Stormin in Norman
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Five Worst Things That Could Happen to OU Football in 2016

By Chip Rouse

Oct 24, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; The Oklahoma Sooners take the field prior to action against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 24, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; The Oklahoma Sooners take the field prior to action against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /
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Dec 31, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Houston Cougars quarterback Kyle Postma (3) carries the ball in front of Florida State Seminoles defensive back Lamarcus Brutus (42) in the fourth quarter of the 2015 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at the Georgia Dome. The Cougars won 38-24. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 31, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Houston Cougars quarterback Kyle Postma (3) carries the ball in front of Florida State Seminoles defensive back Lamarcus Brutus (42) in the fourth quarter of the 2015 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at the Georgia Dome. The Cougars won 38-24. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports /

OU Done in by Both Houston and Ohio State in First Three Games

A number of college football experts have Oklahoma penciled in as one of the four College Football Playoff teams at the end of the 2016 season. That is all predicated, of course, on Oklahoma victories over Houston and Ohio State in the opening weeks of the season.

The Sooners are 55-28 in the Bob Stoops era (1999 to present) against teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 at the time the game was played. Only LSU has more wins over ranked opponents during that time span than Oklahoma.

Both Houston and Ohio State are expected to be ranked when the initial AP College Football Media Poll of 2016 is released later this month.

Ohio State and Houston both finished in the AP top 10 a year ago after combining for a record of 25-2 in the 2015 season. OU is expected to be favored against both teams, and if they were to win both games (Houston on the road and at home against Ohio State), it would not be surprising to see the Sooners jump to the top of the two major polls on the basis of of strength of schedule alone after just three weeks of the new season, a period during which most other teams have merely been tuning up against inferior opponents.

But what if it doesn’t work out that way? Say the Sooners drop both games, or perhaps one of the two?

Going down to defeat in both of these highly anticipated contests would be a death blow, for sure, to Oklahoma’s national title and Playoff aspirations. And if the 2016 season starts right off with a loss to Houston (think 2009 when OU lost to BYU in the opening game of the season, with the Sooners coincidentally ranked No. 3 in the nation to start the season), it is hard to say how the OU players would respond to that and what it would mean for the rest of the season. Certainly Ohio State and the Sooners Big 12 opponents would begin to smell blood in the water.

I don’t even want to go down this road, but you cannot just ignore the possibility.

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