Tag: 2022 Oklahoma Sooners Football

ESPN provides early prediction for Oklahoma vs. Florida State in Cheez-It Bowl

Can Oklahoma’s defense slow down a Florida State offense that’s averaging 36 points per game in 2022? From @john9williams

The Oklahoma Sooners drew a tough task in the bowl season when they travel to Orlando to face the 9-3 Florida State Seminoles. Florida State, who saved Mike Norvell from the hot seat, lost only to NC State, Wake Forest, and Clemson this season and looks to be a team on the upward swing.

They made significant strides on both sides of the ball, and will be a stiff challenge for Brent Venables and the Sooners, who are hoping to avoid their first losing season since 1998.

Over at ESPN, Adam Rittenberg looked at the bowl matchups and provided an early prediction for each game. For Oklahoma vs. Florida State, he sees the Seminoles coming out on top in a shootout. Rittenberg predicts Florida State to win the game 44-37, which would drop Oklahoma to 0-5 on the season in one-score games.

Here’s what Rittenberg had to say:

The Seminoles thought they were free of Brent Venables, the longtime Clemson defensive coordinator who had a difficult first season as OU’s coach. All the ingredients seem to favor FSU, which ended the season on a five-game win streak and has a short trip to the game site. The Seminoles’ improved defense must slow down Dillon Gabriel, the former UCF quarterback who returns to Orlando. But Oklahoma won’t have answers for quarterback Jordan Travis, running back Trey Benson, wide receiver Johnny Wilson and the Noles. – Rittenberg, ESPN

The biggest problem Oklahoma will face defensively is quarterback Jordan Travis. The Sooners have done a good job against traditional rushing attacks but have had a hard time slowing down running quarterbacks.

According to Pro Football Focus, who doesn’t take away rushing yards due to sacks, Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis has run for 471 yards and seven touchdowns. Those seven touchdowns were tied for third in the ACC. His 7.6 rush yards per attempt leads all quarterbacks in the Power Five with at least 25 attempts on the season. 62% of his rushing yards came on designed runs.

We’ve seen how Oklahoma’s defense has struggled against the quarterback run game all season long. With several weeks to prepare, hopefully, the Sooners find some answers to slow down Travis and the Seminoles’ running game.

Running back Trey Benson ran for 969 yards and nine touchdowns, averaging 6.9 yards per carry, and Johnny Wilson is their version of Marvin Mims. Wilson averaged 19.9 yards per reception with 35 catches for 695 yards and five touchdowns.

Florida State’s offense averages 36.2 points per game in 2022, good for 17th in the nation. Their defense is what’s improved so much. They’re only allowing 19.7 points per game, which improved from 26.5 points per game a year ago.

It’s going to be a difficult 2022 finale for Brent Venables and company. But if they can limit the damage in the quarterback run game, they’ll have a shot to close the first season of the Brent Venables era with a winning record and on a high note.

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Report: Sooners to face Florida State in Cheez-it Bowl

The Oklahoma Sooners will be headed to Orlando to play the Florida State Seminoles in the Cheez-it Bowl.

The Oklahoma Sooners have their bowl game and their opponent. The crimson and cream will be headed to Florida to play in the Cheez-it Bowl against the Florida State Seminoles. We’ve got a 2000 national championship rematch according to Brett McMurphy of The Action Network.

The Cheez-it Bowl will be played on Dec. 29 at 4:30 CST on ESPN. All things considered, this is a solid bowl to play in for a team that finished 6-6.

 

There’s a bit of pride on the line for OU in this game. The Sooners haven’t finished with a losing record since 1998, with John Blake at head coach.

Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell gets FSU to a bowl for the first time in year three of his tenure. Norvell was rumored to be on the hot seat prior to the season, but it seems that he finally has his program turned around.

In last season’s Cheez-it Bowl, Clemson defeated Iowa State 20-13.

Winning in Orlando would be a nice way to end an incredibly frustrating 2022 campaign for Brent Venables and the Sooners. 7-6 would look a lot better than 6-7. And playing in one of the recruiting hot beds of college football provides a nice perk.

