Can OU Win?

It’s true that Oklahoma has spent the entire season making teams look like JV squads en route to breaking an NCAA record with 702 total points. It’s also true that Heisman winning QB Sam Bradford has put up numbers gaudier than Slick Rick. What’s not true is that the Sooners have done any of this against the country’s top defenses, aside from TCU.

For the Sooners to roll on to a national championship, Bradford is going to have to first prove that his numbers weren’t just for show, or to ensure a Heisman, and that he can do to Florida’s number 8 ranked defense what he has done to so many other sub par Ds this year. As if this may not be a hard enough task for Bradford and the Sooners, they will be without second leading rusher DeMarco Murray, who has undergone surgery to repair a ruptured hamstring tendon, making the spotlight on Bradford even brighter.

Don’t expect the sooner D to shy away from Tim Tebow or the Gators versatile offense, especially after comments from Tebow claiming that he’d like to have a crack at a Big XII defense, and the buzz those comments have created. The fact remains that the Big XII (particularly the Big XII South) was the best conference in the nation this year, while on the surface it appears that the SEC was down from top to bottom. A closer look would show you, though, that the Gators O has put up some pretty gaudy numbers of its own against some pretty stingy defenses (and higher ranked than most of those faced by the Sooners). What this means is that there may be more pressure on the Sooner D to stop Tebow and his weapons than there is on Bradford to pile up points.

The bottom line here is that while they are the higher ranked team, there is more pressure on the Sooners (on both sides of the ball) to show up on Thursday than there is on the Gators, which may not bode well for any fans hoping for a chance at a Boomer Sooner chant.

Peace,


Mr. Dix