College Playoff: OUch! ESPN’s Corso picks Sooners. Really?
By Chip Rouse
I hope the Oklahoma Sooners, and Baker Mayfield in particular, were watching the ESPN College Playoff coverage New Year’s Day morning.
They most likely were not, but someone needs to get the word to them before this afternoon’s College Football Playoff kickoff in the Rose Bowl against Georgia.
If you watched any of the ESPN Playoff preview coverage while clearing the cobwebs from the celebratory night before, you couldn’t help but notice the overwhelming bias toward Georgia – and let’s be honest – with the SEC Playoff teams in particular.
Disgusting, really. Oklahoma might as well not even bother to show up. According to all the college football analysts, Georgina will dominate the Sooners at the line of scrimmage and send the Big 12 champions packing and back to the drawing board on how to overcome the age-old motto SEC teams seem to live by: good offense may win games, but better defense wins championships.
Let’s see, thinking back to Week 2 of this season, I seem to recall the same negativity directed toward the Sooners prior to the much-anticipated repeat game against mighty Ohio State. How would Oklahoma stand up against another great defensive team in Ohio State, a team that also delighted in running the football down your throat, and on the Buckeyes home field, to boot?
How did that top-10 matchup work out?
Everybody also said that TCU’s great defense would expose the incredible Oklahoma offensive juggernaut. How was the TCU defense able to get it done against the Sooners? Oh, yea, 38-20 and 41-17 in favor of those guys who don’t seem to be able to spell D-E-F-E-N-S-E.
Oklahoma won’t be able to contain the powerful Georgia ground machine, the critics wail, and the massive Georgia defensive front will bury the Sooners when they try to advance the pigskin on the ground. Simple as that. Game over, right?
While we’re condemning all the sports pontificators who are quick to throw Oklahoma under the bus and don’t see the Sooners surviving beyond their New Year’s trip to sunny Southern California, we know of at least two network analysts who are siding with the Crimson and Cream in the game with Georgia.
The problem is the credibility of those two gentlemen – or, rather, the lack thereof – in picking football games.
Tim Tebow, a Heisman-winning quarterback himself and part-time analyst on the SEC – oh, pardon me, I meant ESPN – network, cast his vote with Heisman brother Mayfield, saying he is the x-factor who will decide the game. Perhaps Tebow didn’t know Mayfield hasn’t been feeling like himself lately. Nevertheless, we like the fact that at least somebody is sticking up for the Sooners’ chances against Georgia.
The other game-day supporter of Oklahoma on this first day of the new year is not really someone you want giving you a vote of confidence.
Lee Corso has a long history of donning the OU covered wagon headgear and picking the “Boomer Schooner,” as he called the iconic Sooner dual-pony-powered mascot, on days when Oklahoma does not fare well. That’s why it is not a particularly good omen to have the infamous Headgear Highness claim victory in behalf of the Sooners.
Mayfield and Oklahoma were successful in overcoming the legendary Sports Illustrated curse, beating TCU in the Big 12 Championship despite Mayfield’s appearance on the magazine’s cover that week.
Oklahoma has a history of playing well and with a chip on its shoulder when the team believes it is being disrespected and sold short in big games.
Believe me, OU won’t care whether or not Lee Corso or Tim Tebow believe in the Sooners. They will, however, take exception in what everyone else seems to be thinking.
No.2 Oklahoma as “pretenders”? We’ll find out soon enough.