Oklahoma Unbothered by Outside Expectations Headed Into Fall Camp
Oklahoma football’s twitter account turned heads on July 7.
In response to the Sooners getting picked second in the Big 12 preseason poll, the program tweeted out a bulletin board with the slogan “dirty hard work done in the dark.”
And while college football twitter had fun with the unique phrasing of the tweet, the message was clear: Oklahoma is comfortable working out of the limelight headed into 2022.
Only punter Michael Turk was voted to the preseason All-Big 12 team, and questions persist nationally about if there will be a massive drop-off in Norman this year following an offseason of change and upheaval.
The Sooners who will take the field this year, however, are unbothered by the perceived lack of respect headed into the season.
“I just think it's it's a beautiful thing when nobody's on (the preseason All-Big 12 Team),” OU quarterback Dillon Gabriel said at Big 12 Media Days. “It's preseason. You still gotta go out there and earn it every single week. You know? That's why we play the game, to find out who wins who loses.
“And I think every single day no matter what, you know, preseason, whatever it is, still gotta look yourself in the mirror every single day and continue to find ways to get better in workouts, skills and drills, in the film room, whatever it is. So, you know, we were just gonna control we can control.”
Wide receiver Marvin Mims, who was named to the Biletnikoff Award watch list last week, acknowledged the results on the field have likely played a role in the perception of the team coming into 2022. But while that may be true, he said the Sooners aren’t worried about looking in the rearview mirror.
“If you look back at last year, it was a very off year,” Mims said at Big 12 Media Days. “Especially with all the change that’s happened around this program, it’s definitely a crazy, crazy time. At the end of the day, we’re focused on this upcoming year.
“Basically preseason is a reflection of last year, so at the end of the day there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re looking forward to next season and we’ll see how the teams look at the end of next year.”
Unsurprisingly, the Sooners are following the lead of their new head coach.
Brent Venables has had plenty of irons in the fire since taking the helm in Norman, but he’s been consistent in his message that none of the outside stuff matters if you can’t take care of your business on the field.
And that’s exactly what he wants his team to focus on headed into the season.
“I didn't think it was a disrespect in any way, shape or form, whether it's where we were picked as a team,” Venables said. “One, it doesn't matter. All right, you know, we're gonna be inside out. But two, I like that, you know, young people, again, just inherently don't have great self awareness. And so, when you live in a place like Norman, Oklahoma, and it's a college town, we've had incredible success, everybody's always patting these guys on the back and telling them how great they are.
“And sometimes, occasionally, people think that you just show up and you you're successful, just by showing up and hooting and hollering and so again, for me, it's always been about the work and Sun Tzu said, 'Every battle is won before it's fought,’ talking about the preparation, you got to put the work in and you got to get scarred up. You have a mountaintop experience, man, you got to go through them valleys. And that's what work is, that's where failure is, that's where adversity is. That's where you get scarred up. So you know, whether or not they got scarred up, I'm sure they didn't through not being left off. But I like it. You know, it's always good.”
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