Little dogs should be feared Oklahoma football Year of the upset, the sequel: Can Baylor beat No. 1? OU football: Year of the upset, the sequel if Baylor can beat No. 1
NORMAN — Schedule analysts are on the job, scanning Oklahoma's remaining games for any potential pitfalls that could derail a run at maintaining No. 1 — all the way through an eighth national championship.
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They've identified the obvious: Texas, Kansas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State. Missouri too, in the Big 12 title game.
They could be off. Way off.
The real dangers may lurk under rocks, like some unsuspecting rattler readying to strike. Fear should perhaps be directed more toward struggling squads like Kansas State and Texas A&M and even this week's foe, Baylor, despite an historic lack of fangs in league play.
Welcome to the "Year of the Upset, the Sequel.”
"Any team can have your number,” said Sooners cornerback Brian Jackson.
Any team.
If college football's 13-month reign of volatility has shown us anything, it's just that.
Oregon State stuns No. 1 Southern Cal.
Mississippi upends No. 4 Florida.
Navy records its first win over a ranked team in 23 years, knocking off No. 16 Wake Forest.
And that was just last weekend, when six Top 25 teams lost to unranked foes.
They dubbed 2007 the "Year of the Upset” in college football, when six of the top 10 teams in the Associated Press poll had fallen by Week 5 of the season.
Through five weeks this year, the list of Top 10 victims is seven. It was just a week ago that No. 1 USC, No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Florida accounted for all of the 65 first-place votes in the AP poll. All lost, with the Trojans and Gators tumbling as 23 1/2-point favorites.
What's behind the upheaval?
Parity is a popular explanation. And it's plausible in the sense that even the once-downtrodden teams now have more quality players and today's wide open offenses neutralize some physical mismatches. So when one of the top teams is even a little off for whatever reason — lack of focus; lack of respect; trap game — a major upset can occur.
"If you have one or two guys who don't play well, it doesn't matter what the other nine do,” said OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables. "They can attack a weakness.
"It doesn't take much. Everyone has good players anymore.”
Baylor now has Robert Griffin, an exciting quarterback who has breathed life into the Bears and kicked up anxiety for opposing coaches.
The upsets kept coming a year ago, prompting this question now: Who's next?
From 1991 through 2006, the nation's No. 1 team lost to an unranked team just three times.
It's happened three times in the past 13 months.
"The message is that we have to be as good as we can be,” said Sooners coach Bob Stoops. "When we show up we have to have the hair up on the back of our neck and ready to meet the challenge and be our best.
"If you're not on top of your game and not really ready to go, you're going to get beat. I don't care who it is against.”
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OU is fearless and embraces the # 1 ranking in the country. After all, they have been there more than anyone else in college football history! Go Big Red Sooners! The 8th National Title in 08!
hey wildcatmom...pipe down, the men are talking. come back running your mouth after you actually play the game you're yakking about. it never ceases to amaze me that OSUcks and its delusional fanbase start talking about how good they are and what they're going to do to everyone before they've actually done anything. before you start talking about TCU, how many of OSUcks opponents this year have even been ranked? you talk about chattanooga, but play missouri state the very next week. you talk about ryan broyles, but give chris collins a scholarship. go back to your 'horse stitches 101' and 'animal testicles: a survey' classes and stay out the football talk. better go ahead and kiss your a$$ goodbye now, there won't be much left after OU leaves stoolwater. morons.
OU has to beat Baylor by the point spread to keep Alabama from going on top next week. With as close as the game was last year, this game in Waco, a team that is fired up behind an athletic quarterback, and finally a coach worth a damn, the Sooners better not get too comfortable. This is Baylor's bowl game and they will be ready. I don't see how OU loses here, but I bet the margin is only 10 points. And, I wouldn't be surprised if Baylor scores first.
Baylor can not play with OU this year. The only thing I worry about is OU coming out scoring 21 points and falling asleep for 45 minutes. It is tough to stay focused against an undermatched opponent. Hopefully they are more disciplined this year, but I saw glimpses of it last week. TCU could not hang with OU. Why OU kept trying to force the run is anyones guess, but maybe they didn't want to run up the score? The screen pass was open all day long. Baylor's defense is no where close to TCU's.
Lawerence, Oklahoma City - Sep 30, 2008 at 7:27 pm
The difference between OU and OSU is simple. I won't say which is which but their goals are quite different. One team strives to win every game and the other team strives to beat the Sooners.
