and no this isn't to the next level like it used to be. We always used to compare ourselves to ou and Texas because they ruled the big 12.
Ou doesn't rule the big 12 anymore. Yes they beat us and just won the big12 but it was a different ou, it was one that has changed with the times. This isn't about catching up to ou's talent anymore it's about making some changes. This is about what we need to make it through a season.
We had masked our defaults for 10 games.....maybe less even as I was in Ames and saw them exploit our weaknesses and almost beat us. Never the less osu was able to mask some stuff this year no doubt about it.
Osu had 10-0 and coming home for Baylor and ou. Yes they are both good teams even top ten teams that you might say we're just better then us. But to say "they have so much more talent" or "we aren't to their level" nope I'm not buying that. This isn't the old big 12 as I said earlier where everyone was trying to catch up to ou and Texas. This was a tired osu team. And I have a real problem with that and here is why:
1) this was suppose to be our best defense in years. And it certainly looked true until late in the season.
2) this was suppose to be our deepest defense ever. How did we get so worn out if we had all this great depth?
3)Gundys fall camp and week to week practice schedule is done to keep our teams legs for later in the year. We have all complained about our lack of contact and tackling to the ground in fall camp as a reason we miss tackles.......but yet we are told this is to keep us fresh in November.
So something isn't adding up to me. This osu team I saw play the last few weeks was dog tired and had no fight in them. Heck now that I think about it go back to the bye week and we were scratching and clawing just to get to that. I've never seen an osu team in need of such rest. I just don't understand what happened to our defense?
Which brings me to this point of the few major things I think osu needs to win the big 12 again and reach championship level:
1) oline help- we need a coach who will stay for at least 3 years first of all. A different coach for each of the last 3 years leads to different tendencies and teachings which can hurt progression. We also need a coach who can recruit the players he wants and not have to mold another coaches recruits. These last 3 years our oline has been brutal and you simply can't have that and win a championship. This is what we masked this season and it got exploited at the end bad. Guys we need mammoths who can move. I'm talking 6'8 330 type guys. Go look at Baylor and ou recruiting class and oline roster. We need big old boys. Look how hard it was for what was suppose to be the best dline in the big 12 (us) to get around those guys. We need to stop with the Wickline type olineman that are all 6'5 280-290, he isn't our oline coach anymore so his style needs to go out the window and we need to get some big old boys who can move their feet.
2) defense needs to be better. I know that's easy to say but to be honest I'm very confused on why this osu defense wasn't? They played so many snaps so I get it but something isn't right about it. Our offense was designed to limit the number of snaps and to be honest our offense wasn't as fast at baylors or TCU so weren't their defensives running as many snaps? This isn't just a problem that osu has to face it's the ideology of the whole big 12. Why are we not prepared for this? This is what the big 12 is and our defense gets tired? What the heck is that about. Don't tell us this is the best and deepest defense if we can't maintain and play with something we knew was coming and have been dealing with the last 10+ years. Makes me wonder if schematically the 4-3 isn't a good base defense for the big 12 and possibly a change to the 3-4 with some 4-3 principals might be better? Before anyone goes bat crazy in that suggestion I believe many teams in the big 12 do it.
3)pick it up in recruiting. Stop with the defeatist attitude of we can't we can't we can't and start doing. I'm perfectly fine with the two star recruits we have taken a flyer on such as James Washington. I'm glad our coaches can find diamonds in the rough and want that to continue. I think our coaches can evaluate in recruiting better then some other staffs but if you put that ability together with some 4 and 5 star recruits let's see what that gets us. Heck I'm not asking for a full class of them in just asking for more then 2-3 of them in one class. Again, Baylor is offering everyone and their dog. We slow play the high rated recruits and act as if we can't get them. It's time to stop with that attitude and recruit at a higher level. Our brand and what we have already done on the field has changed and now it's time that recruiting does as well.
