Sooners captains for Bedlam have an Oklahoma flavor

The Sooners captains for the final Bedlam are all very familiar with this rivalry.

The Oklahoma Sooners and the [autotag]Oklahoma State Cowboys[/autotag] battle for the final time as Big 12 foes. It’s the final time for a long time in the regular season. This will be the 118th meeting between the two schools with Oklahoma holding a 91-19-7 lead in the series.

This is a big one not just for final bragging rights for both schools, but also for conference title aspirations. The losing school could basically be eliminated from the race.

In preparation for the game on Saturday, the Sooners have named their captains and all are very familiar with this rivalry. Those captains are [autotag]Ethan Downs[/autotag], [autotag]Trace Ford[/autotag], [autotag]Gavin Freeman[/autotag], [autotag]Drake Stoops[/autotag] and [autotag]Gentry Williams[/autotag].

All five of those players were born and played their high school football in the state of Oklahoma. Downs is from Weatherford and has been the Sooners’ best pass rusher this season leading the team with 4.5 sacks.

Ford is not just from Edmond but he also played for the Cowboys before transferring to the Sooners this past offseason. He’s been a really solid contributor to this defense’s resurgence.

Freeman is from Oklahoma City and has mainly been used as a punt returner and gadget player offensively. It’ll be interesting to see if his role increases at all after a poor offensive performance last Saturday.

Stoops is from Norman and has been one of the best receivers for the Sooners. He leads Oklahoma with 40 receptions, and is fourth in yards and second in touchdowns.

Williams is from Tulsa and has been their best cover guy all season. He missed last week’s game with an injury and it showed big time. This seems to be a good sign about his availability going into this game.

Ultimately, it’s going to mean a lot to these guys who grew up around this rivalry but to walk out of Boone Pickens Stadium with a win, it needs to mean a lot to a lot more than just those five.

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