Linking Up: Oklahoma-Kansas and other Big 12 game previews
Some links to peruse from around the World Wide Web.
*I wrote a piece for Crimson and Cream Machine this week on how OU’s defense approached the Bedlam game and what went wrong. Don’t think you’ll find many surprises in there, but the whole game was a microcosm of what has happened to the D.
I admit that I found the blow back against the defense and the coaches this week kinda odd. It’s not because the defense wasn’t bad; it clearly was. It’s more that I don’t know what people are expecting at this point.
The fixes for this unit had to come in the eight months before the season started. Once it became clear on the field that Mike Stoops’ changes didn’t work, hoping for some kind of massive improvement became a pipe dream. Frankly, I’ve looked at the entire situation since early in the season as just trying to make the best of it.
Lincoln Riley declining to throw players and coaches under the bus in a press conference is what a coach is supposed to do. Since he removed Stoops in the middle of the season, it has seemed readily apparent that OU will have a new coordinator and new direction next season. For now, Riley and the team are working around it. (And the Sooners are, in fact, 9-1.)
*Here’s my preview of OU-Kansas for Athlon.
*West Virginia-Oklahoma State.
*And TCU-Baylor. What a nightmare year for Gary Patterson.