Postgame P: Pink lemonade, antelopes and calf cramps

Folks, BYU is an awesome road trip. It’s truly a shame Oklahoma will only make it once.

I do have calf cramps today, because evidently, muscles do not recover as quickly at high altitude. I climbed plenty of stairs yesterday, and now I am walking like the Tin Man as a consequence. As Bryan Clinton and I wrap up our memorable cross-country road trip to Provo and back, I am finishing this column from somewhere in the vicinity of Seibert, Colorado. Everything about BYU, from the scenery to the hospitality to the football game itself, made for easily the greatest trip I’ve ever taken to cover a road game for the Sooners.

I fully understand many of you have qualms about the bizarre, even paradoxical performance from Oklahoma yesterday. We will get to those qualms in due time. But the time has now come to issue a final farewell to the Big 12, as Saturday marked the Sooners’ final road game as a member of the conference. We drove through a snowstorm at 10,000 feet above sea level this morning. That sure won’t happen in the SEC. As the coda to the Big 12 experience, this trip to BYU couldn’t have been much more fitting.

And don’t get me wrong — I’m every bit as excited as all of you for what lies ahead. I would much rather cover a football game in Tuscaloosa than in Ames, Iowa (no disrespect to my Cyclone brethren). But as someone who has never known the Sooners as anything other than a member of the Big 12 Conference, it does feel like the end of an era today. Realignment already took the OU-Nebraska rivalry from us. It already wiped out the semi-regular trip to beautiful Boulder, Colorado. And now, no longer will we have the Bedlam series, or the unique Morgantown experience, or Kansas State giving Oklahoma hell on an annual basis despite a far less talented roster. You might not miss the opponents or the road trips individually; I sure won’t miss driving to Lubbock (again, no disrespect to the folks of West Texas). But I think all of us can acknowledge that to an extent, there will be some nostalgia for this era of Oklahoma football, even with the Sooners headed to objectively greener pastures next summer.

Oklahoma’s membership in this conference provided added stakes to iconic rivalries. It provided an annual setting for criminally underrated matchups, such as that blow-for-blow war with K-State. And in the latter days, it also provided new experiences, like the trips to Utah and to West Virginia and to the highly underappreciated Nippert Stadium.

But with that era coming to a close, it’s time to turn our collective focus to new horizons. Before we do so, let’s talk about the Sooners’ enigmatic swan song on the Big 12 trail.

— Zach Schmit should not attempt another field goal as an Oklahoma Sooner. I’m sure he is an outstanding human being with career and life aspirations beyond the football field. I believe he is pursuing an engineering degree. That is fine and well, and I wish him the best in those endeavors. He is objectively not a good kicker, and should not be handling kicking duties for a blue-blood institution such as the University of Oklahoma. Over the last two seasons, he is 24-for-36 on field goal attempts, including an alarming 8-for-15 clip from beyond 40 yards. In essence, anything beyond chip-shot range is a coin flip for Schmit — and as he proved yesterday with a 28-yard miss, not even the chip shots fall into the gimme category. I refuse to believe that this program is devoid of a viable alternative. Hold open tryouts among the student body if you must. Hell, there’s a freshman National Merit Scholar at OU who apparently can hit from 60. Your football team has a glaring issue. Fix it. Don’t act like it’s not an issue, because it has directly contributed to both of your losses this season and has not improved organically with time.

— Shortly before Schmit shanked that 28-yard kick halfway to Moab, a BYU defender got a handful of Jackson Arnold’s facemask in full view of two different officials, neither of whom threw a flag. Later in the game, Arnold took a hit while kneeling out the clock, which prompted Brent Venables to have a spirited — albeit fruitless — exchange of cooking secrets with a referee on the sideline. It wasn’t an awful day for the officiating crew, but the facemask no-call and the unflagged hit on Arnold (which, admittedly, was at least partially his fault) provided plenty of fodder for Sooner fans to scream conspiracy into the Twitter void. And they remain somewhat justified in doing so. When the commissioner is openly rooting against the two teams that have plans to expatriate, the accusations of conspiracy become much more difficult to disprove rhetorically.

