Fiesta Bowl 2011: 10 Predictions for the Oklahoma Sooners
The 2010 football season was an up and down experience for the University of Oklahoma.
High points included an early Sooner Schooner joyride over the Seminoles of Florida State, a thrilling finish in Bedlam that left Cowboy fans in disbelief and the Big 12 title game comeback against Big Red rival Nebraska.
Low points occurred first in Columbia and then in College Station as the Sooner offense seemingly developed an aversion to the end zone. Sooner fans watched in horror as Oklahoma marched up and down these unfriendly football fields only to stumble in the red zone like a politician with a broken teleprompter.
All in all, though, it was another good season for the 11-2 Sooners.
Their victory in the championship game gave them more Big 12 titles (seven) than both Texas (three) and Nebraska (three) combined.
They will play in yet another prestigious BCS game, Bob Stoops' eighth such game in only 12 seasons.
They added two more consensus All-Americans in wide receiver Ryan Broyles and safety Quinton Carter, bringing their nation-leading total to 74. Quarterback Landry Jones also received the Sammy Baugh Award as the nation's top signal caller.
They stretched their home field winning streak to 36 games, the best such current streak in the country and a growing school record.
The Sooners also added to their national records for both 11- and 10-win seasons, weeks atop the BCS standings, top five of the AP poll, all-time points scored and modern era winning percentage.
Oh yeah, they also won their 800th game in the season opener.
As OU prepares to take on the 8-4 Big East champions from UConn in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, the program sits on top of the football world. While they may be grudgingly acknowledged as the king of the football prom, there is a spot of pee in the punch.
Oklahoma also owns a five-game BCS bowl losing streak that Sooner coaches, players and fans find about as comfortable as a barbed-wire thong.
Follow along for 10 things that fans of the Team in Crimson and Cream can expect in the Fiesta Bowl.
Josh Heupel's Coming-Out Party
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OU fans can expect the offense, led by the play calling of of former QB great and newly appointed co-offensive coordinator Josh Heupel, to come out ready to roll.
Look for this game, as Heupel's first opportunity to call the shots, to be a display of the type of offense the Sooners can expect to see next season in 2011.
Heupel led the Sooners to their last NC in the 2001 Orange Bowl. He is the player who took a young Oklahoma team in Bob Stoops' second season and made them believe they had what it took to run the table and bring home the school's seventh national championship.
Heupel's biggest asset was always his smarts. Never the biggest, fastest or strongest, he willed an overachieving OU team to tough victories over heavily favored opponents throughout his senior season. Josh had a knack for reading defenses and checking into the right play at any particular time.
Sooner fans should expect to see the team light up the scoreboard early and often under his tutelage.
Monster Defensive Hits
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The 2010 Oklahoma defense will never be remembered as an all-time great or even one of defensive coordinator Brent Venables' best.
While this Sooner defensive unit may not have had the lofty ranking or statistics to back it up, it often stepped up when it was needed most.
Venables went a long way toward quieting rumblings by leading his squad to a strong finish, including holding the vaunted Husker attack to only three points over the last three quarters of the final Big 12 Championship Game.
Brent also came out recently and rightfully acknowledged the past BCS struggles. That alone may be the ice breaker, the key ingredient that will prompt his players to come out fired up and out of control, like Sean Penn dealing with paparazzi.
Fans should expect to see the type of hard-nosed play that characterized the unit for the last half of the season show up in Arizona.
Landry Jones Lights It Up
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Sooner quarterback Landry Jones has taken a lot of criticism over the last two seasons. Even now, the sophomore signal caller has a significant portion of fans who not only doubt his ability but are even clamoring for a QB change at his first incompletion of a game.
These critics choose to ignore the facts.
He leads the nation in attempts (568) and completions (371) and is second in yards at 4,289.
Landry has thrown for 35 TDs this season, good for second in the country, against only 11 INTs. He has completed 65 percent of his passes and thrown for 330 yards a game.
