OU Head coach Lincoln Riley says all the braggin, wishing and hoping is done for this season...
It's time to cinch up them belt buckles and let er rip tater chip.



We spoke to coach Riley this morning and he was cautiously optimistic about the start of the new season.... "I didn't really realize until a couple of days ago how young this team is." " We've got 13 freshmen starting this season... 7 on offense 4 on defense, our kicker and punter." We'll call that an Aggie dozen." "Boy, it's gonna be a helluva roller coaster ride, I'll tell you that for sure."

We asked Riley who was going to be his starter against Iowa.. "Austin Kendall will start tonight... that was a hard decision right there. "Washburn did a little better stat wise in the practice games and he's a senior... but I see improvement in Austin every single day. And he was brought in here to be the man... so we're gonna check his oil." "It ain't always gonna be pretty. But I think...well, I hope it makes him a better QB in the future."

Coach Lincoln Riley said it wasn't gonna be pretty... and it wasn't for much of the game last night.
But when the clock hit zero, it was easy on the eyes. Especially if you are an OU fan, as the Oklahoma Sooners came away with their 1st win of the season last night in Iowa City Iowa defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes 48-42 in a sold out Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa's All American Heisman hopeful WR Steven Gartman put 263 yds on 7 catches with 3 TD's on his Heisman resume` with a very impressive showing in his 1st game.
Gartman and Co. jumped on OU early and pretty much man handled the Sooners as they built up a 23-3 lead in the 1st half...much to the delight of the Hawkeye faithful.

Iowa would add 2 more FG's in the 3rd and increased the lead to 29-3 at 6:42 of the 3rd qtr... thats when the Marquis Brown show started. Brown took the ensuing kickoff at the goal line and took it 100 yds for the TD. That return shifted the momentum to the Sooners and the game was on at that point. Brown would add yet another 99 yd TD return later on and Freshman OU QB Austin Kendall hit Abdul Adams on a 45 yd bomb for TD to complete a 45 point second half in a wild 4th Qtr to get the victory.




After the game the youngest head coach in college football looked relieved... "man, I feel like I've been on a shrimp boat all day long in 8 foot swells... I think I'm gonna puke."

"That was intense right there. I knew we couldn't stop Gartman.... but I just wanna say how proud I am of these young guys and what they did here tonight." "They could have folded the tent at half time and chalked that one up... but they came in that dressing room mad as **** and I didn't have to say much...they knew they stunk it up and they knew they were better than that. So I just told em to go back out there and prove it. And I'll be damned if they didn't do just that."

Last night before a sold out home crowd at Memorial Stadium in Norman Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Sooners blasted the Crimson Tide of Alabama 45-3.



Coach Lincoln Riley had said earlier in a previous interview that fine tuning the depth chart may stretch into the season and that was certainly evident in this game as WR Bobby Buckner was inserted as the starting RB and did not disappoint.
Buckner rang up 256 yds on 21 carries with 2 TD's.. 14 of those carries were for 10 yds or more. It was disclosed after the game that he had suffered a sprained knee and is day to day. However I think its safe to say the Sooners have found them a RB.

The Sooner passing game was very productive as well last night with Fr QB Austin Kendall torching the Crimson Tide DB's on a couple of beautiful bombs in the 1st qtr... a 69 yarder to WR Abdul Adams and an 86 yarder to WR Cyril Quiroz
Kendall wound up going 10/24/268 yds/2 TD's/ 2 sacks and a 111.11 QB rating



The OU defense is getting better each week and are making life rough for teams who like to run the ball..
They are also making life tough on QB's as they continue to rack up sacks. Alabama QB Wesley Terry was sacked 10 times last night. 2 of those were safetys. He was also picked off once. DE John Page got 3 of those sacks along with 6 tackles and 6 hurries.



Special teams got into the action again in this one as WR Marquis Brown had a 96 yd TD on a kickoff return... his 3rd of the season.



The Sooners will now prepare for the 1st of 2 Red River Rivalries with the Longhorns of Texas in a home and home series this season... should be a couple of slobber knockers.!

OU blew in to Texas on a big Greyhound bus last night, but they limped back across the Red River in that little red schooner as Texas booted the Sooners 25-13 in part 1 of the Red River Rivalry this season.


Oklahoma picked a bad time to stink up the joint as this game also opened Big12 conference play for both teams. QB Austin Kendall misfired all night long going 5/23 and 169 yd with 2 INT's and was sacked 7 times and RB/WR Bobby Bucknerplaying with a sore knee, only picked up 67 yds on 18 carries as the Longhorns turned up the heat all night on the young signal caller.
OU only managed 171 total yards on the night and were 1 for 14 on 3rd down conversions as the Texas defense dominated all night long.


Bad news on defense too as starters LDE John Page had to be carted off in the 3rd qtr with an ankle injury and LB Caleb Kelly also needed the cart for a foot injury. Those 2 will be sorely missed as the Sooners are light in depth on the defensive side of the ball.

Coach Riley spoke to us after the loss..." Texas whooped our *** plain and simple." "They play defense like we do...Mostly man to man heavy gap pressure. No soft zones. That puts intense pressure on a young QB and if they aren't ready for it, this is what can happen." "Austin learned a lot tonight and I know he can and will do better... I need to do a better job of getting him ready for that kind of pressure.....he'll be alright."

"And Texas...good game tonight, we'll see you again in week 10"

For a fleeting moment Friday night, The Sooners were poised to pull another rabbit out of the hat.
After tying the game up at the 10:03 mark of the 4th qtr on an Austin Siebert 34 yd FG... and after swapping turnovers in each teams subsequent possessions... the Sooners faced a 4th down at the Ohio State 36 yd line with 1:35 left on the clock.