4)finally I don't have to spend to much time on this one but we need to act the part.....and to be honest I think this is for everyone from the osu leadership, coaches, players, and yes even the fans. I would agree that our leadership needs to do something about the dadgum ou band coming to our stadium. If you want to call that petty go ahead but they shouldn't be allowed to take up seats at bps and if that means our band doesn't go to their stadium I'm perfectly fine with that. Our coaches need to acknowledge the game with ou as a major rivalry that is going to continue to be a big game. If we continue to build our program we will continue to run into a good ou team and that game will always have a lot riding on it. Our coaches need to stop ignoring that fact. Also, we can't stand two teams in the big 12: Baylor and ou.......and they both are cocky pieces of crap in our mind, but you people know that they bring their cockiness into our stadium and exploit the crap out of us. I get that we are osu fans and we are good people and classy fans. I've heard that for years and to be honest it's the complete reason I became and osu fan over ou as a kid. But I'll tell you this you can be classy after the game and you exploited your cocky attitude and confidence all over the field and let the other team know it. There are mental parts to this game that we just don't play very well. We always seem to take the high road but I'm getting sick of taking the high road and losing. You all recall bedlam 2013? Osu was the better team about to win the big 12 so what does ou do? They march down to our tunnel before we come out onto the field. What was the result? I'm not saying that has everything to do with it but it is a part of the game like it or not. Look at the reason the ou/Baylor game was so chippy this year. You had to cocky confident teams trying to instill that into the other. Ou with the help of the media and their inbred fans try to instill that confident cockyness everytime we play them. And finally to the fans who sold their tickets to ou fans........that's bull shit. I don't know how we can stop that from happening but it needs to. These people need to be going to the damn game. I have zero respect to any osu fan who does that. Can't believe how many Sooners were in our stadium last night. Makes me sick. I realize I'm preaching to the choir on this board but somehow we need to get the word out to stop this foolish foolish act.
Besides all those things we finish 10-2 which ain't bad fellow cowboy fans. We are pissed right now and rightfully so, but after last seasons crap many weren't predicting this 10 win season. We can be proud of this season and what this football team accomplished but if we want to take it up a notch we must still change some things. We aren't there yet, but we certainly aren't far and it's no longer a huge game of catch up in talent with tradional programs. It's a much different game now that we have to keep up with.
Ou doesn't rule the big 12 anymore. Yes they beat us and just won the big12 but it was a different ou, it was one that has changed with the times. This isn't about catching up to ou's talent anymore it's about making some changes. This is about what we need to make it through a season.
We had masked our defaults for 10 games.....maybe less even as I was in Ames and saw them exploit our weaknesses and almost beat us. Never the less osu was able to mask some stuff this year no doubt about it.
Osu had 10-0 and coming home for Baylor and ou. Yes they are both good teams even top ten teams that you might say we're just better then us. But to say "they have so much more talent" or "we aren't to their level" nope I'm not buying that. This isn't the old big 12 as I said earlier where everyone was trying to catch up to ou and Texas. This was a tired osu team. And I have a real problem with that and here is why:
1) this was suppose to be our best defense in years. And it certainly looked true until late in the season.
2) this was suppose to be our deepest defense ever. How did we get so worn out if we had all this great depth?
3)Gundys fall camp and week to week practice schedule is done to keep our teams legs for later in the year. We have all complained about our lack of contact and tackling to the ground in fall camp as a reason we miss tackles.......but yet we are told this is to keep us fresh in November.
So something isn't adding up to me. This osu team I saw play the last few weeks was dog tired and had no fight in them. Heck now that I think about it go back to the bye week and we were scratching and clawing just to get to that. I've never seen an osu team in need of such rest. I just don't understand what happened to our defense?
Which brings me to this point of the few major things I think osu needs to win the big 12 again and reach championship level:
1) oline help- we need a coach who will stay for at least 3 years first of all. A different coach for each of the last 3 years leads to different tendencies and teachings which can hurt progression. We also need a coach who can recruit the players he wants and not have to mold another coaches recruits. These last 3 years our oline has been brutal and you simply can't have that and win a championship. This is what we masked this season and it got exploited at the end bad. Guys we need mammoths who can move. I'm talking 6'8 330 type guys. Go look at Baylor and ou recruiting class and oline roster. We need big old boys. Look how hard it was for what was suppose to be the best dline in the big 12 (us) to get around those guys. We need to stop with the Wickline type olineman that are all 6'5 280-290, he isn't our oline coach anymore so his style needs to go out the window and we need to get some big old boys who can move their feet.
