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For those of you who don’t follow college football, there is much more that goes on than just the game itself. Especially when some fans want to insert themselves into the game and fantasize that they actually add to the atmosphere and/or the outcome of the contest.
In Oklahoma, the annual season ending game between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, generally referred to as “Bedlam,” is always a hotly contested and competitive game. The favored team doesn’t always win, nor the home team. In this year’s game, the emotions were flamed even higher as both teams were highly ranked in a “Winner Takes All” game, the winner would be the conference champion and a chance to play in the national playoff.
At OKStates T. Boone Pickens stadium, the walls to the field area are lined with a padded material. OKSt. fans known as “Paddle People” line the front row and beat on the pads with flat, padded paddles. They have gotten more bizarre by the year since they first began.
This past Saturday night, they nearly exceeded audience comprehension.
While there have been some preliminary games already played, most of which were difficult to watch due to sloppy play, today Saturday 5 Sep 15 marks the first full day of scheduled games.
All teams are excited and ready, some bearing predictions of competing for the National Championship.
I’m more than ready and so are the Oklahoma Sooners, and they have running back Samaje Perine. Yes, those arms are for real and not photo-shopped.
Samaje “Optimus” Perine
After a long cold Winter and long hot Summer, finally we have the best season of all to enjoy for the next three months.
Slowly but surely the new season of NCAA football approaches. At least this number seems more manageable.
Nuke’s Bulldogs and my Sooners both had excellent 2015 recruiting classes and speaking for the Sooners there are several incoming freshmen that will be difficult to keep off of the field.
Last year I brought to this blog the name of an incoming freshman by the name of Samaje Perine. I did not speak falsely and he proved to be a true phenom.
He was considered the state’s best running back in Texas for the class of 2014, and yet he wasn’t considered OU’s top incoming freshman RB. That distinction was bestowed on the nation’s top All Purpose RB out of California, Joe Mixon. He was red shirted his freshman year after being involved in an ugly and unfortunate incident in an off campus Deli on the occasion of his 18th birthday.
If I were to compare Mixon to a former Sooner great at OU it would be AD(Adrian Peterson), both in the way he plays, his size and speed. In fact Mixon is a little taller and heavier than AD was. Here is a quick sample of his high school tape and AD’s:
With OU hiring a new offensive coordinator to bring the “Air Raid” offense back, having all purpose RBs is crucial as they will be a mismatch for linebackers in pass routes.
Comparing past RBs with current, unproven one’s isn’t fair to the young men, but is always interesting to see if the comparisons are true. Another RB in the OU stable is highly rated Rodney Anderson out of the state powerhouse football program in Katy, Texas. It remains to be seen if he is red shirted his freshman year, but if I were to compare him to a former OU great it would be Demarco Murray in terms of ability, size and speed.
With Perine, there really is no one I can compare him with, not in OU history. Aside from his obvious skills in football, he is a genuinely good and humble young man.
The history of great RBs in OU history goes back many, many years and doesn’t appear to be near its end.
Hope springs forth for every football team, their coaches and players at this time of year. The grind begins in earnest in a little over a month, so for now the coaches are recruiting for next year and the next, while the players are running and lifting.
Every team is undefeated and, realistic or not, all have the same goal of winning the national championship.
Personally, I ache in anticipation. I love the thrills and spills, the bands and the exuberant fans. I have been an Oklahoma Sooner football fan since 1955, I loved Coach Wilkinson(one of the finest gentleman to have ever lived), I loved and still love the Crimson and Cream colors, and I became a loyal fan in the midst of the historic 47 game winning streak.
Us Sooner fans don’t respond well to a disappointing 8-5 season and we fully expect to return to the top tier of college football this season.
I mentioned young Samaje(Sa-mah-jay) Perine(Pee-rhine) this past summer as the OU Sooners were preparing for the 2014 season.
He’s big for a RB at 5’11” and 245lbs, and also has excellent speed in the 4.4 to 4.5 forty yard dash range.
Not many had heard of the young man before his breakout game at WVU. He had offers from every D-1 school, but finally committed to OU over Bama during his Senior year of high school.
On Saturday November 22, 2014 in a driving rain at OU’s historic Owen field he set a new NCAA rushing record of 427 yards that I hope can last longer than the seven days the previous record stood.
