Five Things Oklahoma Football Fans Need to Do Before the 2016 Kickoff
By Chip Rouse
With just a little over a month to go before the kickoff of the 2016 college football season, time is getting short for Oklahoma football fans if they want to be locked and loaded and fully prepared for the kickoff of what should be another great fall of Sooner gridiron fun.
First of all, it probably goes without saying that it doesn’t take much to get OU fans excited about raising the curtain on another season of college football. That is just part of the DNA of the of those of us who proudly profess allegiance to the Sooner Nation.
Nevertheless, there are a few checklist items every Oklahoma football fan must go over prior to the start of every football season before he or she can fully declare readiness for the games to begin and the fall weekend ritual known as Sooner Saturday.
Block Your Fall Social Calendar Now to Prevent Future Arguments
With the high visibility and reputation of the Oklahoma brand, the Sooners are bound to appear on prime-time TV more than a couple of times during the 2016 season. In fact, two of the first three games in September are already scheduled for evening kickoffs, and those are just nonconference games.
To avoid scheduling conflicts and unintended arguments with your wife, significant other or family members, it is advisable to make note now what the dates are for some of the more significant games on the Sooners’ schedule this season.
Like Sept 17 at home against Ohio State (scheduled as an evening kick), Oct. 1 at TCU, followed the next weekend by the annual Red River rivalry game vs. Texas in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Baylor comes to Norman on Nov. 12, and a week later, the Sooners have a giant road challenge at West Virginia. On Dec. 3, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State meet up in the annual Bedlam battle, with OU serving as the host this year.
Without question, there are plenty of great games to choose from, but you don’t want to miss watching them live if you don’t have to.
I suppose there is always the fallback position of recording the games for later viewing, but you tell me the last time you were able to do so without having a friend or someone in the family send you a tweet or a text informing you of the outcome before you’ve even had a chance to sit down and watch the recorded version?
Make Ticket Arrangements Sooner Rather Than Later
Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium has been sold out every home game since Bob Stoops became the head coach in 1999. That is 105 consecutive home games. Needless to say, tickets to Sooner home games are hard to come by unless you are a season ticketholder or know someone with season tickets. Otherwise, be prepared to pay a marked up price through a reputable broker. The Sooners are also a top draw on the road, so tickets may be harder to come by than you might realize.
Regardless, if you want to see Oklahoma live and in person this season – or just about any season, for that matter – it is advisable to look over the schedule now or early in the 2016 season and identify which games you might like to attend. Once you’ve done the upfront due diligence, the sooner you make arrangements to obtain tickets, the better your seat selection and pricing options will be.
Don’t Let the Preseason Hype Cloud Your View of Reality
It is easy to get caught up in all the preseason media hype and lofty poll projections that proliferate during the summer months in the build up to the start of a new season. This is especially true with a team like Oklahoma, which very rarely during the Bob Stoops era has not come into the season with top-25 at a minimum and frequently top-10 expectations.
This preseason, the Sooners have been hailed as the heavy favorite to repeat as Big 12 champions and are considered a serious contender for a second consecutive appearance in the College Football Playoff.
There is a better than good chance that Oklahoma will live up to all the expectations in 2016, but because the games are played on the field by the actual players, around whom all of the preseason expectations are built, and not in the popular press and social media months and weeks in advance, it is easy to watch all the hopes and promises blow up in your face as the official season unfolds.
It is a beautiful thing when actual results live up to the predicted outcomes and all the pregame media analysis and opinion. It is important to keep in mind, however, that there are no assurances that it will.
Prepare to Be Disappointed at Some Point in the Season
Other than the 2000 season, the year the Sooners delivered their seventh national championship in football, I have not experienced a season in over 40 years in which there wasn’t an upset or a disappointing loss at some point in the season.
Even in 2000 and 1974, the last two times Oklahoma posted a perfect undefeated record, there were times in games or during the season when things did not go well. Fortunately in those two national championship years, the Sooners were able to overcome the adversity they faced and the close games they encountered.
A single loss in the regular season is not necessarily fatal in the national championship or College Playoff picture, as Oklahoma experienced last season after suffering an improbable loss to Texas. But it still hurts to lose games you should or could have won.
Two of the Sooners’ first three games in 2016 are against teams that finished last season among the top 10 teams in the Associated Press media poll. And then comes the always tough Big 12 schedule, presenting Oklahoma with one of the toughest schedules in college football this coming season.
The ESPN 2016 Football Power Index gives the Sooners only a 16.9 percent chance of running the table and posting a 12-0 regular season record in 2016.
So the odds are fairly high that there is going to be some disappointment along the way in 2016. The fewer the better, of course, but Sooner fans can realistically expect some bumps in the road. I’m not sure any team in the country won’t experience some rough patches of their own. The important thing for the Sooners is how they respond when the going gets rough.
Remember That 18-to-21-Year-Old Kids Are Not Perfection Personified
We all get upset when the OU players fail to execute a play or turn the ball over. Those things just can’t happen, we declare in our fit of frustration. That statement is partially correct: Bad things in football shouldn’t happen. But they do, and much more than we would like. Big 12 football is as good as in any conference in the country. These are quality teams – with the exclusion of one or two – and they have talented players.
But you have to keep in mind that we are talking about young men generally ranging in age between 18 and 21 years old. Some are barely a year out of high school. Very few will move on to play at the next level. So, as fans, we sometimes are going to become frustrated over silly mistakes and lapses in judgement by one or more players during the course of a game.
By the same token, we are going to witness outstanding individual plays and player performances that might be replicated only once in 20 attempts given different circumstances.
Generally speaking, the team that makes the fewest mistakes and is able to move the ball on offense, keeping constant pressure on the defensive team, is going to win the game. But mistakes are going to be made – hopefully more by the Sooners’ opponents – and we are going to have to accept that as part of the college game.