— The Sooners’ run defense was awful. And calling it awful is probably even a bit too generous. It’s hard to sugarcoat anything relating to Oklahoma’s pitiful attempts to defend the Cougars’ rushing attack yesterday. The BYU offensive line manhandled the Sooners’ front seven at the point of attack, and Aidan Robbins sauntered through enormous running lanes to the tune of 182 yards on 22 carries. As a team, the Cougars rushed for 217 yards, which is inexplicable given that quarterback Jake Retzlaff was barely pedestrian through the air. He finished with a QBR of 35.4 after completing just 15 of 26 passes for 173 yards, and though he threw for two touchdowns, he was also responsible for all three of the Cougars’ turnovers. Literally all Oklahoma had to do was sell out to defend the run, and they likely would have stymied the BYU offense. Instead, the Cougs leaned heavily on the option and bewildered the OU defense, which consistently demonstrated an inability to crack the option code. The Sooners hadn’t had to face an option team all year, so perhaps they were ill-prepared — but even so, that reflects poorly on coaching if that is indeed the case. There is decades’ worth of film and praxis on defending the option.

— Punters are people, too. And as it turns out, Oklahoma has one hell of a punter in Luke Elzinga. How he didn’t earn the job until midway through the season remains thoroughly mystifying. In the span of about three minutes of real time on Saturday, Elzinga delivered a dime of a pass to Ethan Downs on a fake punt, helping the Sooners to move the chains on fourth-and-long. After a questionable pass interference call against Nic Anderson nullified that 21-yard strike to Downs, Elzinga coolly bombed a 55-yard punt, then watched as his coverage unit completely broke down and let BYU’s Parker Kingston gallivant into the open field. No matter. Elzinga took matters into his own hands and saved a touchdown with a flawless form tackle on Kingston. Special teams might suck right now for Oklahoma in a broad sense, but no one can accuse Elzinga of failing to pull his weight in dispelling that notion.

— Jayden Gibson flashed that big-play potential we’ve seen time and again this season, reeling in a 55-yard bomb to set up a Nic Anderson touchdown catch in the first quarter. Come the second quarter, Gibson did a little ballet in the back of the end zone to come up with a 27-yard scoring strike from Dillon Gabriel, thus notching a touchdown in consecutive games. Gibson is the type of unicorn athlete that isn’t exactly plentiful across Oklahoma’s roster, which is largely what makes his sporadic usage this season so perplexing. When given opportunities to run routes downfield, he’s consistently found space and made competitive catches. His 82 yards on those two receptions paced the team on a day where the Sooners didn’t have a ton of success through the air (although Gabriel did rack up 191 yards and two touchdowns before exiting at the half). Naturally, there are only so many snaps to go around between Gibson, Anderson, Jalil Farooq, Drake Stoops and the rest of the crew. But would it be that difficult to target Gibson three or four more times per game?

— Get this: Billy Bowman is tied for second in the nation in interceptions after snagging his fifth pick of the season yesterday. The Sooners haven’t had a ballhawk this prolific in more than a minute; CJ Coldon led the Sooners a year ago with four INTs. But Bowman didn’t merely snag his fifth; he accounted for a 14-point swing and may well have saved the Sooners’ Big 12 title hopes in the process. After a clinical third-quarter drive that put BYU inside the Sooners’ 5-yard line, Bowman stepped in front of a Retzlaff pass at the goal line and took off the other direction. He didn’t stop until he somersaulted into the other end zone 100 yards later, thus giving the Sooners a 24-17 lead mere seconds after it appeared virtually certain they would surrender a go-ahead touchdown. It was Bowman’s second pick-six of the season, and it’s now come time to square with this reality: Bowman has a decision to make in the next few weeks. He can absolutely be an NFL draft pick in April — and probably a high-round pick, at that. Going back to his days at Clemson, Brent Venables is notorious for convincing elite defenders to shun an early entry into the draft and return for another season. Can he do that with Bowman and Danny Stutsman? Because even more so than usual, the Sooners could use a nationally elite linebacker and a nationally elite safety as they transition to the SEC next fall.

In this new addition to the column, Parker’s father, a known OU football doomer and Uncle Rico-esque former high school quarterback, speaks via in-game text messages on behalf of the fans who tend towards a nonconformist perspective on the Sooners.

