Look: 'Sooner Schooner' Fixed After Oklahoma Wagon Tipped Over vs. West Virginia
Oct 29, 2019
The No. 10 Oklahoma Sooners are getting their beloved Sooner Schooner back.
The university announced Tuesday evening that the Schooner has been repaired following its crash during the team's game against West Virginia on Oct. 19:
"In addition to the repaired Schooner," OU Athletics added, "the athletics department is also commissioning the construction of a new Schooner that will resume its traditional role including running on the field at OU football games. The repaired Schooner will be used for appearances and display."
The Schooner tipped over on the field as horses Boomer and Sooner were turning during a touchdown celebration against the Mountaineers. Nobody on the Schooner was seriously injured.
The Sooners were upset 48-41 by unranked Kansas State over the weekend to drop to 7-1 on the season. Several people joked on Twitter that the Schooner being out of commission was to blame:
It’s only taken the rest of the big 12 100+ years but we finally figured out the source of OUs power... the schooner.
The Sooners have until their Nov. 9 matchup with Iowa State to regroup. It will be the first home game since the Schooner's crash.
Oklahoma's Defense Disappears as College Football Playoff Chaos Strikes Again
Oct 26, 2019
Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley watches during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Kansas State, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019, in Manhattan, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
There was a huge college football development in the Little Apple on Saturday as unranked Kansas State stunned No. 5 Oklahoma 48-41.
It was another banner day for Heisman Trophy hopeful Jalen Hurts. The quarterback extraordinaire threw for 395 yards, rushed for 96 more, accounted for four touchdowns and did not commit a turnover while leading the Sooners to 41 points. Just another day at the office for the man who has been involved in at least four touchdowns in six consecutive games.
Unfortunately for the Sooners, it was uncharacteristically awful defense, a special teams gaffe and a trick play gone awry that may have eliminated them from the College Football Playoff race.
The trick play was a double pass late in the first half with Oklahoma leading by three. Hurts tossed the ball to Nick Basquine on a swing route, and the receiver pump-faked a deep ball before finding a wide-open Charleston Rambo for what should have been a first down close to midfield. However, Rambo botched the catch, it deflected to defensive back AJ Parker and the Wildcats scored a touchdown three plays later.
If Basquine had the arm and/or the vision to throw a ball some 60 yards across the field, Lee Morris was even more wide open than Rambo and would have easily scored a touchdown. After the pump fake got the safety to commit, there was no one within 20 yards of Morris down the left sideline. Add in the fact that Rambo had at least five yards of space between himself and the nearest defender, and Lincoln Riley's play worked to perfection. It was just the execution that failed the Sooners.
Nick Basquine
The special teams gaffe was a fumbled kickoff. Kansas State pooched it to the 25-yard line where reserve running back T.J. Pledger fielded it on a bounce before putting it on the ground. The Wildcats would score another touchdown four plays later.
Those miscues were brutal; no doubt. They helped Kansas State score three touchdowns and two field goals in the span of less than 11 minutes of game time, turning a 20-14 Oklahoma lead into a 41-23 deficit in what felt like an instant.
What the heck happened to Oklahoma's supposedly improved defense, though?
Losing a 48-41 game was the type of thing we almost came to expect from Oklahoma over the past three seasons. There was the 45-24 loss to Ohio State in September 2016, last year's 48-45 loss to Texas in the Red River Rivalry, and the 54-48 and 45-34 losses to Oklahoma and Alabama, respectively, in the past two College Football Playoffs.
Factor in the many times the Sooners won barnburners, and Oklahoma had allowed at least 40 points 13 times in the previous three years.
But this year's defense appeared to be different.
This year's defense entered Week 9 allowing 19.4 points per game and having held six consecutive opponents to 360 yards or fewer. Even the high-octane offenses of Texas and Texas Tech were no match for what defensive coordinator Alex Grinch had built.
Out of nowhere, Kansas State—which had averaged 20.0 points and 280.0 yards of total offense in its last four games—cracked the code. With some help from the aforementioned momentum swings, the Wildcats scored on eight consecutive offensive possessions (six touchdowns and two field goals).
Occasional short fields or not, that wasn't supposed to happen with this defense against that offense. Again, let's consider the source: Kansas State had not scored on consecutive possessions in either of its previous two games, and the last time the Wildcats scored on three or more consecutive drives was in the first half of their Week 2 win over Bowling Green.
This was just about the furthest thing from an unstoppable force plowing through an immovable object.
The Sooners simply shot themselves in the foot early and often.
Kansas State's first touchdown was aided by a defensive pass interference on 3rd-and-9. On the subsequent KSU possession, Oklahoma was called for holding on 3rd-and-17 and proceeded to give up 13 yards on a 3rd-and-10 play moments later. One possession after that, Skylar Thompson converted on 4th-and-6 to get the Wildcats into field-goal range. Following the Basquine interception, Thompson scampered in from 14 yards out on 3rd-and-10. There were also 3rd-and-15 and 3rd-and-13 conversions on scoring drives in the third quarter.
No matter how great your offense is, you can't expect to win games when your defense is consistently unable to get off the field on 3rd-and-long.
Kansas State QB Skylar Thompson
And just like that, Oklahoma is at least temporarily eliminated from the playoff conversation.
