After losing its third game in the College Football Playoff in four seasons, it’s time for the Oklahoma Sooners to form a tougher identity going forward.
While Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray might have made it a game in the second half, the Oklahoma Sooners fell once again in the national semifinals, this time to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Orange Bowl.
Oklahoma has won the Big 12 four-straight seasons, making the College Football Playoff three of the last four years. However, the Sooners have yet to win a Playoff game since the postseason tournament came into being five years ago. In fact, Oklahoma is the only team to have made the Playoff multiple times without winning a game. 0-3. Let that sink in.
Now, let’s not call the Sooners the Buffalo Bills of the College Football Playoff just yet. But we do need to accept that no matter how dominating they have been in conference play, it doesn’t translate to beating a Southeastern power on a neutral site in late December.
Three years ago, Oklahoma fell in the same Orange Bowl to the Clemson Tigers. 2015 was the first year that Baker Mayfield was the Sooners starting quarterback. He would finish fourth in Heisman Trophy voting that season, being a finalist the next two years and winning the trophy as a redshirt senior in 2017.
Last year saw Mayfield and the Sooners get back to the Playoff, but fell to the Georgia Bulldogs in the Rose Bowl in overtime. It was a game for the ages, but the Big 12 behemoth couldn’t hold off last year’s SEC Champion in Pasadena.
While Mayfield was the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns, Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley knew he had something special at quarterback in 2019. Murray might have been a first-round by the MLB’s Oakland Athletics, but he too would make sure Oklahoma had back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners with his own stellar campaign.
Yes, Oklahoma has been the best team by a wide margin in the Big 12 the last four years. Sure, the Sooners have had arguably the best quarterback in college football over the same time frame with Mayfield followed by Murray.
However, that is not translating to Playoff victories. While it works out marvelously in the Big 12, the Air Raid offense and optional defense isn’t cutting it on a national stage. Oklahoma must get tougher to compete with the Alabamas, Clemsons and Georgias. It starts with defense and being able to control pace on offense; the antithesis of Big 12 football.
Though it was a win earlier in the season, Oklahoma’s inability to get the Army Black Knights and their triple-option off the field was revealing. Alabama is notorious for winning with defense and punishing the opposition with a ground-and-pound attack late in games. How is a finesse, offensive-minded team like Oklahoma going to stop a perpetual battering ram like Alabama? It doesn’t. That’s how.
Will Oklahoma get back to the Playoff soon? Certainly. Oklahoma is a blue-blood with a strong recruiting base and an excellent offensive coach in Riley. Its arch rival Texas isn’t quite back and its little brother school Oklahoma State can’t seem to get out of its own way.
While it may not be next year, Oklahoma will go 9-0 or 8-1 in Big 12 play sometime soon and earn one of the four highly coveted Playoff spots again. But when that next chance comes, will the Sooners be a different team or will they squander yet another opportunity to play for a national title?
Getting pushed around by less glamorous teams is getting old, but Oklahoma’s identity as a Big 12 power has limitations and just that. Oklahoma is a great Big 12 program, but hasn’t shown to be anything more than that in the Playoff era.
Toughness can be recruited, but it’s more of a mindset than anything. Does Oklahoma want to continue to put together highlight tapes for Heisman Trophy finalists that don’t win Playoff games? Or will it rally behind a bunch of no-names that are willing to burrow through another man’s soul in the trenches to get the job done and play for a national title?
We’re rapidly approaching 20 years since Oklahoma last won a national title. The Sooners have won 11 Big 12 titles since 2000 and have had four quarterbacks win the Heisman Trophy in the 21st century. Alabama, Clemson and Georgia aren’t slowing down anytime soon. Oklahoma must get tougher to hang with the big boys. They’re not doing a great job of it of late.