Ma-Leb-olence: I just got home from teaching theology and turned on the television and the first thing I saw was Oklahoma running a jet sweep… WHAT IS WRONG WITH LEBBY

Kicker to the curb: Every time Gavin Freeman is about to catch a punt I flinch… Every time Schmidt is about to kick a field goal I flinch… Our special teams are so bad… If we do get a chance to play for anything beyond the regular season our lack of a kicker will be our downfall

Silver lining: The overthrow from Arnold to Nic Anderson was the kind of play we need Lebby to call… First down… we’re up seven points… four minutes left in the game… Natural time to play conservative and run the ball and use clock… Running play-action and trying to get a big throw down the sideline is a great attempt at putting the game away in declarative fashion… Good for him… Now stop running jet sweep

wave01: Upper body injury mean a concussion?

Look. OU wasn’t going to say outright that Dillon Gabriel was concussed. But we all saw that replay. He will assuredly be in the concussion protocol this week. And I want to be clear: this is not based on intel whatsoever; this is merely an educated guess based on past experience. I personally do not expect Gabriel to play on Friday against TCU. With the knowledge that Oklahoma is particularly scrupulous about their athletes clearing concussion protocol, and especially given that it’s a short prep week, my expectation is that Jackson Arnold makes his first career start on Black Friday. I cannot recall the last time an Oklahoma football player was in the concussion protocol and didn’t miss at least one game. I’d even be willing to bet that Gabriel warms up and goes through all the motions, just like he did at the Cotton Bowl last year. But I find it hard to believe he actually plays.

LD23: Not a question, more of a statement. If Guyton doesn’t play the rest of the year he quit on the team. Miss me with the concussion bulls***. He’s soft and quit on his team

While we’re on the topic of concussions… tell me you know nothing about OU’s concussion protocol without telling me you know nothing about OU’s concussion protocol. And do you truly think Bill Bedenbaugh, of all people, would let Guyton put on the jersey and stand on the sidelines if 60 was holding himself out? I have witnessed Bill Bedenbaugh cuss out Nate Anderson for several minutes because he was three seconds late to line up with the field goal unit in their pregame warmup routine. If what you’re suggesting had any validity, Bedenbaugh would personally drive Guyton back home to Texas and tell him to stay the hell south of the Red River.

Drew4460: we heard all week about how bad BYU’s O line was, but they dominated our front 7. Was it a scheming issue?

No. At risk of acquitting them completely, I think it had much to do with the altitude. Big boys get tired faster, and BYU’s big boys were obviously more accustomed to the mountain air than Oklahoma’s trench crew. There came a point at which the Sooners just weren’t getting any sort of push up front. That screamed fatigue to me. But let’s not get it twisted: Oklahoma’s front seven didn’t just get dominated because they were out of breath. They got dominated because they started to sit back on their heels and try to play the option. BYU responded by pounding the rock straight up the middle and daring the Sooners to stop the ground attack. A performance like that, especially against a program that had experienced virtually zero success all season in the run game, is pretty indefensible. It’s an indictment on coaching, on preparation and on the players. There is blame to go around.

boomer3150: I know this staff can recruit well. However, development seems to be lacking. In particular the D line. No pressure being generated, not setting the edge well, getting run over by inferior O lines. Do we need a different scheme, anew D coordinator, more experienced D end coach, or is it simple players?

No pressure being generated? I’d disagree with you on that take. I think the Sooners have done a fine job providing pressure on the quarterback this season, and it appears that other teams have taken note of Oklahoma’s propensity to get after the quarterback. The Sooners’ last several opponents have regularly deployed six-man and even seven-man protections to keep the OU rushers in check. And no, I don’t think you overhaul everything simply because your rush defense got punished for one game. On the whole, the Sooners have been pretty good against the run this season. To use your words, yesterday was really the first example of the Sooners “getting run over by inferior O-lines.” That hasn’t happened regularly. It happened this weekend; it is what it is. Let’s give the staff and the team an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and correct things before we start talking about wholesale change.

shawnwhitter: When will the coaching staff move on from Zach Schmit

If I was the head coach at the University of Oklahoma, it would have been weeks ago. But I am not the head coach at the University of Oklahoma, for which all of you are no doubt thankful. I have no doubt that Brent Venables will be asked about Zach Schmit’s job security in tomorrow’s press conference. If he gives his embattled kicker another vote of confidence, then folks, you have a problem.