Kicker Austin Siebert trotted onto the field to kick a 55 yard FG and put the Sooners ahead with very little time left on the clock....
The kick was high and true, but it only went 54 yds and 2 ft...no good.



What made it worse was giving Ohio State the ball near midfield at the OSU 44 yd line with 1:31 on the clock and 2 timeouts.
After 2 good PBU's by the Sooner defensive backs, it is now 3rd and 10 with 1:23 left.
Buckeye QB Cedric Lett hit Michael Mendoza for 24 yds and a 1st down at the OU 32.

On the next play with 1:18 left Lett hit Joshua Coleman for the TD and made the score 33-26 OSU.



Sooners got the ball back with 1:13 and 2 timeouts left.... still time for some magic.

But after a sack and 2 false starts in a row put the ball back to the OU 6, QB Austin Kendall was sacked in the end zone for a safety and put this one in the books.



We asked coach Riley how he felt his team played... "Listen, I hate losing" said Riley.
"I will always hate losing." " But I am really proud of the grit that these young men have shown this season." "We were down 2 scores again at halftime and came back and had a shot at beating a very good football team." "But at some point, we need to start taking advantage of those comebacks and getting the wins." "Comebacks only mean something if you win."



" I don't take anything away from Ohio State, they did what they had to do to win the game, and that's what it's all about... but I know we knocked the ball out 3 times and they got all 3 of em back." "They fumbled on their own 8 or 9 yd line and our DT tried to pick it up and score instead of falling on the ball and they got it back.... those kinda things always stick out to me in close games." " That could have changed the outcome of this game."
" Siebert can kick the football 70 yds against the wind but comes up a foot short on a 55yarder.. "That could have changed the outcome of this game."
" You just gotta chalk those things up and hope they even out at some point in the season... and they usually do."
"But as long as the effort is there, I can stand it... and these young guys are all putting 150% in that category."

Next up for the Sooners they travel to Lawrence Kansas to take on the Kansas Jayhawks!

Things go from bad to worse in Kansas...drive chart pretty much tells the story.
7 fumbles lost 6 of em... 14 drives ended in a punt or a turnover...
A 1 armed man with no fingers wouldn't fumble that much. smh
Good game Slick.. hopefully we play better than this in the rematch.

Records be damned...

The emphasis in preparing for the Oklahoma State game was two fold...ball security and time of possession... mission accomplished.
Coach Lincoln Riley gave each one of the OU RB's their very own football to carry around with them everywhere they went this week. That meant to class...to the bathroom.... to WalMart or to Mickey D's. If he saw you, you better have that football in your arm.

That was part 1 of the plan...part 2 was preaching to his troops that the absolute best way to beat a very good offensive team was to simply keep them from having the ball.

Part 1 resulted in 0 fumbles... check
Part 2 resulted in OU holding the ball for 36:58 to OSU's 22:44... check (not sure why that doesn't add up to 60)

Results... OU with the upset in Bedlam 1 Rivalry over OSU 31-10 before 75,000+ at Memorial Stadium in Norman Oklahoma .



OU QB Austin Kendall had his best game as a Sooner going 12/24 for 224 yds and 2 TD's with 1 INT. He was sacked 4 times.
WR/RB/KR Marquis Brown did every thing but grab the reins on the Sooner Schooner last night as he had 121 return yds including a 94 yd kick return for a TD as well as adding 93 yds at RB. His total yds for the night was 214.
WR Abdul Adams added 112 yds on 6 catches



Oklahoma's defense showed up in this one too as they forced 3 fumbles and snagged 2 INT's along with 3 sacks on the night.
The biggest defensive play was made by OU DE Jack Robinson early in the 2nd qtr when he strip sacked OSU QB Randy Williams at the OSU 1 yd line and promptly fell on the ball for an OU TD.



This game proved to the OU fans what these young Sooners are capable of..it's just a question of how long it will take to get through the growing pains.

Next up the Sooners will host the Florida Gators!

The Oklahoma Sooners are currently enjoying the friendly confines of the Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium where they won their second leg of a three game home stand Friday night in Norman Oklahoma with a 21-14 win over the Florida Gators in front of a sellout crowd of 82,100.



The game was a defensive battle with some big plays mixed in... Both QB's connected on big time TD passes. One opened the scoring in the game and the other closed out the scoring in the game.
Sooner QB Austin Kendall hit WR Abdul Adams in stride for a 94 TD with 4:41 left in the 2nd qtr. for a 7-0 lead.
And Florida QB Otis David hit Jr WR Paul Ferguson for 90 yds and a TD with 5:21 left in the game for what would turn out to be the final score in the game.



The Sooner defense smothered the Florida running game all night long holding them to just 45 yds rushing on the night. They got after their QB as well sacking him 7 times. They also forced 3 fumbles and snagged 1 INT.
Despite the 7 sacks the Florida QB had a decent night going 27/36 for 386 yds and 2 TD's.

OU LB Caleb Kelly who just got back in the lineup after being out for 3 games with a high ankle sprain led the defensive charge with 2 sacks and a forced fumble along with 7 tackles.
MLB Levi Draper also had a good night with a sack and a forced fumble and 9 tackles.



The OU offense continues to be hit or miss...Florida's defense did a good job holding OU to just 316 yds....they still haven't settled on a RB and their redshirt fr QB needs to get better with his completion percentage.. but as a wise man once said. " He can't throw it and catch it too"
His numbers have improved lately though and nobody on this team has a higher ceiling.

Next up the University of Michigan Wolverines