The loss against Texas Tech was incredibly frustrating, but this season could very well end on a positive note.

Now the question that lingers, which Sooners will stain the Cheez-It themed hotel rooms?

 

Season ticket holders will have the opportunity to purchase bowl game tickets from their allotment starting at 10 a.m. CT on Monday. Remaining tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. CT on Tuesday.

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Sooners offensive tackle Wanya Morris opts out of bowl game, declares for 2023 NFL Draft

Opting out of Oklahoma’s bowl game, Wanya Morris declares for the NFL draft. From @john9williams

After receiving a senior bowl invite, it seemed like this was inevitably the next step as Wanya Morris has opted out of Oklahoma’s bowl game to begin preparing for the 2023 NFL Draft.

After transferring from Tennessee in the 2021 offseason, Morris was mostly a rotational player before stepping into a starting role this season with the Sooners. Though injuries limited him to just nine games, he started eight games for Bill Bedenbaugh’s offensive line and played 580 snaps at right tackle.

Morris is the second player to opt out of the bowl game, following fellow offensive tackle Anton Harrison to the next level.

At 6-foot-6 305 pounds, Morris projects as an offensive tackle at the next level with a swing tackle floor. Attending the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. will allow him to showcase his skills against the nations best seniors in front of every NFL team.

With Morris and Harrison out of Oklahoma’s bowl game, look for Tyler Guyton to get the start at one of the tackle spots and Aaryn Parks along with true freshmen Jake Taylor and Jacob Sexton to compete for the start at the other tackle spot. Whichever direction the Sooners go will provide valuable snaps for the guys who will be competing for a starting spot in 2023.

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‘We’re not as far off as it may look’: Bob Stoops confident that Oklahoma’s in good hands

On with Chris Plank and Gabe Ikard, Bob Stoops shared his thoughts on Oklahoma’s 2022 season and why the Sooners aren’t far off.

Nobody likes losing and nobody is satisfied with how the 2022 season went for the Oklahoma Sooners. 6-6 is a far cry from the expectations of Oklahoma Football.

Still, in just his first year with the program, optimism remains about the program’s future under Brent Venables. One staunch supporter of the Oklahoma Sooners’ head coach and his staff is former head coach and the last guy to win a national championship, Bob Stoops.

Stoops joined Chris Plank and Gabe Ikard on SiriusXM College Sports to discuss Oklahoma’s 6-6 season and whether or not Sooners fans should be worried.

 

“I’m not going to be the guy to sit here and talk about major issues,” Bob Stoops shared. “Brent (Venables) and his staff are great, and they can tell you what can be better, and they will. I never overreact to anything; never have.”

With everyone reflecting on what went wrong for the Oklahoma Sooners, Stoops chose to look deeper into the losses and provide a little context.

“We lose our last three games (Baylor, West Virginia, Texas Tech), Stoops said. “They were all by a field goal and all at the last drive of the game. So, you get one stop or make another first down or don’t have a dropped pass or whatever it may be, all of a sudden. It’s different. The two games we don’t play very well in, we don’t have Dillon Gabriel. For most of the game in one (TCU) and the whole game in the other (Texas). And then I look a year ago, and we win five games less than a touchdown. So point being, I get it, I’m not acting like it’s okay, but you just gotta make a couple more plays. Literally, one or two more plays either side of the ball… and you know, you’ve got a couple more wins, and we were able to make em a year ago, and we haven’t this year.”

And while everyone looks to lay blame on one facet of the team or another, Stoops explains there’s plenty of that to go around.

“You could say it’s coaching, or you could say it’s players, it’s both,” Stoops said. “You’ve got to be able to make a play or two more to change the script. And those guys get it. The coaches get it, the players get it. But we’re not as far off as it may look.”

While nobody is happy with the outcome, the reality is that they were just a few plays from potentially being an eight or nine-win team in 2022. That’s no consolation for Venables and his staff as they work to return the Sooners to perennial playoff contention.