In the 2009 Sun Bowl victory over Stanford, Jones threw for three TDs and over 400 yards.
With the absence of a consistent run game over the last two years, he has put up some great numbers and led the team to tough victories.
Look for Landry to light up the Huskies secondary like a Clark Griswold Christmas display.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Ryan Broyles Catches Fire
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With QB Landry Jones lighting it up, all-everything wide receiver Ryan Broyles will be there to snare the strong-armed signal caller's flaming darts.
Broyles leads the nation in receptions with 118 to go with his 13 TD catches and 1,452 yards.
This all in a year when Broyles struggled with ankle problems and was noticeably hobbled in many games.
The Sooners have developed other lethal pass catching options in wide receivers Cameron Kenney, Kenny Stills and Trey Franks. Add in the dangerous tight end duo of James Hanna and Trent Ratterree and opponents find themselves in a quandary.
UConn may try to mitigate Broyles' impact, but they don't have the athleticism to cover Ryan one-on-one, and now they can't afford to double-team him every play either.
Look for OU's consensus All-American to get the ball frequently and the Huskies' secondary to get torn up like a parking ticket outside of divorce court.
DeMarco Murray Breaks His Own Records
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Many fans snickered when Bob Stoops claimed before the season started he expected the same kind of production from senior running back DeMarco Murray as he got from Adrian Peterson.
Come on Bob—you were joking, right? Well, not so fast, friend.
Take a look at these numbers from Peterson's freshman season, by far his most healthy and productive campaign with the Sooners.
In 20004 Adrian Peterson ran the ball 339 times for 1,925 yards, scoring 15 TDs. He also caught an additional five passes for 12 yards, no touchdowns.
Peterson's all-purpose total: 334 touches for 1,937 yards and 15 scores, accumulated in 13 games.
Compare that to Murray this year, who accounted for 257 rushes for 1,121 yards and 14 scores; 69 receptions for 595 yards and five TDs; and 10 kickoff returns for 249 yards.
Murray's all-purpose total through 13 games: 336 touches for 1,965 yards and 19 touchdowns.
Demarco is going to use this game as a final preview for pro scouts enamored with his versatile skill set. He will want to get his 100 yards and increase his school record TD total. The O-line and play calling will help him reach his goal.
Expect Murray to come out with a purpose in his first BCS game and go crazy on the Huskies like a sorority girl on Spring break.
Quinton Carter and Jeremy Beal Go Out with a Bang
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While the Sooners appear to be loaded for a title run next year, this represents the final opportunity for two of Oklahoma's best players to shine for their school.
Safety Quinton Carter snagged national honors along with interceptions. He is well known for bone-rattling hits and making receivers think twice before catching a pass in his territory.
End Jeremy Beal has been a force on the outside for the Sooners for years now. His specialty has been sacks, TFLs and general backfield disruption. Beal is poised to break the Sooners' career sack record with a strong showing in the Fiesta.
Together these talented senior defenders led an underrated OU defense to yet another Big 12 championship, stuffing the potent attacks of Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Nebraska down the stretch.
While Carter is projected as an early NFL draft pick, Beal is usually graded as second round material. A strong showing with the nation watching may be his own springboard to the Lotto-like payday first round selections are lavished with nowadays.
Look for both these defensive stalwarts to step up and showcase their impressive skill sets for prospective employers.
Expect tackles, sacks, interceptions and big hits from this dynamic duo that Sooner fans will miss next season.
Travis Lewis Wreaking Havoc
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Junior outside linebacker Travis Lewis has been a mainstay of the Sooner defense since he started his first game in the season opener as a freshman in 2008 against Tennessee-Chattanooga.
As a Sooner, Lewis has racked up tackles like Nicolas Cage racks up debt.
He finished that first year as a freshman All-American after recording a record 144 tackles along with four interceptions and 3.5 sacks...and hasn't let up since.
