Oklahoma Football: Top 5 Areas of Concern for the Sooners After Week 1

After a 33-point margin of victory and holding a potent Tulsa offense to only 14 points, it is not easy to find major problems that need to be addressed for the team in crimson and cream.

The top-ranked Sooners took care of business last Saturday night and looked very good in doing so. The Golden Hurricane offense was held in check for the most part and the Oklahoma offense rolled for more than 650 yards.

However, like any season opener, areas were exposed that will need extra work to ensure OU can reach its full potential and culminate the season with the program's fifth trip to the BCS title game since 2000.

There are some things that should concern Oklahoma coaches, players and fans as the season progresses. Some of these are directly related to the Sooners play on the field while others are a little different.

Let's go over them together and see if we can come up with a plan that will help Stoops' Troops bring home national championship No. 8 for the program.

Receivers: Hold on to the Ball!

Landry Jones completed 35 of his 47 pass attempts, with the OU receivers, led by All-American Ryan Broyles, snagging the majority of his well-placed darts. Hard to find fault there.

However, the Sooners are the No. 1 team in the country, so getting a little nit-picky comes with the territory.

At least two passes were dropped on what should have been completions and one was fumbled by the receiver as he stretched out towards the end zone at the end of the first half.

Come on, man, hold on to the ball.

While these mistakes did not in any way put the outcome of the game in jeopardy, the same mistakes at a later date could cost the team dearly.

I propose that receivers coach Jay Norvell stop tossing footballs and throw heavy wrenches at wide receiver DeJuan Miller on his pass patterns during the off week. If you can catch a wrench, you can catch a football. It worked in Dodgeball.

Make Trey Franks write "First-and-goal at the one is better than losing a fumble at the two' on a chalkboard 10,000 times.

The chalkboard trick is how I learned not to let an inflated birth control device I found in the hallway fly around a classroom and then tell the substitute teacher my name was Ted Nugent. It works.

Secondary: Know Your Assigments

Almost half of Tulsa's 400 yards in total offense came because of busts in coverage assignments. Oklahoma's players are student-athletes, so assignments should be something they handle on pretty much an every day basis, even off the field.

The lone Golden Hurricane score of the first half came when cornerback Jamell Fleming read the blitz call and shot towards the quarterback like a Frenchman running from a firecracker.

Unfortunately for the Sooners, someone else didn't see that signal, leaving the Tulsa receiver wide open on his way to a 56-yard touchdown reception. That bust in coverage is unacceptable even in Pop Warner football.

The Sooner secondary has taken to calling themselves the "Sharks" but, for a few plays at least, they played more like that little fish with A.D.D. from Finding Nemo.

Secondary coach Willie Martinez needs to make sure every defensive back knows exactly what his responsibility is in any given situation. It is exactly these types of mistakes that could turn this season from one for the ages to one where the Sooner nation wonders about what might have been.

To help the secondary maintain its focus, I propose someone follow these youngsters around campus on a souped up Segway with a very loud bullhorn and question their manhood while insulting their intelligence. That'll fire 'em up!

Disclaimer: It better be a very souped up scooter because, busted coverages or not, those guys are fast and hit really hard. And if anyone asks, this wasn't my idea.

Red-Zone Offense: Think Touchdown!

For the most part Oklahoma did well in the red zone, scoring points on seven of eight possessions inside of Tulsa's 20-yard line.

However, the Sooners did have to settle for two field goals and missed out on more points completely with a fumble at the 2-yard line.

I'm sure most Sooner fans are painfully aware of the red-zone struggles that cost the team dearly in their two road losses last year. Against an overmatched Tulsa defense, three missed opportunities for touchdowns is something to be a little concerned about.

A killer instinct in the area where the going gets tough is absolutely essential if Oklahoma wants to end the season in the same place it started.

I propose the coaching staff should bring a bunch of puppies and kittens onto the field for every red-zone practice. Every time the offense fails to score a touchdown, a cute little critter gets whacked.

I know that sounds a little extreme, probably even criminal, but if they can't score with that hanging over their heads, they should quit the team and start hanging out with Mike Vick.

Disclaimer: If anybody from PETA is reading this, by "whacked," I mean given a light spanking with a very soft paper towel. 

Twitter: To the Showers with It

This may or may not have any affect on Oklahoma's season but Twitter and OU players seem to go together like the Texas Longhorns and conference serenity. It's not working out well.

Last year, Twitter got Oklahoma receiver Jaz Reynolds suspended for the season for some ill-advised posts after a shooting spree at the UT campus in Austin.

This year, much like in the picture above, a stumbling Ryan Broyles tweeted at halftime of the Miami-Maryland game saying he actually liked Maryland's new uniforms.

We don't need the rest of the country thinking that Okies are complete idiots without any sense of style. There are plenty of those types already on TV fashion shows.

We love you, Ryan, but those uniforms were a train wreck, only more horrifying to look at. They looked like an ambulance hit a bumblebee. Seriously, someone needed to be fired over those things.

I propose the coaches ban all Sooner player Twitter accounts, or, barring that, they at least take away Broyles' cell phone and give him an eye exam. He's color blind, that's the only reasonable explanation.

BCS Game: No More Home Cookin'

If you are a Sooner fan and are not at least mildly concerned with the spanking LSU gave Oregon in the season opener, you haven't been paying attention.

LSU is the only team to play for the title with at least two losses, so Oklahoma fans had better hope the Bayou Bengals lose at least three times this season.

Three out of Oklahoma's four appearances in the BCS Championship Game have come against opponents playing in their own backyard.

2000 vs. FSU in Florida

2003 vs. LSU in Louisiana

2008 vs. Florida in Florida

Guess where the BCS title game is this year? That's right, New Orleans.

I'll take OU against the field in a neutral place but playing Louisiana State in New Orleans in front of 70,000 obnoxious and inebriated fans decked out in purple is not exactly the definition of a neutral setting.

If LSU does make the game, I propose we get the producers of the show "Swamp People" to hold open auditions with an open bar the night of Jan. 9.

The only thing Cajuns like more than LSU football is free liquor and the chance to make a jackass out of themselves on camera.

If we throw in all-you-can-eat fried gator with possum gumbo, the only fans at the game will be wearing crimson and cream.

That's it, Sooner fans, those are my suggestions. Did I miss anything?