All posts by Micah Hixon

A die hard Sooner fan through and through. Micah transferred his allegiance to the Oklahoma City Thunder the year the Mavs won the title (go figure). He believes the Thunder and Sooners have many titles to come in the not too distant future. Most of his comments are not backed up by any sort of fact based reasoning, but you can trust him.
Oklahoma Sooners

Injuries Strike As The Sooners Go Into Another Bye Week

Here we are on the eve of a Sooners bye week with 3 games left on the schedule and a banged up Sooners squad that has it's work cut out for them.

It's no secret that the Sooners have lost 2 of their premier play-makers for the remainder of the season in Ryan Broyles and breakout star Dominique Whaley.  Broyles had recently set the all time Division 1 record for career receptions while Whaley burst on to the scene this year leading the Sooners in all major rushing categories and establishing himself as the clear cut starter in a once crowded Sooner backfield.  While Whaley will get a chance to return next year, this is it for Broyles and it was tough to watch him go down before the season concluded.  I do wonder if the Sooners will be able to recover from losing their starting RB and star WR with a showdown in Stillwater on the horizon.

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Sophomores Roy Finch and Kenny Stills will be cast into the spotlight and be expected to carry the load where their now injured counterparts once did.  Finch was widely believed to be the starter coming into this season as he stole carries from DeMarco Murray last year (who is now setting franchise records for the Dallas Cowboys).  It was not to be though as Whaley stole the spotlight and dominated while Finch saw minimal carries early on.  With Whaley out, Finch has been thrust back into the starting position and has had flashes of greatness once again, but will he be able to carry the load like Whaley against a determined Cowboys team in December?

Meanwhile, Kenny Stills has played a nice compliment to Ryan Broyles all season long stretching the outside of the field and opening up holes in the middle for Broyles.  With Broyles no longer slotted in the middle we are going to need to see continued improvements from the one handed wonder known as Jaz Reynolds who has been developing quite nice as of late.

Still, the losses of Broyles and Whaley cannot be overstated and brings heavy concerns to this team with the daunting task of going into Bedlam back to back years and knocking off the Pokes in their own backyard.

The sad reality is that even with a win, the Sooners may not be able to jump the Crimson Tide as Bama lost in a perfect storm overtime game to LSU this past weekend and dropped only one spot down to #3 in the BCS rankings and still ahead of unbeatens Stanford and Boise State.  I would like to think that with a win over the #2 ranked Cowboys in Stillwater for the Big 12 Championship that the Sooners would leap-frog the Tide and into a national championship game with LSU, but I'm beginning to wonder if the voters have even more of a love affair with the SEC than I could have ever dreamed.  There are still games to be played and anything can happen, but the Sooners have a long road ahead of them and will need quite a few chips to fall into place if they plan on having any shot at #8 this year.

Oklahoma Sooners

Have The Sooners Been Given A Second Chance?

Let's get one thing out of the way, the Sooners' loss to Texas Tech this year ranks up in the top 5 losses of all time in the programs storied history.  A team that was preseason ranked #1 and held a 39 game home winning streak let an un-ranked Red Raiders team come into Norman and flat out embarrass them.  It was the second straight week of flat play from the Sooners after a dominating victory at the Cotton Bowl.  The blame game can be played all day long on who is at fault for the loss, but I want to move past this.  I want to focus on the rest of the season and what the future may hold.

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The Sooners went into Manhattan, Kansas this past week and showed that they still have a little something left to prove this year and will not be coasting this one out.  After the Wildcats sustained the run early on, Brent Venables adapted the defense and began stacking the box and getting to the quarterback.  Put in 3rd and long over and over, the Wildcats were in unfamiliar territory and folded their tents with no real threat of a passing attack.

So what does all of this mean?  With a few more breaks the Sooners could find themselves right back in the National Championship game.  With a dominating win over then unbeaten Kansas State, the Sooners find themselves back in good graces with the BCS and ranked the highest of all 1-loss teams (#6).  With #1 LSU set to take on #2 Alabama this weekend, one of the two is bound to drop below the Sooners and with the #3 ranked Cowboys still on the schedule all the Sooners really need is a Stanford loss.  They would obviously need to win their remaining games, but if so, the good Lord may shine down his mercies on them and forgive an unforgivable loss to the Red Raiders.  Even with an undefeated Boise State in the way, the Sooners should be able to jump them with a win over then #2 ranked OSU in Stillwater.  And I don't want to hear any arguments about an SEC rematch in the title game, that's not happening.

Now that is a lot of "ifs" left in the way and the most important one is the Bedlam showdown in Stillwater on December 3rd.  If the Sooners can't foil the high powered Cowboys, then all of the above points are moot and we will be sitting back watching the Pokes try for their first ever National Championship.  But come on, I think we all know that ain't happening.