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Oklahoma-TCU: One Big Thing

The Sooners need to put all the emotions aside and finish the season strong by focusing solely on the Horned Frogs and getting to 10 wins — and let the rest take care of itself.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma-TCU: One Big Thing
Oklahoma-TCU: One Big Thing

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Oklahoma Sooners

There’s probably a lot going through the minds of Oklahoma players today as they prepare to face TCU in the season finale:

  • What are their chances of getting to the Big 12 Championship Game?
  • What would those chances be if the Sooners hadn’t flubbed two road games that turned into two close losses — games in which they were favored?
  • Can they still get to a sweet New Year’s Six bowl game?
  • How much will this program miss the dozen-plus seniors and others who will be suiting up in an OU uniform for the last time?
  • How good would it feel to get revenge on the Horned Frogs for last year’s 55-24 beatdown in Fort Worth?

Of course, none of that matters if Oklahoma can’t focus one more time and dispatch TCU at Owen Field.

The Sooners (9-2 overall, 6-2 Big 12) and Horned Frogs (5-6, 3-5) tangle for one last time as conference foes when they kick off at 11 a.m. at Owen Field. The game is televised by Fox.

OU opened as a 13 1/2-point favorite. Although that number has since dropped to as low as 9 1/2, Oklahoma should win the game. But this Sooner squad has lost to inferior opponents twice already this season.

True enough, those were in hostile road environments and this one is in the friendly confines of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. But many of these same Sooners lost two home games last year. Dropping their first home loss of the season on Friday is not out of the realm of possibility.

If Oklahoma comes out without a singular focus on executing a game plan designed to beat TCU, if the Sooners come out too emotional, if they’re thinking about playing their last game, or playing their next game instead of this one, wholly important game against the Horned Frogs, they’ll leave the field on Friday afternoon wishing they had applied themselves a little more in their three losses.

“We have a fast, athletic TCU team that’s has played well the last several games,” head coach Brent Venables said. “They’ve had a couple of tough losses, both to Tech and Texas where it comes down to the last drive of both of those games. They lost 29-26 to Texas and lost a tough one to Texas Tech the week prior to that.

“They’re a team with tremendous, tremendous skill, a lot of confidence — and a team that played in the national championship last year, and got after us pretty good.” 

 OU needs two things to happen to have a shot at winning a conference championship. But only one of those — beating TCU — is in their control. The other thing — hoping Texas (to Texas Tech) or Oklahoma State (to BYU) lose — is not. 

Those games will be played Friday night and Saturday, respectively, and the watch parties will be raucous — but only if the Sooners beat TCU.   

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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