Right on, Scott in Chickasha. And when we did call running plays, it appeared they were very basic. Why not keep all those land mines down the road guessing? Stillwater will be the snake-pit this year. Pokes are looking good. BOOMER SOONER!!
wildcatmom, do your homework. TCU decided to protect the run. They had 7-8 loaded in the box at any given down. That's the ONLY statement they could make because they knew their secondary was weak, so they decide to make OU throw the ball in thinking that we haven't been challenged yet. With loading the box comes weaker secondary, doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. They dared us to torch them with the pass plays, and torch them they did. One thing that impressed me and I was at the game and you didn't see this on TV, but Bradford got NAILED a lot. He stayed in the pocket until he had a clear shot, even though those big corn fed linebackers where coming at him full gallop. I know where I was sitting we held our breath until Bradford got up and THEN noticed he threw a touchdown. I won't be ashamed to admit that we would really be hurting without Bradford, but every winning team is in the same boat.
Obviously, OU should beat Baylor easily...just like they should have beaten CU and ISU easily last year. But they lost to CU and struggled with ISU. That's why they call them "upsets". USC loses at Oregon State, and FL loses AT HOME to Ole Miss. OU is not immune to the upset bug, but no one ever sees them coming in advance. We can't imagine BU beating OU. As someone mentioned, OU is 17-0 against Baylor. Doesn't mean a damn thing, folks. This could be (but probably WON'T be), Baylor's year. Just like Charlie Brown hoping that THIS will be the year Lucy doesn't yank the football away before he can kick it!
This is Baylor's year. Sorry OU. You could have wiped TCU off the map, but instead, played mediocre football even though it was a "W". If OU is so good, the TCU defense should have been more beatable and the point total would reflect that.
Is anyone else tired of hearing the "choke-lahoma" crap? Ok, I'm all for a good rivalry, but all OSU fans like that, come back when you can manage to hold on to a 21-point 4th quarter lead against the Longhorns. I'm a Sooner fan and I admire what OSU has accomplished this season on offense. But then we get idoit OSU fans that want to start crap. I won't pretend OU fans are innocent, but seriously...come on. Make fun of us when you even out the OU-OSU series.
One game at a time thats what Oklahoma has to keep telling themselves if they do that don't pay attention to the press and just keep doing what they are doing Oklahoma will be playing for its 8th National Title
That said, Baylor has 3 very high quality players: Griffin (QB), Gettis (WR + KR), and Freeman (DE). Given the Sooners' kick cover problems, Gettis make cause some problems. Griffin is big and fast, but the Sooners have experience shutting down offenses that are QB-addicted (Seneca Wallace, Vince Young, Brad Smith, Jake Locker, etc.). The Bear run defense is so-so, so is this the week Murray lights it up? This week is a great opportunity for the Sooners to build on their road capabilities given the mild nature of Baylor's stadium (similar to the Huskies).
Baylor is not the concern. Nor are any of the home games. K-State and OK St worry me. But by the end of the year, like it or not, the pokes won't be surprising anyone. That will help the Sooners because the higher osu is ranked, the more seriously we'll take them. And take them we shall. One of our best weapons that keeps getting overlooked is the no-huddle. It gives us more plays to run and more opportunities for the Sooners to outplay and wear down the opponent. Nobody can shorten the game anymore, which is a key component in upsets. (Did anyone notice that Oregon St. had only four possessions in the first half last Thursday?) Kudos to Coach Wilson.
Shepard, I agree with your USC comments. Somehting else that no one seems to acknowledge is that if Pete Carrol is such a fantastic coach, why can't he continue to win every game with his 5-star studs. We're kicking tails with 3 & 4-star studs that have been coached a lot better than all the others. Same could be said of Ohio State and Florida ane even LSU.
Baylor beating OU is not likely but it could happen if the Sooners are not focused on doing their jobs. Baylor took OU into overtime a couple of years ago and remember they want to win also. OU has to play a National Championship game EVERY WEEK. For the coaches to keep the team up game after game is difficult if the team starts believing in their press clippings and do not work hard in practice and play lights out on every play. I agree that being number 1 in September means absolutely nothing. I think this team can be something special as I read their comments in the paper. I think they can go all the way but it won't be easy.
I agree Billy, Ohio St was obviously overrated, Bama was underrated. Our #1 ranking means nothing right now. We got it by default anyways. Im not saying they arent worthy of it, Im just saying we dont know yet. A lot of crazy things can happen. We start circling games as possible losses, but it could be one of those "easy wins" that sneaks up like Colorado last year. Iowa St had a decent shot at an upset last year too. They are on Baylors level.
These so called "SHOCKING" upsets happen every year. Then we start wondering what causes them. Any given day, parity, overlooking the opponent,etc. My theory is the idiots that voted some of those teams so high to start with. Oh well, gives us someting to argue about.
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Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin has made the Bears a dangerous team. A dual threat to run and pass, the freshman has guided Baylor to a 2-2 record. ASSOCIATED PRESS
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