As they prepare for their bowl game, the coaches are also tasked with managing incoming and outgoing transfers and making their final push toward the early signing period in just a couple of weeks and national signing day in early February.

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Oklahoma one of USA TODAY Sports’ bigger disappointments in 2022

After their 6-6 regular season, the Oklahoma Sooners were included as one USA TODAY Sports disappointments from the 2022 season.

A season like the one Oklahoma just completed is something that hasn’t been seen in a long time. 6-6 is the worst record the Sooners have had since the mid-90s, but watching this team in 2022, even with as bad as it was at times, they could have finished with a better record had some plays gone their way in one or more of their close losses.

The Sooners struggled in close games. They were 0-4 in one-score games with losses to Kansas State, Baylor, West Virginia, and Texas Tech. They had significant first half leads against Weat Virginia and Texas Tech. A play or two that goes Oklahoma’s way could very well be the difference in 6-6 and 8-4.

But that’s how it goes for teams that can’t do the little things well, and down the stretch, Oklahoma failed to do the little things well consistently. They struggled on third and fourth down on both sides of the ball and in losses to West Virginia and Texas Tech, Oklahoma couldn’t hold onto a big lead.

At times they looked good, but when a perennial conference power loses six games, one can’t help but describe the season as a disappointment. Paul Myerburg of USA TODAY Sports shared his surprises and disappointments from the 2022 season and Oklahoma was among those that had a let down this season. Here’s what Myerburg had to say.

OU hadn’t lost six or more games in a season since 1998, the year before Bob Stoops arrived and transformed the program back into one of the nation’s best. There were signs that this year wouldn’t go as expected under new coach Brent Venables, including a drastically remade roster too heavily reliant on new players and transfers, but few believed this would be the Sooners’ worst finish in decades. – Myerburg, USA TODAY Sports

It was a rough one. From the three game losing streak to open Big 12 play to their loss Texas Tech to close out the regular season, the Sooners’ 2022 has been an up and down affair.

It isn’t so much that they lost games, it’s that the team never seemed to come together at the same time.

It was disappointing, but the 2022 season saw a lot of guys becoming full-time starters for the first time. Guys like Danny Stutsman, Ethan Downs. Reggie Grimes, Jordan Kelley, Billy Bowman, and C.J. Coldon got valuable experience that should only aid their development moving forward. Several of those guys will be relied upon to take a step forward in their development this offseason

Oklahoma has a lot of work to do to improve upon what was one of the worst defenses in the country. It was an inconsistent unit all year from front to back but there’s some talent to work with and some talent on the way.

6-6 was a down year in Venables first with the Sooners, but that’s no way indicative of what his tenure will look like for the Sooners.

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3 Oklahoma Sooners earn first-team and second-team All-Big 12 honors

The Oklahoma Sooners had three first-team and three second-team selections, as well as the Offensive Newcomer of the year in 2022.

After having zero preseason first-team selections, the Oklahoma Sooners earned three first-team honors on the All-Big 12 teams at the conclusion of the regular season. The Sooners also had three second-team selections and a host of honorable mentions.

Though it was a down year by Oklahoma standards, there were several notable performances in 2022 that were worthy of all-conference selection.

Here’s a look at every Sooner honored by the Big 12 with postseason awards.

What’s next for Oklahoma? 5 offseason storylines follow

Oklahoma may not play for almost a month but there are still plenty of things to monitor in the coming weeks. From @thatmanbryant

It’s been just over a year since Lincoln Riley’s defection to Southern California. The Oklahoma Sooners have just completed their first regular season under first-year head coach Brent Venables. It wasn’t pretty but the Sooners find themselves bowl-eligible after a 6-6 season.

The only thing consistent about this team was their inconsistency.

Week to week we never knew what we would get from them. With only the bowl game remaining, Oklahoma has the ability to showcase itself one more time and get over .500 with a win.

With that said, there are notable storylines to follow as we get closer to the offseason even while the Sooners prepare for the eventual bowl game to come. Take a look at the five storylines we’ll be looking at with the regular season behind us.

