I re-watched some of the Orange Bowl....

[bdshull2001]

Nope, I couldn't watch it all. We had a big failure on the interior offensive line play. I'm talking the center and both guards. The freshman tackles were not great, but they weren't the major weakness. I was just wondering how we can improve and was looking at the rivals roster.

Jonathan Alvarez has already been mentioned to being moved to center (per Stoops), his natural position. That leaves the two guard spots opened for next year. I read where Cody Ford maybe the best of the underclassmen. Any chance Dru Samia moves over from tackle and presents a stronger physical specimen in the middle? If so, what happens at tackle.

I'm just jawing here, trying to get some comments on next years OL, so feel free to comment.

 

[ammo_u]

Nope, I couldn't watch it all. We had a big failure on the interior offensive line play. I'm talking the center and both guards. The freshman tackles were not great, but they weren't the major weakness. I was just wondering how we can improve and was looking at the rivals roster.

Jonathan Alvarez has already been mentioned to being moved to center (per Stoops), his natural position. That leaves the two guard spots opened for next year. I read where Cody Ford maybe the best of the underclassmen. Any chance Dru Samia moves over from tackle and presents a stronger physical specimen in the middle? If so, what happens at tackle.

I'm just jawing here, trying to get some comments on next years OL, so feel free to comment.

KC, I don't see how we don't have a better Oline next year. The 2 bookend tackles have a year under their belt, Alvarez surely isn't a dropoff from Darlington, and I hear we've got some promising guards coming up. I think we'll be better. Dominating? Probably not. But better.

 

[bdshull2001]

KC, I don't see how we don't have a better Oline next year. The 2 bookend tackles have a year under their belt, Alvarez surely isn't a dropoff from Darlington, and I hear we've got some promising guards coming up. I think we'll be better. Dominating? Probably not. But better.

I hope you're right. When was the last time we had a Big12 or AA at guard? It's been awhile. It starts in the middle and Clemson took that away.......

 

[SoonerTulsan]

And think about it....with our inexperienced OLine, we scored 17 points that could've easily been closer to 30...in the first half. Thank you, John Frickin Wayne.

 

[BUDDY G_rivals25215]

I'm not sure who they've got in mind but I know we've brought in some studs the last 2 years. I don't see Samia getting moved from RT and Brown is a likely AA next year.

Bedenbaugh got great improvement from these guys from how shaky we were at the start of the season.

 

[ksigcajun]

Getting whupped is one thing because the other guy is just better, but coaching adjustments are something within our control. E.g., Clemson assumes we are (finally) going to key on Watson in the second half, so they load up on Gallman instead. Simple but effective. And yes, I know we were missing our best DT on that side of the ball. Earlier Sweeney senses a momentum surge by OU and does the successful fake punt that completely reverses the momentum.

What creative playcalling did our coaches do to jump-start the team once it was clear they were struggling? I just keep dwelling on unfathomable calls such as running it up the gut twice in a row on 2nd/3rd down and 22. Or my other fav, Perrine is gimped and out of action for a quarter or so....first play back in is a crucial short 4th down and we run him up the gut without knowing that his leg is even 100%? A lot of the good will Lincoln Riley earned during the season went down the Orange Bowl toilet....

 

[jsmitty2.0]

This game kinda reminded me of the Florida NC game. In both games, we had multiple opportunities to score in the first half and managed to screw it up. Penalties, untimely sacks, poor decisions, etc. plagues us both times. Against Clemson I really felt like we should have had at least 10 more points by halftime. We also gave them great field position with the shanked punt and the fake field goal. Who knows, it could have been a different game had we taken advantage of some great opportunities early.

 

[JB4AU]

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda....the reasoning of losers. I hate the say that, but it's true. Sure OU left some possible points on the board in the first half. But that in no way would have changed what happened in the 2nd half. Clemson just dominated. Period.

