Week one of the college football season has officially ended after the last game of the week saw Clemson beat Georgia Tech reasonably comfortably.
All eyes in college football turn to week two as teams either regroup or look to build on the success they had in week one. For Oklahoma, their eyes shift to the Kent State Golden Flashes, who will make the trip into Norman for a showdown Saturday evening.
Oklahoma is fresh off of a 45-13 victory against the UTEP Miners in Brent Venables’ debut. The Sooners looked better than a few other top 10 teams, and media outlets like ESPN took notice.
ESPN released their college football power rankings following the first week of action. Oklahoma found itself firmly in the top five at No.4. Here’s what Bill Connelly said regarding Oklahoma.
There might not be a better season opener for a head coach than when your team wins easily but experiences some glitches for you to yell about on Sunday. Brent Venables’ debut as OU coach went exactly like that — his Sooners cruised 45-13 over UTEP, with Dillon Gabriel throwing for 223 yards, Eric Gray rushing for 102, and the defense recording six sacks (2.5 from Reggie Grimes). But the Sooners also fell asleep for much of the second quarter, allowing the Miners to stay close approaching halftime. Still, when you average 8.1 yards per play and your opponent averages 3.8, it was a good day at the office. – Bill Connelly, ESPN
Connelly is spot-on. In week one, there’s no such thing as a perfect team. Hardly anyone is tested. It takes multiple games to develop your identity. The Sooners looked good, considering some of the starters they had to replace from last year’s team and the coaching turnover.
However, Connelly’s right about that odd stretch in the second quarter. That lull reminded folks of the big-lead letdowns experienced far too often under the previous regime. While it’s too early to determine if that’s problematic, it gives the coaching staff a nice collection of teachable moments.
They also held stuff back from the game plan on offense and defense. So in many ways, we didn’t get the best performance out of Oklahoma because they didn’t need to empty the playbook to beat UTEP.
That time will come, providing a more thorough evaluation of this team.
The only teams ahead of Oklahoma are projected College Football Playoff contenders, such as Georgia at No. 1, Alabama at 2, and Ohio State at 3. Oklahoma has a long way to go, but to be included in a group with the powers in college football could give us a glimpse of what this team could be. Oklahoma team may have a shot to do an extraordinary thing or two.
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