Report Card: Sooners defense can’t hold up in finale vs. Texas Tech

Oklahoma’s defense was unable to get stops at the end as the Sooners fell 51-48 to Texas Tech. From @thatmanbryant

With an opportunity to solidify themselves above .500, Oklahoma traveled to Lubbock, Texas to take on the Texas Tech Raiders. Texas Tech took the first couple of punches from the Sooners on the chin before fighting their way back into the game. The game would eventually go to overtime, where a missed Zach Schmit field goal would lead to Texas Tech kicking the game-winner for a 51-48 victory to leave the Sooners at 6-6 for the regular season.

It was far from a horrible performance for the team as a whole, but it followed a similar script we’ve seen too many times this year. Oklahoma came out on fire before they eased up and let the other team back in the game.

The offense did a magnificent job from the opening snap, while the defense and special teams left a bit to be desired.

Here’s our report card from the Sooners’ loss to Texas Tech.

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Where are Oklahoma and the Big 12 heading in latest bowl projections from USA TODAY Sports?

Where is Oklahoma heading in the latest bowl projections from USA TODAY Sports?

The regular season of college football has come and gone. Seems like only yesterday we had hopes of the Oklahoma Sooners making a run for the Big 12 title. These last few months have flown in a flash.

But bowl projections are gaining more clarity with the regular season and only the conference championship games to come. After this weekend, we’ll know who the playoff participants are, but most bowl-eligible teams are pretty well locked into their games.

There could be some changes still, but here’s where USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith sees the Big 12 headed in his latest bowl projections.

‘It goes back to coaching’: Sooners coaching staff has work to do this offseason

In the wake of their 51-48 loss to Texas Tech, Brent Venables pointed back to the coaching as the reason for Oklahoma’s inconsistencies. From @john9williams

To Brent Venables’ credit, when things don’t go well, he’s inward-looking. As the Sooners wrapped up their first season under Venables with their 51-48 loss to Texas Tech, he took responsibility for Oklahoma’s shortcomings.

“It goes back to coaching,” Venables said in his postgame press conference. “I think that’s where it starts. We have moments where we have great discipline and moments where we’re not. We’re just very inconsistent. And, to me, it goes back to coaching. So, that’s where it starts. And then players got to decide they’re gonna in those moments of pressure. We’ve got to be, have the kind of discipline that you’ve got to have to execute and to win. It’s a game of execution, and it’s a game of, again, discipline. So, obviously, we’ve got to do a better job coaching.”

The Sooners struggled again on the defensive side of the football. They allowed Texas Tech to score the second-most points they had all season. Only Murray State allowed more points to Texas Tech (63) than the Oklahoma Sooners did on Saturday night. Not great company.

Only one other team had allowed the Red Raiders to put up 48 points in regulation this season; West Virginia.

Tech was averaging 30.25 points per game in Big 12 play. This was a team that was 2-4 in conference play before their three-game win streak over Kansas, Iowa State, and Oklahoma to close out the regular season.

Again. Not great company.

This is who Oklahoma is in 2022. Not a good football team.

They have their moments or quarters when they look like they can hang with anyone and then have stretches where they look like the worst team in the Big 12. And one could make an argument that aside from Iowa State, the Sooners might be the worst team in the Big 12.

The defense let them down again on Saturday night in Lubbock. Brent Venables bread and butter. The thing his reputation is built upon has a lot of work to do and not simply from a talent acquisition or development standpoint.

Talent matters, and the Oklahoma Sooners need to upgrade on that front. But unless there’s development that takes place, both on the mental and physical aspects of the game, we may be in for more of the same in 2023.

It was a rough first season for Brent Venables and his staff in Norman. He’ll learn from it and come back better next year. By no means does one season make a tenure or a career, but it’s hard to look at 6-6 as anything other than a disappointment.

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. Let us know your thoughts, and comment on this story below. Join the conversation today. You can also follow John on Twitter @john9williams.