 

[mgoetts]

What looks like poor coaching decisions is often nothing more than the product of coaches having to make decisions that are outside of their comfort zone and outside of the skill sets of the players. And, as we know, a lot of curious decisions have to do with the fact that when you cannot block on the line of scrimmage or you cannot take away something on the line of scrimmage defensively by getting consistent penetration and staying in your lane, you can look like you don't know what you're doing. he's a primary reasons why we struggle in bowl games at times because we just haven't been the strongest team on the line of scrimmage.

 

[gtanduga]

I do agree with K2C that had we had better/more experienced O-line play, especially at guard and center, OU rushes for more than 67 yards and gives Baker more time to throw the ball and some of those points we left on the field end up on the scoreboard. The breakdown at O-line, particularly after halftime, doomed our O.

But as Billy Ray pointed out, Clemson turned up the heat on both the O and D lines and just dominated us. They ran at will and just stuffed our running game, which was the difference in the game.

Looking ahead to next year, I feel that with the talent coming back and the ability of the young guys, I'm expecting 'some' improvement over last year, but am not expecting dramatic changes. I'm anticipating a similar performance from them like we saw this year - good but not great. Fortunately we'll have two incredible RBs who will make a young O-line even better and will help build their confidence as the season progresses. Only problem is, we have Houston and tOSU in our first three games, so they're going to need to gel and develop quickly!

 

[SSS!!!]

Here's how i see it ....

The best team won that game.

We will live to fight another year.

BOOMER SOONER.

 

[SoonerTulsan]

Getting whupped is one thing because the other guy is just better, but coaching adjustments are something within our control. E.g., Clemson assumes we are (finally) going to key on Watson in the second half, so they load up on Gallman instead. Simple but effective. And yes, I know we were missing our best DT on that side of the ball. Earlier Sweeney senses a momentum surge by OU and does the successful fake punt that completely reverses the momentum.

Don't forget we also lost out best LB.

 

[BUDDY G_rivals25215]

Bedenbaugh has improved the line compared to where they started at the beginning of the season every season.

I'm confident he'll take the younger, more talented guys and and fill in the guard spots.

 

[GetCocky]

Bama's second and third strings OL/DL are better than most of the nation's teams first. Its obvious that the reason for their recruitment is not only to get the best to compete but to also take these guys off the market and keep other schools from getting them. There is more to recruiting than just getting the best player..its also about keeping the 2nd and 3rd best player from competing against them,

 

[phillinois]

Here's how i see it ....

The best team won that game.

We will live to fight another year.

BOOMER SOONER.

That's right Cal.

I don't like to overthink this crap either.

That's why the coaches enjoy their gozillion dollar payroll. I say let them fret the details.

 

[Bill Nolan]

A lot of the good will Lincoln Riley earned during the season went down the Orange Bowl toilet....

That's a bit extreme. Clemson was the better team, simple as that.

 

[SoonerTulsan]

That's right Cal.

I don't like to overthink this crap either.

That's why the coaches enjoy their gozillion dollar payroll. I say let them fret the details.

You bet. Is it an "entitlement generation" thing that's driving the need to fire a coach after any loss? I just can't get my head around that.

 

[longhornfaithful]

This game kinda reminded me of the Florida NC game. In both games, we had multiple opportunities to score in the first half and managed to screw it up. Penalties, untimely sacks, poor decisions, etc. plagues us both times. Against Clemson I really felt like we should have had at least 10 more points by halftime. We also gave them great field position with the shanked punt and the fake field goal. Who knows, it could have been a different game had we taken advantage of some great opportunities early.

We missed one opportunity with the penalty on Flowers and Shep running the wrong route led to a fog instead of a td. However 2nd half we missed 3 opportunities with 2 turnovers and lost on downs.

 

[SoonerTulsan]

We missed one opportunity with the penalty on Flowers and Shep running the wrong route led to a fog instead of a td. However 2nd half we missed 3 opportunities with 2 turnovers and lost on downs.

Yes....we stopped ourselves far too often to win.