OU overcomes gloom-and-doom forecasts Sooners on solid footing heading into 2007 season
By Jenni Carlson
Published: January 6, 2007
Lest the end of the football season left you depressed and deflated, dear Oklahoma fans, allow me to offer a bit of solace.
I was wrong.
Mea culpa.
Advertisement
Sort of.
Granted, this might not be a victory in the Fiesta Bowl or a top-five end-of-season ranking, but hey, when your team loses to Boise State, you take what you can get.
Five months ago, the Sooners said buh-bye to starting quarterback Rhett Bomar. Perhaps you remember hearing at least a little something about that. The day after his dismissal, yours truly wrote a column that predicted bad days ahead for the Sooners.
"Even though folks tend to go all Chicken Little in times such as these, gloom and doom is not an overreaction this time around,” I wrote. "It's a reality.”
That feeling was shared by many. The day that Bomar was dismissed, many Sooner fans logged on to our website and shared their thoughts.
Jason in Austin, Texas: "The program will be better ... in the long run, although this season will be a disaster.”
Mark in Norman: "Maybe Sam Bradford can lead us to the Independence Bowl this year!”
OK, so several of us might have jumped the gun just a bit with all the gloom and doom.
There was still a healthy dose of gloom. The Sooners failed to live up to the preseason expectations of many fans and pundits. No flawless record. No national title game much less a national title. No pretty crystal football for the trophy case.
About those outcomes, I was right, by the way.
(Told you this wasn't an all-out mea culpa.)
As for the doom forecasted after Bomar's dismissal, it never developed.
There were plenty of opportunities for it descend on the Sooners, too. Paycheckgate, after all, was only the beginning. There was the controversy at Oregon, the struggles on defense, the smackdown against Texas and the injury to Adrian Peterson.
And those are only the lowest of the lowlights.
Any one of those speedbumps could've completely derailed the Sooners. Instead, they kept fighting and kept finding ways to win games. Even though plenty of other teams had to help them along the way — Kansas State and Texas A&M should forever be on the Christmas card list — OU playing in a BCS bowl was nothing short of spectacular.
"It shows a lot of character and the passion that we all have for the game and for each other,” Peterson said a few days before the Fiesta Bowl. "It says a lot about the team stepping up and making the big game.
"It means a lot when you think about the season we had, the controversy, the injuries.”
Had it not been for a couple of lapses and poorly thrown balls against Boise State on Monday night, OU might be riding the wave of a 12-win campaign and a nine-game winning streak into the offseason. As it is, the Sooners are left to ponder what might have been.
Thing is, this team showed its character again in the Fiesta Bowl. There were plenty of opportunities for that game to go completely south on the Sooners. A three- or four-touchdown loss was not out of realm of possibility early in the third quarter. Yet the Sooners kept fighting even until the end of the Fiesta Bowl.
It was the story of the season.
It is the reason for optimism heading into next season, too. Fifteen starters return from this year's squad — plus one if Peterson opts for college glory instead of professional gold — and each and every player has come through the storm.
"The players never used it as an excuse to change their expectations on how they should play and what they expect,” Sooner coach Bob Stoops said on the eve of the Fiesta Bowl. "They expect to win.”
The Sooners failed to do that against the Broncos, and yet, this season ends with far more positives than negatives. A program that looked like it might be in for a multi-season slide instead found its footing and stands again on solid ground.
The 2007 season kicks off in 237 days.
Gloom and doom is not in the forecast.
Prev