Here are the records that he set on Saturday:
1. FBS Single-Game Rushing Record: previously held by Melvin Gordon, 408 yards
2. FBS Single-Game Rushing Record by a FRESHMAN: previously held by Marshall Faulk, 386 yards
3. Big 12 Single-Game Rushing Record: previously held by Troy Davis, 378 yards
4. University of Oklahoma Single-Game Rushing Record: previously held by Greg Pruitt, 294 yards
5. University of Oklahoma Rushing Touchdowns by a Freshman(19): previously held by Adrian Peterson, 15 TDs
6. University of Oklahoma Rushing Record In One Half: previously held by Adrian Peterson, 210 yards
It was truly an historic day, adding to the legacy of great RBs at OU, who now hold the single game rushing record in the NCAA(Perine), the NFL(Adrian Peterson) and the NFL RB with the most 100 yard games to start a season(Demarco Murray).
Congratulations to Perine, his blocking fullback Ripkowski and the entire offensive line for making this game historical.
**See also**
A fanstastic collection of photos from the day HERE.
In the weekly Monday noon press conference, it was announced that Coach Bob Stoops and WR Sterling Shepherd have been awarded the Disney Sports Spirit Award. They will be the nineteenth recipients of the award which began in 1996.
The award will be presented at the 24th annual The Home Depot College Football Awards on ESPN, December 11.
For those not familiar with the Stoops/Shepherd story it is one that is heart warming, sad and uplifting, all at the same time.
There is an excellent video below that was shown on ESPN a few weeks back when Game Day was at Starkville that will be posted at the end of this piece. For a fuller story on these two award winners and why they were chosen, please click here.
Also, Sterling Shepherd is a semi-finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, which honors the nations top wide receiver.
The words in the song “Sooner born, Sooner bred and when I die I’ll be Sooner dead” have never rung more true.
Every college football fan knows game day is fun. The excitement and noise makes for an entertaining experience.
Rivalry games have an emotional element that adds to that experience. However, in the current era of college football many traditional rivalries have ended due to conference realignment, but the fans still feel as strongly towards their old rivals as ever.
Here is one example from eSECpn’s College Gameday. WVU and Pitt have been rivals for decades, but they haven’t played each other in four years. To WVU fans that doesn’t matter.
The next video is a pure delight. It is known as the loudest football game in OU’s storied history. It took place at OU on a nationally broadcast game with #1 Texas Tech versus #3 OU. What makes this video so special is it is ‘raw footage.’ There are no announcers blathering on incessantly, just the wonderful, natural sounds of 85,000 people watching a big game.
With only about a month remaining in the 2014 season, there will surely be more fond memories for college football fans.
This rivalry began in 1900 and today’s 109th meeting will mark the 86th consecutive game played in Dallas…at the Cotton Bowl…in the middle of the State Fair.
Rankings and records don’t matter much, it’s like a Bowl game in the middle of the season.
Former Sooner Gabe Ikard(last year’s NCAA football Academic All-American of the year) penned a wonderful article about what this annual grudge match means, it’s a good read from a player’s perspective.
Everyone must realize how rare of an opportunity it is to be able to wear SOONERS across your chest against Texas. It takes someone a lot more intelligent than me to figure out the odds of a guy playing in the Red River Showdown. I feel extremely blessed to have been able to play in four of them. There is no feeling like it. Unfortunately for the fans, it is nearly impossible to describe the feeling of coming out of that tunnel. The best way I can describe the feeling is to tell you to imagine having to work extremely hard to watch the movie scene that gives you Goosebumps every time you see it and then add 90,000 passionate screaming fans in the mix. For me, that’s like putting in serious work to watch the hospital scene in Remember the Titans when Julius Campbell and Gerry Bertier exchange the “left side, strong side” while a stadium is yelling at me. So if the “you had me at hello” scene in Jerry Maguire gets you or Russell Crowe’s speech to the emperor in Gladiator tickles your fancy, imagine working as hard as you can to get to that point and then add all the yelling people.
The following video is the “tunnel experience” for OU, with Ikard(#64) as one of the captains in the 2012 game. I recommend a full screen and high volume.
The Sooners are coming off of a disappointing loss last week and in Coach Stoop’s previous 15 seasons OU has lost back to back games only once. In addition, the inexplicable loss to Texsa last year still rankles the returning players from that squad. Bragging Rights matter in this game, especially when it comes to recruiting and OU being the home team this year will have approximately 25 recruits from the 2015-2017 clases attending as OU guests.