Wiskysooner: What seems to be the root cause of this team’s poor performance on road games? Are the linebackers we have on the roster good enough to compete at a high level in the SEC? They struggled at Provo.

That’s one of those things that’s hard to quantify. I do think it starts at the top. Ultimately, it falls on this coaching staff to have the team just as prepared (and comfortable) on the road as at home. But the players make the plays. We’ve seen the Sooners commit some pretty head-scratching mistakes in Cincinnati and in Lawrence and in Stillwater. We watched the front seven get pummeled in Provo yesterday. And there’s never been a point throughout the season at which we’ve seen those things from Oklahoma on the grounds of Owen Field. I think Oklahoma has solidly above-average linebacker play. I also don’t think anybody at that position save for Danny Stutsman bothered to show up yesterday. There’s a switch that seemingly flips for this team when they have to play in somebody else’s building. That’s a mental issue more than a physical issue.

dskou: Too many questions to ask them all as this team and staff are a head scratcher. Questionable play calling, soft defensive play, backup QB not ready, running the QB instead of Sawchuck. I think it was obvious to anyone watching that OU has much more talented players than byu. Give me your assessment of this team including the coaching staff.

I didn’t have beef with the playcalling. Nor did I have beef with Jackson Arnold’s readiness level. He came in on short notice and did what he had to do to spur the Sooners to victory. If he hits on that deep ball to Nic Anderson, no one is quibbling about his performance yesterday. And that pass didn’t fall incomplete because he wasn’t ready; it fell incomplete because hitting receivers in stride 40 yards downfield is inherently very difficult, and even the most talented college quarterbacks in America will miss one of those throws every now and again. My assessment of this team and staff hasn’t changed. It’s been much the same all year. This was always going to be a team that should win double-digit games and have a chance to play for a conference title, but wouldn’t be among the ranks of the nationally elite. And similarly, the coaching staff is still gaining comfort and rapport just as the players are. They’ve collectively been much better than they were a year ago. But there is still ample room for improvement.

12pointer: Grade BV as a head coach this year. Game management, personel management etc. Thanks

I’ll give him a solid B+ on the year. The win over Texas, the defensive improvement and the performance of Dillon Gabriel constitute the major points of encouragement. But obviously, things could have been a lot cleaner down the stretch. Those losses to Kansas and Oklahoma State were highly avoidable, and coaching bears a good chunk of the responsibility for both of those defeats. I don’t have major issues with personnel usage. I have minor critiques here and there, but the only person that I’d scream for Venables to bench would be the kicker, which speaks volumes given that there were at least 4-5 such players amongst the starting 22 last year. Game management has been much better, but there are still wrinkles here and there to iron out (i.e., timeout usage against the Jayhawks and Pokes). It’s a vast improvement from 2022, which is what every Sooner fan wanted to see. There’s been much more goof than bad. So I think a B+ is fair.

eboeboebo23: Outside of that Selmon tribute video, what’s the most Mormon thing you saw over your weekend there?

A mini-fridge in the press room filled with cans — and not cans of any conventional name-brand soda, mind you. This mini-fridge was filled with cans of pink lemonade. Yes, pink lemonade. This is neither a joke nor a lie. Only in Provo, folks.

Shaggyda70: How much did the altitude affect the d play? They looked wore out.

Yep. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think this is the sole cause of Oklahoma’s persistent defensive lapses yesterday. But was it a major factor? Absolutely.

TheHappyGriffin: As far as culture goes, I really expected a team of cold-blooded psycho killers 2 years in. Definitely not the case, any specific reasons we're getting this Jekyll/Hyde effort?

Is that a fair expectation? Very rarely do you get a roster of cold-blooded psycho killers two seasons into a rebuild. I would argue that your expectation was, and is, unrealistic. It was fair and reasonable to expect defensive improvement. But a team of cold-blooded psycho killers is a national championship-caliber team. And the Sooners were never going to be at that level this year. I think that even at the halfway point, when they were 6-0, most understood that the team wasn’t on the same level as Georgia or Michigan or Ohio State. There is one team in the nation with a roster of cold-blooded psycho killers, and that is the team that has won two consecutive national titles. It has taken eight years and plenty of hiccups along the way for Kirby Smart to get his program to that point.

