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Dear Picker: Please Save Our Sooners!
Published: 1/12/2009 5:53 PM
Last Modified: 1/12/2009 5:53 PM

Dear Picker: Way back in August, you picked OU and Florida to play in the BCS championship, with the Gators winning.

And then last week, you explained in detail how Florida would win by 11 points, missing only by one.

Since you could be a rare medium, some friends and I would like for this power to be harnassed.

Would you please offer a game plan for breaking our beloved team's terrible bowl losing streak?

Sincerely, Your Good Twin.

OU fans: Glad to help.

Again.

There is, in fact, a very specific reason why OU is losing to good teams, one and all.

Two reasons, actually.

The first is that the Big 12 is overrated.

When you win every conference championship, and lose every bowl game, apply the logic.

OU is indeed at the place where emergency assistance is required. The homer cry of at least we got there is no longer good enough. Getting there was good enough the first time. And the second time. And the third time. Not now, after five losses.

When you frequently get there and don't win, it means something, probably that you shouldn't have been there in the first place: thus the overrated conference angle.

There is a reason why the SEC is far superior to the Big 12.

Here it is: Cornerbacks.

The SEC has identified the most important positions on the college field. It puts its great athletes at the corners. It is a winning place to have playmakers.

So there you have it. A program potentially saved.




Reader Comments 17 Total

JDG78 (4 years ago)
I would have to completely disagree. As far as I could see, Bradford hit plenty of open passing windows all game. The difference was Florida's ability to come up with the big plays. See the goal line run stuff, blocked field goal, the 10 times tipped interception, and the Inglesias steal interception and the penalties that killed our first two drives. The gap in athleticism and talent between OU's skill players and Florida's corners was marginal at best.

I think the main difference was HARVIN and TEBOW and the pressure they put on a defense. I think OU did a good job as seen by the number of 3rd downs forced. The big plays killed them and the above mentioned plays made by Florida sealed the deal. I saw very few opportunities where Florida's receivers were dominating our corners. So, the fastes receiver corps was pretty limited against our corners.

You are way over simplifying the issue.

JJ (4 years ago)
Cornerbacks did not throw ints at the goal line. Corners didnt have costly penalties. Corners did nearly all they could do in that game.
JJ (4 years ago)
On a brighter note the overall play of the OU secondary was indeed vastly better this season compared to the last 4 years.
marathonman (4 years ago)
Picker, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???

Never let the truth stand in the way of your story.... I looked at your August blog - here is what you wrote:
"Here is a preliminary top ten.
1. USC.
2. Florida.
3. LSU.
4. OU."

Maybe it's just me, but that does not look to me like you are predicting and OU-Florida matchup for the national championship! (Accountability can be tough, huh?)

If you want to blow your own horn, fine - just please try to be truthful. If not for us, then for the one out there that might believe what you write.....

wreed (4 years ago)
Haven't seen many comments about OSU and Tulsa.Kind of like the dollar movies I guess.
Congratulations on The Downtown Ball Park. Novel idea. Unique. Farsighted. Leading the way.
I guess you could build a downtown around it.
The river is nice.
WCO (4 years ago)
Jay:

I agree with you but what do you suggest?

Should we turn down an invitation to the BCS Championship game?

Should we decline to play in the Big 12 Championship?

Getting there is good enough!

It would be good enough for any other school and it is good enough for us!
taylorhs@cox.net (4 years ago)
I didn't see much difference in athletic ability at any position. No doubt Percy Harvin was a difference maker, but I've seen DeMarco Murray look just as good.

However, what I did see is a coach and a staff that, when matched against athletics of equal talent, are inferior. Kevin Wilson's play calling was horrid throughout the game. That may work against OSU. It doesn't against Florida.

And par for the course, Urban Meyer simply outcoached Bob Stoops by making the appropriate half time adjustments. Hello Mack Brown and Texas.

I had no dog in the game. But if you would have asked me at halftime, I would have told you Oklahoma looked the superior team.
Bill (4 years ago)
WCO, you are a fool!! We have the talent to be in the national title game at LEAST every other year. To just get there is a disgrace. We need to win! We need to get rid of all the coaches. Everyone knows OU is where every college coach and half the pro ones want to coach. Stoops is a loser joke, we need a winner. BOOMER SOONER!!!!!
World Picker (4 years ago)
Where did Florida make the plays that won it the championship?

Cornerback, you pinheads.

The Big 12 puts its best players on offense and has secondaries resembling fraternity teams.

What can be done?

Well, quit babying the OU coaching staff for one thing.

After five straight stinkers, how can change sound radical?

After five straight clunkers, getting there is not enough. Ask Buffalo.

The OU defense looked better because Tebow couldn't hit the end zone from the 20. He'll spend next year trying out for the pros, he'll quit running so much and will look like Vince Young.

Bradford?

He should come back for another year.

They'll use him like a wishbone in the bigs.
Epphan (4 years ago)
Pick: Agree corner speed made the difference. Poor play-calling didn't help, however. Once you realize the DBs are faster than your guys (it's not exactly a secret), adjust your gameplan. Earn your millions and use the talent you have. Good Lord, how much faster was OU than Boise.

Anyway...

Please explain Vince Young reference. T-bone will definitely spend next year trying to get a pro job, but don't understand if you think that will make him unbeatable or comical. VY at UT? Or VY crying for mommy in Tennessee? More info, please.
World Picker (4 years ago)
Epphan, it'll make Bronco Tebow more comical.

Same thing happens to all those option college quarterbacks, they use their last year as one big, fat NFL tryout.

Look at that West Virginia guy, he ran the nation under; then he started dropping back and auditioning for the pros and looked like everybody else.

A pro linebacker would treat one of Tebow's cute little jump passes like a doberman would a steak bite.

9182981007 (4 years ago)
The OU receivers were more responsible for the loss than the cornerbacks. The receivers got cold feet and stopped executing after getting hit SEC-style a couple of times. I do agree in general though...it's a problem when defensive skill and toughness takes a back seat to zippy offense.
Epphan (4 years ago)
Thanks, Pick. Agree.
But believe SEC should funnel a couple of DBs toward the basketball court.
NORSEMUSTANG (4 years ago)
Picker, why do you and a lot of other people compare Stoops and OU to Marv Levy and the Bills? Stoops HAS won a national championship. Why is it that people only talk about the BCS games he has lost, but either choose to forget that he won a national championship or point out that he won it with John Blake's players, which indicates that they think that John Blake would have won it all in 2000 if he were the coach.
World Picker (4 years ago)
Stoops has lost five straight bowl games.

You're saying because Heupel worked miracles EIGHT YEARS AGO, Stoops has a free pass from everybody, just like the in-state media gives him?

Isn't the statute of limitations seven years?

The point is, when you lose FIVE STRAIGHT BOWL GAMES, something is wrong.
NORSEMUSTANG (4 years ago)
What I meant is that he deserves more respect than he gets from some fair weather fans who don't give him any credit for what he's accomplished and only point out his failures in bowl games. I also don't like it when a few people say he should be fired for his BCS losing streak and don't take into account the state of the football program before he arrived or that the odds that someone could come in and do a better job than Stoops is next to nothing.
World Picker (4 years ago)
Stoops is terrific; it's past time for him to win a bowl game.
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Out Pick The Picker

The Picker began entertaining – and infuriating – sports fans in 1993. Each week during football season, he writes about his picks of college and NFL games in his Thursday Sports column. He's never afraid of sharing his opinions about the game and the personalities who play it. Readers have a chance to go against him each season in the Outpick the Picker contest. He welcomes the competition.

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