Alamo Bowl: Oklahoma-Oregon X-Factors
John Hoover: Bob Stoops
There will be some major adjustment for the Oklahoma coordinators in the Alamo Bowl. Neither Cale Gundy on offense or Brian Odom on defense has ever called signals before. There’s already been turnover on the roster, with four defensive starters and three offensive starters or former starters transferring and opting out. In fact, the Sooners have been in utter turmoil for much of December ever since Lincoln Riley left. And now they have to play a football game against a team that was ranked No. 3 in the nation earlier this year. But the one person that stabilized the entire operation in the fallout between Riley and Brent Venables is the same person that held things together in recruiting and the same person that has guided OU through bowl week with professionalism and experience: Bob Stoops. The Sooners are in good hands with a Hall of Famer who has 190 career wins — 189 more than his counterpart at Oregon.
Ryan Chapman: Motivation
The question coming into any bowl game is really what team actually wants to be there. Motivation will be even more prevalent in the Alamo Bowl as both teams have underachieved their goals for the season. The Ducks expected to be playing in the Rose Bowl at the very least after dominating Ohio State in Columbus earlier this year, and anything short of a Sugar Bowl berth for the Sooners this year was going to be classified as an unmitigated disaster. Throw in that both programs have undergone a coaching change and are just trying to piece together enough on-field coaches to even staff the game, and it’s anyone’s guess as to if either team really wants to be playing in San Antonio. Perhaps both teams come out fired up to play and wanting to finish their year on a high. But if either the Sooners or the Ducks come out flat, it’ll be a long night and a fitting end to a disappointing season for one of the programs.
Josh Callaway: Oklahoma’s Defensive Front
What Oklahoma’s defensive front does against a physically imposing Oregon offensive line is going to tell us a whole lot about how this game is going to go. The Sooners are without four extremely key pieces to their defense coming into this game in Perrion Winfrey, Isaiah Thomas, Nik Bonitto and Brian Asamoah. How well do the next wave of guys step up in their absence to go alongside veteran Jalen Redmond? That will be the big question. If the Sooners can’t find a way to slow down the Ducks’ run game and keep Anthony Brown in the pocket, there could be some problems for interim DC Brian Odom on Wednesday night.
