Backloaded Schedule Gives Sooner Football Golden Opportunity for Final Say

When you look at the Sooner football schedule for this season, it is easy to conclude that no one in college football has a more difficult three-game finish to the regular season.

Without question, Oklahoma’s most difficult games of the season, and the ones that will have the greatest impact on what kind of year the Sooners will have, all come in succession over the final three weekends of the 2015 regular-season schedule.

That final-three gauntlet includes a trip to Baylor on Nov. 14, back home to take on TCU the following weekend and then a Thanksgiving weekend Bedlam Series matchup at Oklahoma State to finish out the regular season.

Nov 8, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Trevor Knight (9) runs past Baylor Bears safety Orion Stewart (28) during the first quarter at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

In fact, an anomaly in the Big 12 schedule in general has five of the biggest games of the season involving the preseason conference favorites all falling in a two-week window period between Nov. 14 and Nov. 28. Three of those games involve the Sooners.

There are two ways to look at the season-ending three-games on the OU 2015 schedule.

One view says you don’t want to play the most difficult part of your schedule in the month of November, when it is nearly impossible to recover from a loss that late in the season, as far as national attention and big-bowl prospects are concerned. On the other hand, wins at that time of the season against top-ranked teams almost count double in the eyes of the human poll voters and the College Football Playoff selection committee.

The way the Oklahoma football schedule sets up this fall (which college football guru Phil Steele rates as the 26th most difficult in the country), the 19th-ranked Sooners, according to the Preseason Amway Coaches Poll Top 25, should be favored in at least eight of their first nine games of the season. And the one game in which they will probably be a slight underdog, at Tennessee the second week of the season, is a very winnable game if Bob Stoops’ team plays up to its talent level and capability.

It is entirely conceivable – assuming the Sooners pull off the win at Tennessee and are able to win out in the annual Red River Showdown with archrival Texas and again one week later when they travel to Kansas State – that Oklahoma could be 9-0 when it goes up against Baylor in what will likely be a national TV broadcast on Nov. 14.

Oct 4, 2014; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners cornerback Zack Sanchez (15) returns a blocked extra point for a two point conversion in the fourth quarter against the TCU Horned Frogs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

It won’t help that the Baylor game is a road contest and that the Bears, who in all likelihood will be ranked in the top five or six in the country at that stage of the season, will have had two extra days to prepare the result of having played on a Thursday night the week before. But if OU were to be 9-0 or even 8-1 at the time of the Baylor game, there is no telling what kind of confidence boost that might give the Sooners and whether that would have an impact on the outcome of the game.

After two consecutive blowout losses to Baylor, a team that had never beaten OU until the 2011 season, the Sooners are almost certain to go into this season’s game against the reigning Big 12 co-champions with a giant chip on their shoulder.

After the Baylor game, OU returns to Norman for its final home game of the season (Senior Day) against a TCU team that has played the Sooners tough throughout Stoops’ time at Oklahoma (as a point of reference, the Horned Frogs own two wins on OU’s home turf, one of the most difficult places to play in the country for opposing teams).

The last three games with TCU, dating to 2012, the Horned Frogs’ first season as a member of the Big 12, have been decided by a combined total of 13 points. TCU won last year’s contest in Ft. Worth by a four-point margin, 37-33.

Dec 6, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners tight end Blake Bell (10) is pursued after a catch by Oklahoma State Cowboys cornerback Ramon Richards (18) during the second quarter at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

This could be a trap game for TCU, especially if the Frogs are caught looking ahead to their long anticipated grudge rematch against the Baylor Bears, the only team they lost to a year ago, and it took a 24-point fourth-quarter comeback by Baylor to get the job done.

Oklahoma owns a modest 9-5 record all-time against TCU and is 2-1 since the Horned Frogs joined the Big 12. The Sooners escaped with a three-point 20-17 victory the last time the Frogs visited Norman (in 2013).

As if having to go up against Baylor and TCU, the two current big boys of the Big 12, in successive weekends isn’t enough, OU travels to Oklahoma State to complete conference play. Many in the Sooner Nation blame the stunning way the Sooners lost at home to the Cowboys at the end of last season for OU’s pathetic Russell Athletic performance in a 40-6 blowout loss to Clemson.