Football question

[Soonerguy06]

yeah, gotta win against SC in order to keep morale where it is or higher, and it'll give us hopefully some momentum. I think that is key for the team, when they are feeling like losers they will probably play less than their best. Let's see what type of fight this team has in them in a couple of days! The result will tell us a lot about this team, IMO.

 

[mict085]

I’ve seen several good breakdowns of the OL and blocking schemes. When Lebby came on board we changed the way we block up front. Apparently, we catch blocks instead of firing off and moving people. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to do that and why we are continuing to do that is crazy. It has to change. It just doesn’t work in the run game, obviously.

 

[WichitaSooner]

I’ve seen several good breakdowns of the OL and blocking schemes. When Lebby came on board we changed the way we block up front. Apparently, we catch blocks instead of firing off and moving people. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to do that and why we are continuing to do that is crazy. It has to change. It just doesn’t work in the run game, obviously.

This is one of the things that makes me wonder about Brent's aptitude as a head coach. I know you have to let your assistants and coordinators do their jobs to some extent, but if I am Brent, and I take over at a place that has had a series of great offenses and very good lines, and an OC decides to drastically change the blocking scheme, I would be very reluctant to go along with that. And if I did, and the new system was really bad for three years in a row, I would strongly suggest we go back to the old way. I also wonder how much say BB has in it.

You hear more and more reports about how Brent rarely pays much attention to the offense at practice because he is so focused on the defense. It seems like this is the type of problem that can arise if a head coach more or less ignores one side of the ball.

 

[sanguinetti]

"Must win", I dunno. Last week was bad. This is on the road, place we've never, team that whooped us last year, with a lot of questions.

I wouldn't lay the points on us, I don't bet games.

I do think the chance the season unravels with an L multiplies. But, I don't know for me this is "must win".

probably some weird Spencer Rattler thing in the mix here I don't like.....now that he's in Nola.....

edit: to me this feels like a game we could def lose*. I wanna believe in a healthy Mateer who's practiced. and they are 3-3. We've played 3 teams of equal talent, somewhat. we beat Mich, AU....at home. we looked bad in Dallas. Temple is a cool story and I like their coach.....but that was not a road test.

so, I worry about our guys against top 40 recruiting, off a soul questioning loss, still a QB with surgery....on the road. We haven't seen a real road enviro.

*but wouldn't mean it's the end of the season. if we get blown out, bad.

 

[WichitaSooner]

"Must win", I dunno. Last week was bad. This is on the road, place we've never, team that whooped us last year, with a lot of questions.

I wouldn't lay the points on us, I don't bet games.

I do think the chance the season unravels with an L multiplies. But, I don't know for me this is "must win".

probably some weird Spencer Rattler thing in the mix here I don't like.....now that he's in Nola.....

edit: to me this feels like a game we could def lose*. I wanna believe in a healthy Mateer who's practiced. and they are 3-3. We've played 3 teams of equal talent, somewhat. we beat Mich, AU....at home. we looked bad in Dallas. Temple is a cool story and I like their coach.....but that was not a road test.

so, I worry about our guys against top 40 recruiting, off a soul questioning loss, still a QB with surgery....on the road. We haven't seen a real road enviro.

*but wouldn't mean it's the end of the season. if we get blown out, bad.

I guess it depends on what "must win" means to each person. In my mind, in a 12-team playoff era, and in a year without a true juggernaut in the SEC, and with the moves OU made in the offseason to help Brent -- our program should expect to make the playoff. And if we lose Saturday, the chances of that happening are pretty much out the window. We would have to go at least 4-1 the rest of the way, against the toughest part of our schedule, and coming off two straight losses. We still have to go to Tenn. and Bama, and at this point, Brent has shown no ability to beat good teams on the road. So sure, we could still make a bowl game and maybe pick up a nice win or two, but realistically, the season is on the line Saturday.

 

[Eielson]

Technically we could lose next week and still win the national championship. So it's not truly a must-win like a playoff game. But yeah, a loss would certainly deflate the fanbase, and for good reason.

 

[daqman]

maybe arbuckle/mateer fix every problem on offense this week and we go on a massive win streak

 

[Boom Soon]

I was thinking: how does Arbuckle feel? He goes to the University of Oklahoma. One of the premiere football programs in the country and he can’t even run what he wants to run because BV has allowed dead weight to plague the program. It’s OU. The personnel should be there for him to run what he wants to run. JJF, BB, DM are bringing everyone down.

 

[WichitaSooner]

I was thinking: how does Arbuckle feel? He goes to the University of Oklahoma. One of the premiere football programs in the country and he can’t even run what he wants to run because BV has allowed dead weight to plague the program. It’s OU. The personnel should be there for him to run what he wants to run. JJF, BB, DM are bringing everyone down.

I think you’re right that at least two of those guys should be gone. But I also think our offensive talent is so lacking that it would be tough for any OC to put together a really good offense in the SEC. But Arbuckle could help things by being more imaginative in the run game, especially.

 

[daqman]

I think you’re right that at least two of those guys should be gone. But I also think our offensive talent is so lacking that it would be tough for any OC to put together a really good offense in the SEC. But Arbuckle could help things by being more imaginative in the run game, especially.

"imagination" isn't going to fix the problem with the tight ends inability to block at all...

 

[WichitaSooner]

"imagination" isn't going to fix the problem with the tight ends inability to block at all...