I will close with one of my favorite quotes from an OU all-time great Brian Bosworth(home town Irving, Texas):
Burnt orange makes me puke.
*Post script* If you don’t understand the “Texsa” spelling, click HERE.
His proper name is Michael Hunnicutt, but the former walk-on kicker and now R-Sr. is the all-time scoring leader for OU, surpassing Demarco Murray’s career points total of 390 points with the kick in the above photo. Moneycutt now has 392 points for his career, with at least nine more games to be played.
While most football fans would prefer their kicker only appear for the point after, too often a games outcome is determined by this seldom used player. Each weekend there are games decided by the failure or success of team’s field goal kickers.
Moneycutt became the OU starting kicker his R-Fr year after the third game of the season at Florida St. when OU was ranked #1. This kick is what propelled Moneycutt into the kicker’s job and he has been excellent since.
Since that kick Moneycutt has been the man, averaging 85.8% field goals made in that time. His stat sheet can be found here.
For us Sooner fans we will be pulling for him to break the FBS record for most points by a kicker(FBS: 459 – Dustin Hopkins, Florida State, 2009–12) and/or most points in a career(FBS: 500 – Montee Ball, Wisconsin, 2009–12). Based on his totals for the past three years I think he has a real shot at breaking the kicker’s record.
In any event, Moneycutt is non-plussed about all of this, he alread has his B.A. and is working on his masters in Administrative Leadership.
He is a proud life-long Sooner and now a Sooner all-time Great.
Not many upsets throughout the country, though some of the alleged sports “experts” are doubling down on the dumb-ass to explain why their “darlings” struggled.
In Norman, Ok. it was Coach Stoops 200th game as the Sooners’ head coach and his 161st victory. The first team units on offense and defense looked to be in mid season form and thoroughly dominated the out manned Tech Bulldogs.
By midway through the second quarter Sooner backups were being sprinkled into starting line ups and by the third quarter the reserves on defense were in nearly every position. On offense the talented, yet inexperienced RBs, proved there is no cause for concern. They performed well as a group, and with the massive and veteran O-line they were beasts.
The team gave great effort, were focused and no serious injuries occurred, which were three things I was hoping for.
As is the custom at OU, the official intro video was played prior to the players taking the field and it was very well done.
One significant event took place, OU’s leading WR Sterling Shepherd passed his father on the all time receiving yardage list with his TD catch. R.I.P. Derrick, your son is destined to be an all-time Sooner great, as you were.
OU fan HolaKyle provides the HD highlights of the Sooners’ victory.
When the Oklahoma Sooners kick off the 2014 season, it will have been two hundred forty days since their last game. That was in the Sugar Bowl and the victory party lasted until Spring training.
The offense is loaded with talented skill players, which will be operating under the protective shield provided by a deep, huge, veteran offensive line that has a total of one hundred seven career starts.
The defense returns nine starters and they will be bigger, faster and stronger than last year, adding about 20-30lbs. per man on the front five(they run the traditional Oklahoma 50 defense).
Expectations are high that the Sooners will make a serious run for their Eighth National Championship not only because of the coaching and talent, but also because of their schedule. The games projected to be the most difficult(Tennessee/K-St./Ok. St./Baylor) are all home games.
The tradition of winning championships has been instilled at OU and that tradition speaks to the players every day and attracts young recruits who wish to be a part of it.
OU is the only school to have four head coaches with more than one hundred victories in their careers. Coaches Bennie Owens, Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and now Bob Stoops. Each man has left his mark on OU football history and its tradition of championships.
From an OU football perspective; those who don’t learn from their history and repeat it, are doomed.
As for the battleship reference, it takes big “guns” to bring those rascals down and here are just a few.
The first big “gun” belongs to OU sports nutrition director, Tiffany “Coach Tiff” Byrd. Those guys with the skinny arms surrounding her are the defensive linemen.
The next big “gun” belongs to incoming freshman running back Samaje Perine.
SP is a physical marvel. At 5’10” and 245 pounds he also runs a 4.4 forty yard dash. His work ethic and maturity are drawing praise and he is such a punishing runner some fear for the safety of the OU players over the course of the next few weeks before the season starts. During the first day of practice, when the players were only wearing shoulder pads and helmets, he met a defender one on one and the defender was immediately taken off the field for a concussion test.
Perine is eighteen years old and as we used to say back home, “he is a full growed man.”
