Oklahoma football: Time for the talking season to turn into a telling one
By Chip Rouse
The college football season officially got underway with a so-called soft opening this weekend, but for Oklahoma football and most of the nation, the real debut happens in six more days.
For the past couple of months — and even longer than that if college football is your end-all, be-all business — we have been badgered with all the blah, blah, blah of the sports pundits and talking heads and mouths about whom the contenders and pretenders will be in the little-margin-for-error college season, circa 2017.
The talking season is just that: talk. It’s time to prove all the prognosticators right or wrong by actually playing the games. And in Norman, Oklahoma, the expectations for 2017 run from discriminatingly high to guardedly hopeful.
The first thing one must understand about Oklahoma football is that any season with fewer than double-digit wins is considered unsuccessful and certainly unfulfilling from both the players’ and fans’ perspective. That may sound extremely greedy, but when you have been as successful as the Sooners have, and for a sustained time, it is easy to understand why the bar is set as high as it is.
Oklahoma is actually the standard bearer in college football for double-digit-win seasons. The Sooners have produced 10 or more wins 37 times in their history, including 14 such seasons in the past 17. The only team close to that mark is Alabama with 36 10-win campaigns.
New OU head coach Lincoln Riley faces one of the most difficult tasks of any person in a leadership position: following a legend. His predecessor, Bob Stoops, was the one responsible for delivering the 14 10-win seasons, all of which are very fresh in the minds of Sooner fans, and Stoops’ teams also produced 12 of Oklahoma’s nation-best 23 11-win seasons all-time.
Most college football preview publications and sports oddsmakers, including Sportsbook Review, a partner of FanSided, have the Sooners winning the Big 12 in 2017, which would be a third consecutive conference crown for the Sooners and their11th in the 22-year existence of the Big 12.
At the same time, there is widespread believe among those in the college football landscape who project season win totals for a living to bet the under of a 10-win season for Oklahoma this fall.
The Sooners will probably be listed as the favorite in 10 of their 12 regular-season games this season. The two exceptions are at Ohio State on Sept. 9 and, in all likelihood, at Oklahoma State on Nov. 4. But the Big 12 is also expected to be stronger in the coming season than it has been the past two seasons, and that could spell additional trouble for Oklahoma and first-year head coach Riley.
OU also must travel away from Norman to play Baylor (Sept. 23) and Kansas State (Oct. 21), and then there is always the annual grudge match with Red River rival Texas (Oct. 14), which should be better this year under new head coach Tom Herman, in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
A tough opening schedule for a new head coach looking to establish his footing and begin his own coaching legacy. Chapter one is the Lincoln Riley coaching era kicks off on Saturday, with the wins and losses now in the hands and hearts of the Sooners themselves.