Billy Bowman, on dealing with the altitude: "I first felt it in the warmups. Not right away, though. It's kind of weird. It's like you're running around and then OK, all of a sudden you get tired and then boom, all of a sudden, like, just another drastic tired hits you. It's kind of weird. It's kind of an unexplainable feeling.”

This is a fantastic way to encapsulate the challenges of doing anything strenuous in the altitude. And if you’re not a believer that altitude affects endurance, look no further than the fact that Bowman, objectively one of the fastest players on the team, was nearly run down in a 100-yard sprint by a quarterback. I climbed the steps to the top of the stadium on two different occasions yesterday, and it’s a struggle to even catch your breath in that thin air. You’ll stop and rest for two or three minutes and be no closer to recovering a normal breathing pattern. Bowman took an entire drive off after his pick-six, and it’s not because he’s a wimp.

Danny Stutsman, on his physical condition: “I was on an IV right up until kickoff. I haven’t eaten in two days. I’m kind of hungry. But once it’s game time, it’s game time. I’m not gonna let external factors affect the team. I’ve gotta do whatever it takes to get on that field.”

Food poisoning, no nutrients in his body and playing at an altitude of over 4,000 feet? Yeah, Danny Stutsman is a dawg. The fact that he played at all yesterday is impressive in its own right. The fact that he played better than any other defender in Oklahoma’s front seven is astonishing.

Jackson Arnold, on his late third-down audible to hit Jalil Farooq and move the chains: “We thought they were going to max out zero on us so I just checked out of it.”

I love how matter-of-fact this answer was. Arnold’s not a man of few words by nature, and he’s always been very good with the media. So I find it all the more hilarious that he literally said nothing save for, “Yeah, I just called an audible to win us the football game with two minutes left.” Jackson Arnold is an honors graduate of the Saul Goodman School of I’m Not THAT Big A Deal.

Jeff Lebby, on Gavin Sawchuk’s third straight 100-yard day: “What I loved is that the first guy never tackled him. I don't think the first guy tackled him all day and he got better as the game went on, and with the situation that we were in, we needed that. And he produced and he made it happen.”

This is pretty much exactly what we’ve said all year about Tawee Walker, and it’s what helped him establish a foothold as the Sooners’ primary backfield cog while Sawchuk eased back into action. Walker seldom went down upon first contact, and his bouncy running style proved incredibly effective. But assuming that tackle-breaking ability is a push, if given the choice between the guy that runs a 4.7 and the guy that runs a 4.4, you’ll take the latter every day of the week. That’s what Gavin Sawchuk has become for the Sooners. He’s a WAY souped-up version of what Tawee Walker had been for the first three-quarters of the season.

Brent Venables, on throwing to move the chains late: “I think it’s fair to say that we all learned through some adversity or some tough moments. Having the confidence and the faith and calling those things — let’s go win the game… Great job by everybody there.”

Essentially, the question that preceded this comment amounted to, “In light of what happened today, why the hell didn’t Jeff Lebby throw the ball to put the game away in Lawrence?” And folks, this is exactly why I repeatedly encouraged all of you to stay patient with Lebby and allow him to learn from his mistakes. If he had chosen to run the ball on third-and-7 rather than go for the jugular, the Sooner fans that made the thousand-mile trek to Provo might have tied Lebby to the horns of a pair of pronghorn antelopes and sent them wandering into the Rockies. But he didn’t. He let JFA cook, and the Sooners won the football game. I had zero issue with the game Lebby called yesterday, even when he chose to run Gabriel instead of Sawchuk or Walker in a goal-to-go situation late in the first half. Gabriel has eleven rushing touchdowns this year. I don’t mind the decision to let him use his legs close to paydirt.