In the Big 12 championship, Lewis kept the Sooners in the game early with an end zone interception and two fumble recoveries.
In the Fiesta Bowl, Travis will be all over the field once again, calling the signals for his defensive teammates and creating havoc for the Huskies' All-American running back Jordan Todman, the nation's second-leading rusher.
His smart, steady play, passion and memorable quotes will be sorely missed if he likes what he hears from the NFL evaluation papers he plans to file and bypasses his senior year to go pro early.
Young Guns Blazing Away
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The Oklahoma two-deep roster is littered with underclassmen providing big plays and quality depth. In addition to sophomore QB Landry Jones, OU has freshmen like wide receivers Kenny Stills and Trey Franks, along with fullback Trey Millard, contributing to the offensive production.
The defense has true freshman Tony Jefferson starting at safety and sophomore Demontre Hurst at cornerback. Numerous other freshmen and sophomores contribute significant playing time, such as Ronnell Lewis, Aaron Colvin, Corey Nelson and Jamarkus McFarland.
Oklahoma's best freshman may be jitterbug running back Roy Finch, but he will miss the game after re-aggravating a stress fracture that will require time off to heal properly.
These are just a few of the outstanding young recruits the OU staff continues to churn out in Norman like Octomom produces babies.
Needless to say, the future looks very bright for Stoops' Troops, and these youngsters are going to shine for the world to see in Arizona at the Fiesta Bowl.
Sooner Schooner Stampede
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For Sooner fans, the New Year should start out with a bang...as in the blast of mini-cannons the Sooner RUF/NEKS fire off every time Oklahoma scores on offense.
Oklahoma will try to establish the run early and then utilize the play-action passing game to take advantage of the seams created by the extra defenders committed to stop DeMarco and the Sooner rushing attack.
If that fails, look for OC Heupel to have Jones firing away from the no-huddle shotgun spread. Jones will pepper the field and force the Huskies to back away to stop the pass. Then he will hit them with Murray and Mossis Madu, maybe with fullback Trey Millard aligned along with them in the diamond formation they have been using with great success.
Defensively, look for Oklahoma to load the box to stuff the run on most plays. DC Brent Venables will take away the Huskies' bread and butter, the rushing attack, and force UConn's passing game to beat them. It wouldn't be a shock to see the Sooner place eight players around the line of scrimmage and go with a bump-and-run man coverage on the Huskies' receivers.
With Heupel looking to impress in his new position as the chief architect of the offense and Venables trying new ways to motivate the defense, the Sooners should come out focused and fired up. That is a very bad cocktail for the Huskies.
Expect the Sooner Schooner to be rolling early and often. Lead ponies Boomer and Sooner are going to earn their oats with the workout they are about to get.
Big Game Bob Quiets the Critics
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It is amazing that someone who has had the success of Coach Stoops, in a conference as tough as the Big 12, especially in the South division, can be as highly criticized as he has been.
Maybe it is a byproduct of his astonishing success, when he turned around a Sooner program that had fallen on hard times.
By winning a loaded Big 12 and then beating the heavily favored and defending national champion Florida State Seminoles in only his second year as a head coach, Stoops raised the standard for coaches around the country and spoiled his own fanbase.
A little hint for Sooner fans: OU has won only seven NCs in about 115 seasons, and Bob has one of those. His teams have come very close two other times, losing to the eventual champ in their home states twice.
No head coach has a better track record of getting his team in position to play for all the marbles. Coach Stoops has taken the Sooners to the BCS title game four times in 12 seasons and came very close a number of other times.
Even with a blowout victory in this bowl game, Stoops will still have his detractors, including some with very selective memories in his own fanbase.
The vast majority of Sooner fans know AD Joe Castiglione struck gold when he mined the Swamp and came out with Stoops.
The vocal critics should shut up and just be glad the University of Oklahoma doesn't require IQ tests to attend games.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
