Oklahoma Sooners — at a glance

By Steve Lansdale

Some games just feel different. The first game of any season is always exciting, regardless of the opponent, and if a team has a last-ditch effort to qualify for a bowl game, that obviously will ramp up the intensity and emotion, too. Rivalry games, on the other hand, are in a realm of their own. Teams that play each other year after year tend to build up a healthy dislike for each other, as do the fans of each team. Losses hurt that much more, while victories can make a season. When teams have similar talent levels on their rosters, the games can be close and usually are unpredictable.

In college football, there are few, if any, rivalries that are bigger than Texas and Oklahoma. Army-Navy, Alabama-Auburn, Michigan-Ohio State, Oregon-Oregon State, USC-UCLA — so many schools have big games, but are any more steeped in tradition than Texas-Oklahoma?

The Cotton Bowl gets so packed with loud, stomping fans that the building literally shakes, with the crowd split evenly between crimson and orange. Combine that with the sounds and smells of the Texas State Fair and the scene is unmatched.

This season, many think the Sooners are in an ideal position. Off to a 4-0 start, Oklahoma should feature adequate quarterback play, a stellar running game and a much-improved defense.

However the expectations are higher north of the Red River than anywhere else — many in the state of Oklahoma think [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] the Sooners are primed to rejoin the ranks of the nation’s elite in 2015, even after an 8-5 season that ended with a 40-6 clobbering by Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl. Outside of the Sooner State, many view OU as a clear-cut third — at best — behind Baylor and TCU.

If the Sooners finish third or fourth in the Big 12, they will meet expectations; yet if they finish ahead of the Bears and/or the Horned Frogs, Stoops will gladly reclaim the “Big Game Bob” nickname bestowed upon him in his first years as OU’s head coach.

Much of the Sooners’ preseason attention was centered on the quarterback battle. Trevor Knight was the incumbent starter, but Baker Mayfield, who transferred to Oklahoma after making the team at Texas Tech as a walk-on, claimed the job during preseason camp. He and Knight both are accomplished, albeit inconsistent, passers. Mayfield has gotten the majority of the workload through four games, and has taken advantage, completing 88 of 135 passes (65.2 percent) for 1,382 yards — 345.5 per game. He also has protected the ball, coughing up just three interceptions while throwing 13 touchdown passes.

But make no mistake: the offense will go as far as the running game takes it. The Sooners welcome back Samaje Perine, the sophomore running back who made just about every available preseason award watch list after a freshman season in which he earned second- and third-team All-America seasons and set a new FBS record with 427 rushing yards (and five touchdowns) in a single game against Kansas. So far this year, he has rushed a team-leading 72 times (one more than the Mayfield and redshirt freshman Joe Mixon combined) for 328 yards, for an average of 82 yards per game. Maybe the most important stat is what he has not done, and that is lose yardage. To carry the ball that many times with on 17 negative yards on the season is extraordinary.

That alone should be enough to make opposing coaches’ hearts skip a few beats, but that’s not all for the OU ground game — the 2015 season also marks the long-awaited debut of Mixon, one of the nation’s premier running back recruits last year who sat out the entire season for disciplinary reasons. Mixon has played in each of the Sooners’ first four games, running 27 times for 136 yards and a touchdown.

Mixon and Perine should thrive in the offense of new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, who came to Norman over the offseason from East Carolina. Riley’s system is similar to the “Air Raid” system OU ran when now-Washington State head coach Mike Leach was the Sooners’ offensive coordinator. The system is designed to help the passing game, including junior college transfer receiver Dede Westbrook and heralded freshman wideout Dahu Green, enough so that defenses will have to respect the Sooners’ aerial attack, at which point Perine and Mixon should find ample running room.

The Oklahoma defense gave up a fairly un-Sooner-like 25.9 points per game last year — a reflection of the quality of the team’s defense, but also of the trend of more offenses playing in an up-tempo, no-huddle system. Oklahoma was fairly stout against the run last year, surrendering just 106.4 yards per game and 15 rushing touchdowns all season. But the Sooners coughed up 276.2 yards per game through the air, ranking the Sooners 114^th in the nation in pass defense. Clearly this made pass defense a major point of emphasis for the offseason.

More specifically, shoring up the secondary is a major key for the Sooners, who rolled out the red carpet for opponents to pile up 47 passing plays of 20 or more yards, 18 of which ended up in the end zone. New secondary coach Kerry Cooks is charged with changing things around on the back end of the OU defense. In one way, he accomplished that before the season even started — in years past, the Sooners had separate coaches for cornerbacks and for safeties. This year, Cooks is working with all of the defensive backs.

The leaders of the OU defense, however, are a trio of linebackers.

Senior linebacker Eric Striker, a third-team All-America last season, had 68 tackles in 2014, 17 tackles for loss, nine sacks and a pair of fumble recoveries. Striker has a relentless motor, the strength to plow through running backs that try to block him, and the speed to run away from linemen who try to stay with him off the edge.

Also back for 2015 is Dominique Alexander, who led the team in tackles last season with 107, including six tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Fellow ’backer Jordan Evans finished second on the roster with 93 tackles, 6.5 of which were for losses.

Through four games, Alexander leads the Sooners’ defense with 40 tackles, while Striker is fourth with 29. The two share the team lead in tackles for loss, with five each.

Playing Oklahoma is always dangerous for Texas, as the Sooners get up for the game just as much as the Longhorns do. But that may be even truer in 2015 than in other years.

The Sooners are eager to forget their 8-5 record from last season, and with their last three games against Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State, there are many who feel that in order to improve upon last year’s eight wins, the Sooners will have to win their first nine in a row — including their showdown with the Longhorns.

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