There is no rule that says you have to use your tights ends to block DEs one-on-one. Hell, there is no rule that says you even have to have tight end on the field.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

I was thinking: how does Arbuckle feel? He goes to the University of Oklahoma. One of the premiere football programs in the country and he can’t even run what he wants to run because BV has allowed dead weight to plague the program. It’s OU. The personnel should be there for him to run what he wants to run. JJF, BB, DM are bringing everyone down.

How do you know we aren't running what he wants? He is the freaking OC at OU. We know brent is hands off on the offense. It is literally his call.
And if Arbuckle is dead set on his own guys, he wouldn't have taken the job.

 

[Boom Soon]

How do you know we aren't running what he wants? He is the freaking OC at OU. We know brent is hands off on the offense. It is literally his call.
And if Arbuckle is dead set on his own guys, he wouldn't have taken the job.

He’s forced to run an air raid offense because the personnel is so bad on TE, RB and Oline. He’s not an air raid guy.

Edit: I think Gabe and Teddy are spot on with their analysis. The offensive line, and tight end group are so bad that Ben Arbuckle has to completely switch up his scheme midseason so we have a chance in the remaining games. That is absolutely pathetic coming from the University of Oklahoma.

 

[mict085]

"Must win", I dunno. Last week was bad. This is on the road, place we've never, team that whooped us last year, with a lot of questions.

I wouldn't lay the points on us, I don't bet games.

I do think the chance the season unravels with an L multiplies. But, I don't know for me this is "must win".

probably some weird Spencer Rattler thing in the mix here I don't like.....now that he's in Nola.....

edit: to me this feels like a game we could def lose*. I wanna believe in a healthy Mateer who's practiced. and they are 3-3. We've played 3 teams of equal talent, somewhat. we beat Mich, AU....at home. we looked bad in Dallas. Temple is a cool story and I like their coach.....but that was not a road test.

so, I worry about our guys against top 40 recruiting, off a soul questioning loss, still a QB with surgery....on the road. We haven't seen a real road enviro.

*but wouldn't mean it's the end of the season. if we get blown out, bad.

I think this is a must win because it’s our most winnable game left. I agree with most everything you’ve said but we have to win regardless. We can either make excuses or start winning. Yeah, it’s hard. Overcome it and win or lose and the season unravels.

 

[stormspencer]

Oh they are. Their offense has been atrocious. Not sure if it’s mainly their line or skill guys, though likely both in order to be that bad across the board when you have a really talented quarterback.

SC's O-line is arguably as bad as ours. The one thing on offense that they've shown an occasional knack for is the explosive passing play....which happens to be the only potential weakness on this defense (and BV's defenses in general). I expect our defense to play well. As far as our offense......as long as we aren't trying to use our TEs to run block (and instead run the ball out of 10 personnel - 1 RB/ 4 WR), then we could potentially have a little more success on the ground. But again, this coaching staff hasn't really shown me the ability to evolve and/or change what they are doing schematically. And it would be nice for once if we had a WR either make a big play deep or make someone miss in open space (against a decent team)....but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[stormspencer]

Technically we could lose next week and still win the national championship. So it's not truly a must-win like a playoff game. But yeah, a loss would certainly deflate the fanbase, and for good reason.

I needed a good laugh....thanks for the moment of levity.

 

[mict085]

I think you’re right that at least two of those guys should be gone. But I also think our offensive talent is so lacking that it would be tough for any OC to put together a really good offense in the SEC. But Arbuckle could help things by being more imaginative in the run game, especially.

We have more talent on offense than you will ever admit. We just have too many holes and not enough top dogs at key positions. The bottom line is the offense is not getting the job done. I think there are some adjustments that could be made to improve it but we haven’t seen anything like that yet.

 

[cbertus6]

He’s forced to run an air raid offense because the personnel is so bad on TE, RB and Oline. He’s not an air raid guy.

Edit: I think Gabe and Teddy are spot on with their analysis. The offensive line, and tight end group are so bad that Ben Arbuckle has to completely switch up his scheme midseason so we have a chance in the remaining games. That is absolutely pathetic coming from the University of Oklahoma.

Uh.. Arbuckle IS an air raid guy. His whole background is the air raid and he has small town Texas roots which is prime air raid country. Sure he’s got some evolutions off of that but his base is absolutely pure air raid and it concerned a lot of people when he was hired. That said, I am a fan of Arbuckle, but to call him something other than an air raid guy is not accurate

 

[WichitaSooner]

We have more talent on offense than you will ever admit. We just have too many holes and not enough top dogs at key positions. The bottom line is the offense is not getting the job done. I think there are some adjustments that could be made to improve it but we haven’t seen anything like that yet.

I guess no draft expert or college football analyst will admit it, either. Find any draft list with any OU offensive player on it. How many guys do we have who will even be honorable mention all conference, let alone show up on any All American lists.

List of Oklahoma Sooners in the NFL draft - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Unless I am missing something, Guyton and Rouse are the only two offensive players Brent has brought into the program to have been drafted in the past three drafts. On this entire roster, the best bets to be drafted are Mateer, who still has a ton to prove, and a true freshman lineman. And if you name guys like Burks and Gibson, then you’re just going off what fan boy media report about what they look like in practice in the spring. Burks has not remotely lived up to the hype that followed him when he transferred. Gibson is a small college transfer and has been barely noticeable in his two games. And don’t get me started on the RBs. There is not a single skill guy on this team who would scare an opponent.

 

[CoachTalk]

How do you know we aren't running what he wants? He is the freaking OC at OU. We know brent is hands off on the offense. It is literally his call.
And if Arbuckle is dead set on his own guys, he wouldn't have taken the job.

He doesn’t know. Buckle already said he and the position coach the decisions.

If he wanted those dudes gone. They would’ve been gone.