Oklahoma Football: Expectations Bigger Than Ever Before

The date was September 5, 2009. Oklahoma came into the season ranked third in the country and they hosted BYU in the opening weekend. The Sooners were coming off of the most prolific offensive season in the history of college football and a national runner-up finish to Tim Tebow’s Florida Gators in the National Championship.

Sam Bradford surprised many that previous offseason when he announced that he would be returning for his junior year in the crimson and cream, but that wouldn’t last long. Bradford strained his AC joint in his shoulder in the first half against BYU, and the Cougars got a late touchdown to take down the Sooners in Jerry World.

Up until this point, Oklahoma was arguably the most dominant team of the BCS era—and it wasn’t that close. 2008 was the last of six BCS bowl game appearances in Bob Stoops’ first decade in Norman. But after the Bradford injury against BYU and the re-injury against Texas, it’s been all down hill for the Sooners.

Under the leadership of Landry Jones, Oklahoma won 32 games in three seasons after that disappointing 2009 campaign, to go along with a BCS bowl victory and a pair of conference championships. But OU only once finished better than 15th with Jones and their lone BSC bowl victory under him came against Connecticut in 2010.

Because of that run of mediocrity, those outside the state will tell you that Oklahoma is no longer a national contender. They’ll knock on the Big 12 and proclaim the up-and-coming teams like Baylor and Oklahoma State as the future.

But all of that changed at the Sugar Bowl last January.

The national pundits wondered if this meant the return of a dominant Oklahoma football program, which got mixed responses from Sooner nation. While some recognized the change in the demeanor in the coaches and players, it’s easy to point out that Oklahoma has failed to reach 10 wins just once since 2006 (that dreadful 2009 season being the lone failure.)

But the fact is, this does feel different. The Sooners are once again ranked no. 3 in this season’s coaches poll, with a more-than-manageable schedule ahead of them. Trevor Knight is a pre-season Heisman candidate and several defensive players have been placed on watch lists for national awards. Anything less than a playoff appearance and an outright conference championship will be regarded as a lost season.

And while the Landry Jones era saw plenty of pre-season hype as well, something is different.

This Oklahoma defense is poised to be the best one since 2003, and the offense has the potential to be more creative than anything we have seen in the Stoops era. With no disrespect towards Jones, “dynamic” and “creative” are not words that were thrown about in his time here. The defenses under Brent Venables were also equally over-hyped and under-productive.

The program has received a breath of fresh air since the arrivals of coaches like Mike Stoops and Jeremy Montgomery, while Eric Striker and Trevor Knight take care of the players.

Everything appears to be falling into place for this Sooners team, who will try to follow up their best victory since 2000 with their best season since 2000.

The talent is there, and because of that, so are the expectations. It’s about time this team lived up to them.