Pregame Prisms Through Which to Interpret the Wolverines and the Sooners.”
A mouthful, I know.
1. Must win baby
Perhaps it’s not a must, must, must, must, must win, because OU could always lose to both Michigan and Texas and catch fire the remaining six games of its season. On the other hand, who wants to count on a miracle because that’s what that would be.
When the schedule arrived, this game held the key and it still does, mostly because nobody expects the Sooners to beat the Longhorns, meaning today’s game should determine if OU’s 4-2 or 5-1 coming out of the Texas State Fair.
If it’s 4-2, all bets are off because the remaining schedule’s a killer.
On the back end of Texas, given today’s Associated Press Top 25, the Sooners would still have to face No.10 South Carolina, No. 20 Ole Miss, No. 22 Tennessee, No. 21 Alabama and No. 2 LSU. South Carolina Tennessee and Alabama on the road.
Sure, OU could win some of those games. Still, it’s a gauntlet capable of sending a team into a spiral.
If it’s 5-1 after Texas, OU should enter the rest of its SEC schedule from a position of reasonable strength and confidence.
Also, should the Sooners win today and get to 5-0 entering theCotton Bowl, just maybe, maybe, maybe they can get to 6-0, too.
2. Quarterback advantage
Any way you slice it, 18th-ranked OU figures to have the quarterback advantage over 15th-ranked Michigan.
Last Saturday, against Illinois State, John Mateer completed 30 of 37 passes for 392 yards, including three for touchdowns against one interception in a 35-3 victory. He also carried the ball seven times for 31 yards and a score.
Meanwhile, Michigan true freshman Bryce Underwood completed 21 of 31 passes for 251 yards, one for a touchdown against no interceptions, while carrying the ball twice for 5 yards in losses in a 34-17 victory over New Mexico.
Though Underwood was the nation’s No. 1 quarterback prospect coming out of high school last year (and flipped his commitment from Baton Rouge to Ann Arbor in late November), Mateer still gets the nod as a two-year starter and three-year quarterback in Sooner offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle’s system.
We’ll see what happens, but it’s a pregame no-brainer.
You’d rather have Mateer.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Oklahoma Columnist, by Clay Horning to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.