IT’S FINALLY GAME WEEK!! This episode may contain one or more instances of your hosts breaking down and squealing out of sheer excitement. We did hold it together long enough to interview Kegan Reneau of Sooners Wire to get the scoop on the 2019 Sooners, and the gameday experience in Norman.
Plus we had 4-year Cougar football standout David Hunter on the podcast to talk about the good old days, give his take on the current crop of Cougars, and more!
Not to mention that soccer played a pair of actual regular season games this past week, and volleyball took on Rice in an exhibition.
** Dana Holgorsen*
** Quarterback D’Eriq King*
** Feelings about Tom Herman*
** Players to watch*
** The battle in the trenches*
** Houston rap*
** Mexican food*
** Score predictions*
The challenge with the Oklahoma Sooners is culling my mental list down to 5 things. The Sooners aren’t just a college football name brand, they’ve re-invented themselves with a young head coach who’s developed back-to-back Heisman winners.
But they’re not invincible and some of their weaknesses line up with UH in advantageous ways.
I’m going to take your question for us and throw it back in your direction. Let’s say hypothetically Houston comes into Norman and defeats the Sooners to open the season. What has to happen in order for this to be the case?
Dustin: Houston’s defense has to create havoc. They’re not going to stop Oklahoma from scoring points, but they have to at least create a turnover or two, and force some negative plays against an Oklahoma offensive line that is bringing in a bunch of new starters. If the Cougar defense can keep Oklahoma in the 30s or low 40s, and give the offense a short field or two to work with, I think D’Eriq King and company can score enough points to give the Cougars a shot. That’s a big “if”, though. I was in Lubbock to watch Tech score 1,000 on us last year, and I saw the way the likes of Temple and Memphis and Army ran the ball at will against us towards the end of the year, so I’m not about to bet a ton of money on a Cougar upset. But the offense certainly has the firepower to keep this close if the defense is contributing anything at all.
Q : On a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), how worried are Sooner fans about this defense going into the season?
JS: That’s a tough question to answer. Even if the defense is bad, it’s still likely better than what we saw in 2017 and 2018, which could help put a team like OU over the top. Most think we’ll see an improved unit, but I’ll go with 10 anyway because OU fans are emotionally scarred by past defensive performances.