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Oklahoma football: Answers on the way in season opener

By Chip Rouse

NEW ORLEANS, LA - JANUARY 02: The Oklahoma Sooners are introduced prior to playing the Auburn Tigers during the Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 2, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LA - JANUARY 02: The Oklahoma Sooners are introduced prior to playing the Auburn Tigers during the Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 2, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /
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It’s here. The countdown has reached zero, and its game day for Oklahoma football, with the Sooners kicking off the 2017 college campaign at home against the University of Texas-El Paso out of Conference USA.

Coming off of an 11-2 season, a second consecutive Big 12 championship and a dominating Sugar Bowl victory over Auburn, there are plenty of positive knowns about the 2017 edition of the Sooners, enough to give the college football pundits and preview publications ample cause to project that OU will again contend for a national crown.

But…there are also some concerning unknowns that could easily turn the tables on this longtime college football power and derail the Sooners’ lofty 2017 expectations.

First and foremost is how Oklahoma will respond to the coaching change, with Lincoln Riley taking over for Bob Stoops, the winningest head coach in Sooner football history. It’s been 18 seasons and 190 victories, the most by any team in college football over that time, since the Sooners have experienced a head-coaching change.

Riley has been an acclaimed assistant and offensive coordinator, but he is only 33 (to be 34 in three days), and some experts strongly believe that is too young and too little experience to take on the responsibilities thrust on a head coach of a major college program like Oklahoma.

Oklahoma football history tells a story otherwise when it comes to the age of a head coach. Bud Wilkinson was only 31 when he moved up to head coach after serving as an Oklahoma assistant. And Barry Switzer was just 36 when he took the Sooner reigns from Chuck Fairbanks. who was 34 when he was named head coach.

Oklahoma Sooners Football
Oklahoma Sooners Football /

Oklahoma Sooners Football

The home opener with UTEP may be way too small a sample to portend what kind of head coach Riley is going to be, but we certainly should have some direction on this issue over the Sooners’ first seven games, during which they will face three teams ranked in the top 25.

The coaching transition is certainly a prime story line heading into game one of the 2017 season, but there are several others for which we will begin getting answers on Saturday:

2) Will the defense continue to be the team Achilles heal in 2017? The preseason banter has the needle on the “much improved” side of the scale in describing the Oklahoma defense coming into the new season. The Sooners are expected to be stronger in the secondary, and they are going with a 4-3 alignment among the front seven, representing a change from the 4-3 defense Mike Stoops, the defensive coordinator, has had in place the past several seasons.

3) Will the Sooners be able to run the football without the presence of Samje Perine and Joe Mixon in the backfield? The OU coaches acknowledge the limited game experience of the four players that will be taking over at the running back position, and the fact that no clear favorite has been designated between sophomores Rodney Anderson and Abdul Adams and junior-college transfer Marcelias Sutton as No, 1 on the depth chart.

Riley and running backs coach Jay Boulware are going to let game conditions dictate how all of this sorts out. We should also keep in mind that the Sooner offensive line, deemed to be one of if not the best in college football this season, will have a huge say in how good the OU run game becomes. We’ll get our first glimpse at this in Week 1.

4) Who will the Sooners and Baker Mayfield turn to as the major bullets in the receiving game? Riley says Oklahoma will use as many as 10 to 12 receivers this season, signifying that the Sooners have plenty of depth at the position. The talent and targets will rise to the top, and we should get a very good look at where Mayfield’s trust lies and where he goes with the football in the Oklahoma Air Raid attack on Saturday. Keep your eyes on Jeffery Mead, true freshman CeeDee Lamb and graduate transfer Jeff Badet.

These are the four main story lines we are following in Saturday’s home opener. We will circle back with observations and comments on each after the game with UTEP is decidedly in the books.

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