Oklahoma Football: Sooners May Be Deeper, More Balanced Than 2016 Championship Team
By Chip Rouse
A scary thought for the rest of the Big 12 emerged from the first week of Oklahoma football spring practice.
As star studded and prolific on offense as the Big 12 champions were last fall, they may be even stronger by subtraction next season than they were in 2016.
Despite finishing the 2016 season with 10 consecutive wins, highlighted by a dominating 35-19 Sugar Bowl win over the Southeastern Conference’s second-best team in the Auburn Tigers, the Oklahoma coaches and players are well aware you cannot rest on your laurels. You have to build on that foundation and keep getting better if you want to sustain that success.
That is the attitude and mindset of the OU football team as it began spring practice sessions this week, essentially beginning preparations and plans for Bob Stoops’ 19th season as head coach at Oklahoma.
It seems like yesterday that Stoops took over a fledgling Sooner football program that had sunk to one of its lowest depths in over 100 years of college football and, in just his second year, led Oklahoma to its seventh national championships and a perfect 13-0 season. Now, nearly two decades later, he has been at his post for more continuous seasons that any other active head coach in college football.
The Sooners have won 10 Big 12 championships under Stoops, more than three times the number of any other conference school. But you don’t have to remind the Oklahoma head coach or anyone on his staff, that you are only as good as your last championship.
“You have to start over and do it again, said offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley in an article posted this week on the OU athletic website. “You can’t carry over yards and points and those things.
“We’re excited about what we’ve done the last two years, but we’ll be disappointed if that’s as good as we get,” he said. “This is starting all new.”
As far as the key playmakers on the Oklahoma’s high-scoring offense of a year ago are concerned, it will be like starting all new. Samaje Perine, Joe Mixon and Dede Westbrook are all gone from an offense that ranked second in the nation in total yards per game and third in scoring offense.
The Sooners will need to replace arguably the most dynamic running back duo in college football last season in Perine and Mixon, but the centerpiece of the offense, two-time Heisman finalist Baker Mayfield is back for a third season and, so too, is the entire offensive line, perhaps the two most important pieces of any offensive unit.
Stoops also likes the fact that there were a number of Sooners last season who had lessor roles but showed that they are ready to step up , make stronger contributions and push for a starting role.
“You have to start over and do it again. You can’t carry over yards and points and those things.” –OU offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley
That is the depth and balance that Stoops is looking for in next season’s football team.
In the past two seasons, Mayfield and Co. have had two of the best wide receivers in college football to count on to make big plays. Westbrook, and Sterling Shepard before him, were big-time playmakers and Mayfield’s go-to targets when he needed a big play. With what OU has returning and coming in next season, there is still plenty of talent at the position. And the good news is, opposing defenses won’t be able to key on just one guy, as they have the past two years.
That balance and depth in the receiving corps is what Mayfield is counting on to make a big difference in 2017.
If I have time to just sit back there and throw it (which he should have with all of the starting O-line returning), it doesn’t matter who’s out there,” Mayfield says. “It only helps that they’re great players.”
Oklahoma’s spring practice schedule got underway on March 21 and runs through April 8, the date for the annual Red-White spring game. Under NCAA rules, schools are allowed to hold 15 organized practice sessions over a 34-day period. Physical contact sessions are restricted to 12 of the 15 days and tackling is prohibited to just eight days.