Boomer Sooners and BCS Baloney
No doubt after watching on Saturday that the Sooners are just better. They're simply bigger and faster up front. Mizzou's recruiting will continue to improve after this year, and it will simply need to. We couldn't keep up with them on either side of the ball. Having said that, had Mizzou not talked up how they gave the previous game in Norman away, I think the Sooners would have been far less angry and the game would have been more evenly matched. It sure hurt not having Chase Coffman and Danario Alexander. Coffman had over 100 yards receiving in the first game. Those were two top offensive weapons sitting on the bench.
During the game, my wife commented, "That play just doesn't work," referring to the ultra-slow-developing sweep play they try to run to Tony Temple all the time that Oklahoma threw for another 5 yard loss. She is no football expert, and she can see that. I can't complain too much about our offense this year, but if we really want to have a running game against top teams, those plays just aren't going to work.
On a positive note, Mizzou will return a ton of players for next year. On offense, key players we lose are only Rucker and Spieker, and, likely, Temple. But Coffman returns (hopefully), Mizzou will find another great center (always does), and freshman Derrick Washington should step right in and surpass even Temple's accomplishments. He's bigger and faster.
Lastly, what's up with this BCS madness? We beat KU handily on a neutral site. We beat Illinois, also. But we end up going to the Cotton Bowl. One day we're playing to go to the national championship. The next we're left out completely-- despite the fact that we finished 6th in the final BCS standings. My prediction? We play uninspired against a strong running team, Arkansas, and we end the season on a really bad note. Let's hope that doesn't happen.