The first day of practice with full pads was on Monday the 4th and has been the custom at OU since the late 1940’s the Oklahoma drill was front and center for players and fans, alike. I can’t embed the video player, but you can view it HERE.
In these last few weeks before football season begins, generally speaking, any news about players or teams is bad news.
However, for OU fans this summer there have been two consecutive weeks of good news, along with one bit of news that I find unsettling while other OU fans are well pleased.
The first bit of good news came on 26 Jun, with the announcement that the OU Board of Regents had approved a three stage renovation of the football stadium. Already referred to as the “Palace on the Prairie,” the planned renovations are both attractive and fan friendly, with fan space, concessions and restrooms being increased dramatically, along with a “bowl” shape.
Here is a current image of Owen Field.
Here is the video introducing the planned renovations.
Needless to say, OU fans are very excited about the planned renovations, as are current players and recruits.
Then, five days later on 1 Jul, OU introduced new alternate uniforms for the 2014 season. ClICK HERE for a video that explains what went into the design of the NIKE uniforms.
Fan reaction to the alternate uniforms has been mixed, including me. Why mess with perfection? However after seeing the players reaction, and those of recruits, I have become much more accepting of the changes. CLICK HERE for the players reaction.
It was two weeks of great news and the next event to look forward to before summer training camp was the BIG XII Conference Media Days.
That was not to be the case. On Thursday, 3 July, it was officially announced that a young man by the name of Dorial Green-Beckham would be enrolling in OU and joining the OU football team. Fan reaction to this news was mixed and very emotional for many. DGB, as he is known, is an incredible football talent, he was rated the #1 high school recruit in the nation in 2012 and was heavily recruited by OU. DGB ultimately decided to sign with Missouri and remain in his home state. In his nineteen months at UM, he was arrested two times for marijuana possession and investigated for trespassing and assaulting a young woman. The young lady did not press charges. UM dismissed him from the university in April.
Personally, I am opposed to OU allowing this young man to become a part of the football program for fear his criminality won’t end and will have a deleterious effect on the team.
However, I have the utmost confidence in Coach Stoops and his staff and will defer to their judgment that he can become a better person with a new start.
Continuing along the theme of our annual countdown to the college football season, it’s time to take a look around the country to see what is happening in other places.
Michigan authorities say a man tried to throw a football loaded with drugs and cellphones into the yard of a state prison.
State Trooper Toby Baker says Sunday’s throw in Jackson fell short, with the football landing between two fences, not in the yard where prisoners exercise.
… the ball contained heroin, marijuana, tobacco, three cellphones and chargers.
Twenty-two-year-old Christen D. Moore was arraigned Tuesday in Jackson District Court on contraband charges and ordered jailed on a $50,000 bond.
To borrow a quote from the Fearless Leader, “What A Dumbass!”
I chose 75 days as the countdown start for one simple reason, 1975 was the final season for OU running back Joe Washington, one of my all-time favorite Sooners and my favorite “ankle breaker” of all-time.
Little Joe knows a thing or two about winning, his final season was with a consensus National Championship team. In a recent interview he was asked about the upcoming season and the prospects for the Sooners. He stated:
“What’s the best way?” said Joe Washington, who helped carry the 1974 and 1975 Sooners to national championships in his iconic silver shoes.
“Coming in with disappointment and being hungry, or coming in with excitement? Hopefully these guys remember what it was like in (the Sugar Bowl) dressing room, and also remember what it was like in the Cotton Bowl dressing room.”
Indeed, the 2013 Sooners began the season with a very young team and no clear starter at QB, after a humiliating loss in the Cotton Bowl. They struggled at times during the season, but also showed what they were capable of, especially near the end of the season. What they learned most of all was how to persevere, to fight and scrap, to never get down or give up. The reward for their hard work and determination was a memorable victory over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. A bowl victory that has inspired the team and the fans.
By all accounts, from coaches and players, the winter conditioning program was the best attended and performing of recent memory. The young players are bigger/stronger/faster, the players injured last season that required surgery and rehab are all back and a talented, highly ranked recruiting class is now on campus.
Expectations are high and not just by the fans.
This will be my fifty-eighth year of following OU football. I’ve seen the highs and lows that each season can bring. Barring injuries, player discipline and unfortunate bounces of the ball, this year’s team has the potential to be exceptional.
If they follow Little Joe’s advice and remember what it is like to be in the losing and winning locker room after the season ending bowl game, as well as all the coaching and hard work required, this could be a Championship season to remember.
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