By John Shinn
Three losses.
Near the bottom of the Big 12 Conference standings.
It’s a situation a team like Oklahoma, which has won 60 games over the last five seasons, is not familiar with.
So, what’s left to play for? The answer will help define how the rest of the Sooners’ 2005 season goes.
There’s no chance for a national championship and last Saturday’s 45-12 loss to Texas all but erased any chance of winning the Big 12 South. The usual sources of motivation no longer exist.
Even OU coach Bob Stoops admits he didn’t see his team’s predicament on the horizon.
“I feel that we’re better than where we’re at right now, or should be,” he said at his weekly media luncheon Tuesday. “Now, I didn’t anticipate all that’s happened and who we’d miss. I’m not making excuses, what I’m saying is I didn’t anticipate all of that. You play the hand you’re dealt, but I felt overall that coming into the year, we would’ve been stronger and better than we have been.
“You can name a bunch of reasons why we haven’t been. Blame it on me, that’s fine. I’m not going to sit here and act like coming into the year I didn’t feel we’d be better than this. I did. All we can do is try and improve.”
But how much improvement can OU really make?
The Sooners have been saddled with all the typical struggles of a young team. The offensive line has three senior starters, but has played three freshmen on numerous occasions. Wide receivers, at any given time, might consist of three freshmen on the field. It’s defense is counting on a secondary that features two freshmen at the safety spots.
So, does the focus switch from winning games to simply getting better and gaining experience?
That would mean telling a senior class that has won two conference championships and played for two national championships to put its immediate goals away.
Senior offensive lineman Davin Joseph said all that matters is the health of the program.
“Oklahoma football is bigger than seniors wanting to win,” he said. “It’s more than what one person wants. It’s about being a dominant program. From when we won a national championship in 2000 to last year, we’ve been dominant.
“We have to get back to there. Whether it’s taking baby steps or whatnot, we have to establish that again. If it means playing young guys to go out on a positive note, that’s what we have to do.”
Stoops doesn’t believe selling out to youth is the answer.
There’s only one thing that can cure what ails OU.
Winning.
That will require the Sooners putting things together, cutting mistakes and playing harder and more focused. It will require everything Stoops was talking about three weeks ago, when OU was 1-2, looking to take advantage of an off week before Kansas State came to town.
“Yeah, I think we can. That’s what we’re pushing for,” Stoops said. “Again, it goes with playing a little bit smarter and more physical as well. You put those together. We’ve got to be able to find that though.”
The Sooners still believe they can turn things around.
“We still feel like we are a very talented team,” tight end Joe Jon Finley said. “We have a lot of young players, but right now we still have a chance of having a great year. We just have to take it game by game and keep working as hard as possible trying to improve.”
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
