Well, we’ve finally made it. The final game of the season for this year’s version of the Oklahoma Sooners. While many had hoped the Sooners would be playing on New Year’s Eve in the College Football Playoffs things didn’t quite work out that way. Instead, they’ll be suiting up one last time in San Antonio to take on the Oregon Ducks in the Valero Alamo Bowl.
Bob Stoops will lead the charge as the interim head coach before giving way to new head coach Brent Venables. With Riley’s exit, the Sooners also lost their play-caller. While Jeff Lebby will be the head man in charge of the offense after this game as well, Cale Gundy will take the reigns as a first-time play-caller in 23 years of coaching.
Gundy’s one-game stint as play-caller means we have no prior data or information to go off of in regards to how Gunday plans to call a game. With that said, let’s take a look at the offensive keys to the game that could help Gundy’s first stint as a play-caller be a success.
If They Block, They Score
Oklahoma wasn’t their usual high octane offense from start to finish this season. Instead it was inconsistent performance at times. The defense seemed more reliable than the Jekyll and Hyde offense the Sooners put on display.
At the root of that was the play of the offensive line. The team struggled to put together games of dominance consistently, at least to the level the great offenses produced during Riley’s tenure. For most of these starters, save Tyrese Robinson and Marquis Hayes, they’ll likely be coming back for 2022. If guys like Andrew Raym, Anton Harrison, and Chris Murray put together a good game to generate some positive momentum, look for the Sooners to score and score a lot.
Games like the second half against Texas, the TCU game, or the Texas Tech game are just a few examples that when the offensive line played well, the Sooners could no wrong offensively.
When you factor in the fact that Oregon will be without 17 players on defense. a bunch of those 17 players were players entered the season on their two-deep. And the biggest loss is that of Kayvon Thibodeax, who opted-out for the NFL draft. The goal of this game should be to attack his replacement and get started fast.