2) defense needs to be better. I know that's easy to say but to be honest I'm very confused on why this osu defense wasn't? They played so many snaps so I get it but something isn't right about it. Our offense was designed to limit the number of snaps and to be honest our offense wasn't as fast at baylors or TCU so weren't their defensives running as many snaps? This isn't just a problem that osu has to face it's the ideology of the whole big 12. Why are we not prepared for this? This is what the big 12 is and our defense gets tired? What the heck is that about. Don't tell us this is the best and deepest defense if we can't maintain and play with something we knew was coming and have been dealing with the last 10+ years. Makes me wonder if schematically the 4-3 isn't a good base defense for the big 12 and possibly a change to the 3-4 with some 4-3 principals might be better? Before anyone goes bat crazy in that suggestion I believe many teams in the big 12 do it.
3)pick it up in recruiting. Stop with the defeatist attitude of we can't we can't we can't and start doing. I'm perfectly fine with the two star recruits we have taken a flyer on such as James Washington. I'm glad our coaches can find diamonds in the rough and want that to continue. I think our coaches can evaluate in recruiting better then some other staffs but if you put that ability together with some 4 and 5 star recruits let's see what that gets us. Heck I'm not asking for a full class of them in just asking for more then 2-3 of them in one class. Again, Baylor is offering everyone and their dog. We slow play the high rated recruits and act as if we can't get them. It's time to stop with that attitude and recruit at a higher level. Our brand and what we have already done on the field has changed and now it's time that recruiting does as well.
4)finally I don't have to spend to much time on this one but we need to act the part.....and to be honest I think this is for everyone from the osu leadership, coaches, players, and yes even the fans. I would agree that our leadership needs to do something about the dadgum ou band coming to our stadium. If you want to call that petty go ahead but they shouldn't be allowed to take up seats at bps and if that means our band doesn't go to their stadium I'm perfectly fine with that. Our coaches need to acknowledge the game with ou as a major rivalry that is going to continue to be a big game. If we continue to build our program we will continue to run into a good ou team and that game will always have a lot riding on it. Our coaches need to stop ignoring that fact. Also, we can't stand two teams in the big 12: Baylor and ou.......and they both are cocky pieces of crap in our mind, but you people know that they bring their cockiness into our stadium and exploit the crap out of us. I get that we are osu fans and we are good people and classy fans. I've heard that for years and to be honest it's the complete reason I became and osu fan over ou as a kid. But I'll tell you this you can be classy after the game and you exploited your cocky attitude and confidence all over the field and let the other team know it. There are mental parts to this game that we just don't play very well. We always seem to take the high road but I'm getting sick of taking the high road and losing. You all recall bedlam 2013? Osu was the better team about to win the big 12 so what does ou do? They march down to our tunnel before we come out onto the field. What was the result? I'm not saying that has everything to do with it but it is a part of the game like it or not. Look at the reason the ou/Baylor game was so chippy this year. You had to cocky confident teams trying to instill that into the other. Ou with the help of the media and their inbred fans try to instill that confident cockyness everytime we play them. And finally to the fans who sold their tickets to ou fans........that's bull shit. I don't know how we can stop that from happening but it needs to. These people need to be going to the damn game. I have zero respect to any osu fan who does that. Can't believe how many Sooners were in our stadium last night. Makes me sick. I realize I'm preaching to the choir on this board but somehow we need to get the word out to stop this foolish foolish act.
Besides all those things we finish 10-2 which ain't bad fellow cowboy fans. We are pissed right now and rightfully so, but after last seasons crap many weren't predicting this 10 win season. We can be proud of this season and what this football team accomplished but if we want to take it up a notch we must still change some things. We aren't there yet, but we certainly aren't far and it's no longer a huge game of catch up in talent with tradional programs. It's a much different game now that we have to keep up with.
