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Oklahoma Got Drummed

West Virginia shellacked Oklahoma last night in the Fiesta Bowl, 48-28. Count me in the camp of people that thought Oklahoma would earn a 7 to 10 point victory and make the Big 12 proud. But as is becoming the trend, the perennial Big 12 champ let the conference down and got whooped in one of the year’s biggest bowls.

I generally root for the other Big 12 teams in the bowl season just to help the reputation of the conference. But I’ll openly admit that I don’t mind a bit if OU is the one taking a beating. And even though I’ve seen OU take their fare share of beatings in my day, it’s always surprising to watch someone just run through an OU defense. It looked like West Virginia had the three fastest guys on the field at any given time.

Bob Stoops is taking a little bit of heat for his onside kick call in the third quarter after OU scored a touchdown to cut their deficit to 20-15. It’s very convenient to judge that decision based on the results of the play, results that obviously were not available at the time of the decision-making. I don’t see anything fundamentally wrong with the decision. OU had all the momentum at that point, and West Virginia has the kind of offense that can erupt at any moment. With the OU offense, a not nearly as explosive offense, rolling, it made perfect sense to me that you would try to catch WVU sleeping and give your offense a shot at picking up OU’s first lead of the game.

The kick didn’t work out, and of course everyone pans the decision. While I understand it was a gamble, and it certainly wasn’t a no-brainer in favor of making that particular decision, Bob Stoops has earned the benefit of the doubt at this point. A blown onside kick didn’t allow the West Virginia offensive backfield to run roughshod over the OU defense, that’s for damn sure.

Oh, and does any school’s band like playing their team’s fight song more than the University of Oklahoma? I’m not kidding when I tell you that the band played the fight song during an official’s review in the second half. They played the fight song after a four yard completion. They played it, and played it, and played it. It got to be obnoxious, but it was also funny, so I’ll cut them some slack on that one. And when you’re getting your doors blown off on national television, as seems to happen to OU annually at this time of year, why not ask the band to try to get people fired up?