The Oklahoma Sooners open [autotag]Big 12[/autotag] play against the [autotag]Cincinnati Bearcats[/autotag] in their first true road game of the season. The Bearcats come in with one of the best defensive lines in all of college football.
They also come in with the No. 8 rushing attack and the No. 12 overall offense. Many people will look at last week’s loss to the Miami (OH) Redhawks, but in that game, Cincinnati beat themselves. In the Bearcats seven trips to the red zone, they only scored two touchdowns and a pair of field goals.
Color Analyst for the Bearcats, [autotag]Jim Kelly[/autotag], talked with me on my podcast, Eat. Sleep. Bedlam. He said the offense was the unit hurt the most when former Head Coach Luke Fickell left.
“Most of that affected the offense,” Kelly said. “That’s the side of the ball that we thought, we don’t really know what to expect. The defensive side, a lot of folks stayed.”
Two of the guys Sooner fans better get to know are [autotag]Dontay Corleone[/autotag] and [autotag]Jowon Briggs[/autotag]. Those two both play along the defensive line and most likely will be playing on Sundays in the future.
New Head Coach [autotag]Scott Satterfield[/autotag], who was the head coach for the Louisville Cardinals a year ago, brings over an entirely new scheme. Kelly said they are a staff that usually likes to bring pressure.
“They like to blitz a lot, although they’ve played it more straight this year,” Kelly said. “Brian Brown is the defensive coordinator. He came from Louisville with coach Satterfield. They led the nation last year in sacks. So he plays a really aggressive style. However, I don’t think he feels like he has the corners, particularly against a team like Oklahoma and what [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] was able to do last week.”
There’s no question the Sooners are going to have to attack this secondary. The running game will probably have to be more outside runs, and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby may opt for short, quick passes to supplement the running game.
Offensively they have to stop the run. Make [autotag]Emory Jones[/autotag] beat you with his arm. They have three really good running backs to go along with Jones running the ball.
If the Sooners are able to do that, we could be looking at another rout. I don’t expect that. I expect this one to be closer than many people think.
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