— Imagine paying $1.85 million for a November nonconference opponent just to get an easy win late in the season. Now imagine paying that much only to watch that team come into your building and curb-stomp you. Auburn paid New Mexico State nearly two million greenbacks to come to Jordan-Hare Stadium and be a punching bag. Paying such a school to play the role of Rocky Balboa’s side of beef is not an uncommon practice for SEC programs in November. However, there are two major differences in that regard between Auburn and every other SEC program: 1) Auburn paid nearly $2 million instead of a far more commonplace six-figure sum, and 2) Auburn lost. That’s actually putting it quite mildly. New Mexico State, which had battled to a respectable 8-3 mark in Jerry Kill’s second season as head coach, walked into one of college football’s most fabled venues of all time and issued Auburn one of college football’s more stunning beatdowns in recent memory. As 24-point underdogs, the Aggies soundly thumped the Tigers 31-10 behind a thoroughly dominant defensive effort. For the doom-and-gloom members of Sooner Nation that just couldn’t fathom losing to Kansas last month, just imagine what it feels like to be an Auburn fan right now. And their program has won a title a decade more recently than yours has.

— In the latest Episode of The Team That You Need To Lose More Than Anybody In The Universe With The Obvious Exception Of Oklahoma State and Texas Just Keeps Winning Somehow, the Missouri Tigers are now one victory away from a 10-win season. How did they get win No. 9, you ask? Well, while trailing Florida 31-30, they converted a fourth-and-17 with less than a minute remaining to get into field goal range. The receiver that moved the chains on that fourth-and-17? None other than former Oklahoma commit Luther Burden. The individual that nailed the winning field goal for the Tigers? Harrison Mevis, who is the program’s all-time leading scorer and is colloquially known as the “Thicker Kicker” for his portly frame. Missouri won 33-31 as Eli Drinkwitz, corny as he may be, continues to make a legitimate case for Coach of the Year. Stay tuned to find out what poorly executed joke Drinkwitz cracks at Sam Pittman during their postgame handshake next week.

— If watching Missouri win in dramatic fashion wasn’t demoralizing enough for Sooner fans, Texas survived an upset bid from Iowa State and Oklahoma State forged past Houston, which keeps the Longhorns and Cowboys on a collision course for Arlington in two weeks. The only (viable) way that the Sooners end up playing for a conference title is if one of two scenarios play out: 1) Oklahoma State loses to BYU, or 2) Texas falls to Texas Tech AND Iowa State wins Farmageddon against Kansas State. Neither is especially likely. Houston had more than a shot to knock off Mike Gundy’s Cowboys, but squandered a double-digit lead and allowed a hobbled Ollie Gordon to salt the game away in the waning minutes. The lesson here is as applicable in life as it is in football: Never trust a cougar, and certainly never trust Dana Holgorsen.

For an unprecedented third time this season, the honor goes to USC, and most specifically to their head coach. After bringing in a zillion high-impact transfers this offseason — including war-daddy defensive tackle Bear Alexander — to try and compete for a national title, Lincoln Riley just finished up a 7-5 campaign and a litigation-worthy example of coaching malpractice. The most talented quarterback in college football, and perhaps in his generation, started all 12 games for the Trojans. This program was 6-0 and ranked in the national top ten. They proceeded to lose five of their final six games, and the only victory in that span was a one-point squeaker over a Cal team that will likely not go bowling. Even as the resounding defeats continued to pile up (four of the five losses came by multiple possessions), Riley continued to stick to his “durrrrr we’re only a few plays away from having a much better record” spiel. The lies, mental gymnastics, manipulation and control-freakishness truly know no bounds with the erstwhile Oklahoma coach, who now has to face the uncomfortable reality of a future in the Big Ten sans Caleb Williams. This leaves Riley two options: 1) either continue to coach USC into the Big Ten transition and see his fraudulence exposed even further, or 2) bail for another job and convince the general public that his comments about signing up to “do this thing for a long time” at USC never actually happened. And for the record, USC beat Arizona 43-41 in triple overtime after a failed two-point conversion attempt by the Wildcats, and they beat Cal 50-49 after the Golden Bears also came up short on a two-point attempt. Riley was far closer to spending the holiday season getting pedicures in Tahiti than holding fifteen more practices in preparation for a bowl game. But he would no sooner acknowledge this than acknowledge his whereabouts on the infamous “personal day” in November of 2021.

Have an outstanding week, folks, and we’ll talk again in this column next Sunday.

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