College Football Playoff: Will the month-long layoff hinder the Sooners?

By the time the Oklahoma Sooners take the field at the Rose Bowl in one of the College Football Playoff game, 30 days will have elapsed since they last played.

Oklahoma’s last game was on Dec. 2, a 41-17 win over TCU in the Big 12 Championship. You rarely get a week off during the 12- or 13-game grind of the regular season. When  the postseason rolls around, however, the time off between games can be up to four weeks for the teams that have earned the right to be among the fortunate four competing in the College Football Playoff for a national championship.

During the regular season, coaches and players develop a standard routine and practice regimen, which is repeated every day of every week that begins in early August and continues right on through November. For the teams that go bowling over the holidays, though, they must get used to a different routine, one that is elongated over a two, three and even a four-week time frame.

Long layoffs between live game action tends to have a greater impact on offensive players than on those who play on the defensive side or special teams. Offenses rely on plays and scheming that often require precision and timing on the part of multiple individuals to be executed to maximum effect.

Teams feed off of positive momentum, practice continuity and constant repetition, which gives them an opportunity to get better each and every week during the football season. When you don’t play a game for several weeks, it is easy to see how offensive signal calls, execution and sharpness can get out of synch, not to mention the timing between quarterback and receivers on pass routes.

The Sooner players insist that college football’s second season, the postseason, hasn’t made them rusty. Rather, they say, they are healthier, well rested and relaxed, and ready to smell the roses, as in taking it to and defeating Georgia in a national semifinal Playoff showdown in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.

All teams are not necessarily created equal when it comes to this year’s College Football’s Final Four teams.

If there is a drop-off in offensive performance because of the long layoff between games, Oklahoma would stand to be affected more than the other Playoff teams. The Sooners rely more heavily on their high-scoring offense to win games than the three other teams, whose strengths fall more on the defensive side and the ability to outmuscle and disrupt high-powered offenses like Oklahoma’s.

What the month-long layoff for sure does do for the teams in the College Football Playoff national championship chase is the opportunity to thoroughly study and game plan for your opponent. It’s pretty safe to say that the teams that do the best job of that and play the best on Jan. 1 and will survive and move on to play for the big prize.

That’s a glass-half-full way to view the pros and cons of the long postseason bowl layoff and the perspective I prefer in looking at this year’s College Football Playoff. Boomer Sooner!