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Oklahoma Football: Sooners Cheerleading for Cats, Frogs on Saturday

By Chip Rouse

Oct 22, 2016; Lubbock, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops on the sidelines during the game with the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Jones AT&T Stadium. Oklahoma defeated Texas Tech 66-59. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 22, 2016; Lubbock, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops on the sidelines during the game with the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Jones AT&T Stadium. Oklahoma defeated Texas Tech 66-59. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /
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With three pivotal games remaining in the 2016 Oklahoma football season, the Big 12 leaders would love to have a little extra cushion to work with in their title quest.

Sep 13, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners fans during the game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 13, 2014; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners fans during the game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports /

The Sooners can take care of business themselves with games straight ahead against one-loss Baylor, West Virginia and a Bedlam regular-season finale with Oklahoma State, but they certainly aren’t above getting a little help along the way.

Things are going to get very interesting in the Big 12 the next three to four weeks as the college football season grinds down to a conclusion. And that includes the games this weekend.

Just because about everyone you talk to outside of the conference has written off the Big 12 as a player in this year’s College Football Playoff countdown doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to play for for the Sooners and the three other Big 12 teams ranked in the first 2016 Playoff rankings that came out earlier this week.

Oklahoma’s victory over Iowa State on Thursday assures the Sooners will hold on to their one-game lead in the conference standings as Big 12 teams head into the final quarter of the 2016 season.

Looking at things in quarterly terms, the same way a football game is formatted, Oklahoma was 1-2 in terms of won-lost record after the first quarter. Since then, however, the Sooners have gone a perfect 6-0 over the next two quarters, with a quarter left to play.

Oklahoma State (6-2, 4-1) goes North to Kansas State on Saturday, while TCU will take its act down I-35 to Waco, where the Horned Frogs will go at it against Baylor (6-1, 3-1). The latter contest comes one week before Baylor will visit Oklahoma, where the Sooners have won 99 games and lost just nine under Bob Stoops.

Oklahoma State  and Baylor both have one loss in conference play. One more would put them two back of the Sooners and, in all probability, out of contention and unable to catch Oklahoma unless all craziness breaks out over the next several weeks.

West Virginia (6-1, 3-1), which would appear to be the Sooners biggest challenger at the moment, will play Kansas Saturday night and is a heavy favorite at home to hold serve in that one against a Jayhawk team that is winless in its last 17 Big 12 games and hasn’t won a true road game in the last 34 tries.

Every game becomes very important at this stage of the season. Oklahoma controls its own destiny, which is all any Sooner fan could ask for, but the Sooners aren’t above taking any extra help they can get.

OU has this Saturday off, but the Sooners and their fans still have much to cheer for this weekend.

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