With the way things have been going lately—this marks three consecutive weeks in which an AP Top 6 team lost to an unranked foe—there's still plenty of time left for things to keep getting weird and for the Sooners to surge comfortably back into the Top Four.
As things stand, though, they're going to need a lot of help to get into the College Football Playoff for a fourth time in five years.
The rivalry win over Texas was nice, but the Longhorns damn near lost to Kansas last week, and the Sooners haven't beaten anyone else worth noting. The weakness of this schedule flew well below the radar until this point since they were undefeated and since Hurts is so much fun to watch, but Oklahoma entered Week 9 with only that one win over a team with a .500-or-better record.
Meanwhile, you've got Ohio State, Penn State, Clemson, Notre Dame, a host of undefeated or one-loss SEC teams and even the oft-forgotten Oregon and Utah, so it's not hard to argue that Oklahoma deserves to drop out of the Top 10.
While each of Oklahoma's remaining opponents entered this week .500 or better, how much good could the Sooners gain from wins over Iowa State, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma State and either Baylor or Texas in the Big 12 championship?
We'll need to wait until the first CFP Top 25 on Nov. 5 to find out how the selection committee feels about the Big 12 as a whole. But if Selection Sunday rolls around and we're looking at 12-1 Oklahoma, 11-1 Notre Dame and a 12-1 Oregon or Utah, the Sooners probably deserve to be third in that pecking order—not to mention well behind an undefeated Clemson, an undefeated or one-loss Big Ten champion and perhaps several SEC teams.
If chaos keeps claiming victims each week and Oklahoma can avoid further losses, there's still a chance. But there's no question that Kansas State just opened the door for a College Football Playoff devoid of the Big 12.
Kerry Miller covers college football and men's college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter,@kerrancejames.
Oklahoma HC Lincoln Riley Says Coaching in NFL Isn't Part of His Bucket List
Oct 24, 2019
Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley applauds his team during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Texas at the Cotton Bowl, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, in Dallas. Oklahoma won 34-27. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
Oklahoma head football coach Lincoln Riley might be atop NFL teams' wish lists, but that doesn't mean he dreams of dominating on Sundays.
Riley appeared on the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday, saying coaching in the NFL is not on his bucket list.
"They see it as a stepping-stone deal. And that is true for players; for coaches, it's not," Riley said of the transition from college to the NFL. "College and the NFL are similar in a lot of ways. I don't know if you can say one is better than the other. I think it comes down to the individual person."
"I got into this thing wanting to be a high school coach," Riley continued. "That's what I wanted to do and not in my wildest dream would I even know or think that something like this would happen. So I don't know that I even have a bucket list."
The 36-year-old is in his third season as Oklahoma's head coach. He has a 31-4 record, including a perfect 7-0 this year. His transcendent offense helped turn Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray into Heisman Trophy winners and No. 1 overall NFL draft picks, and current quarterback Jalen Hurts is in a race with LSU's Joe Burrow for this year's top spot as the No. 5 Sooners play at Kansas State on Saturday.
With the "offensive innovator" status being all the rage in NFL coaching hires—to the point Kliff Kingsbury wound up with a job with the Arizona Cardinals despite being below .500 at Texas Tech—Riley is seen as the nation's crown jewel.
The Texas native also has one of the best coaching jobs in America, which comes along with security he would never have at the NFL level. The likes of Chip Kelly, Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier have seen their genius statuses go quickly by the wayside when they tried to make the transition to the NFL. Kelly, now the head coach at UCLA, has seemingly never recovered from his stops with the Eagles and 49ers.
Riley is young enough that it's possible he'll get the itch down the line. But he's highly paid with job security for the foreseeable future at Oklahoma. It's hard to see why he would want to exit the college game anytime soon.
Oklahoma Cancels Sooner Schooner for Rest of Season After Flipping over vs. WVU
Oct 22, 2019
The Oklahoma Sooner Schooner flipped over during a touchdown celebration on the field during the first half of an NCAA college football game against West Virginia in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)
Jalen Hurts and the Oklahoma Sooners will have to compete for a Heisman Trophy, Big 12 Championship and spot in the College Football Playoff without one of their widely known traditions for the rest of the season.
Senior associate athletic director Kenny Mossman said the Sooner Schooner, which comes on the field after every score by Oklahoma when it plays at home, will not be used in traditional fashion for the rest of the season after the crash during Saturday's 52-14 win over West Virginia.
"We will repair the damaged Schooner and its future use will be for static display," Mossman said in a statement, per George Stoia of the OU Daily. "It is possible that it will be back at a game this season, but it will not run. We also are in the process of having a new Schooner constructed. There is no timetable yet for when it will be ready. I would anticipate having it in time for the spring game."
The wagon fell on its side during Saturday's game, which threw multiple passengers to the ground.
Stoia noted none of the people or ponies involved were injured in the Sooner Schooner's first crash since the 1993 campaign.
Oklahoma faces the Kansas State Wildcats on the road Saturday and won't be back home until Nov. 9 against the Iowa State Cyclones.
Video: Oklahoma's 'Sooner Schooner' Wagon Tips Over During Game; Ponies Run Off
Oct 19, 2019
It's telling how well things are going for the Oklahoma Sooners this season that the biggest problem they've had on the football field involved their mascot.
During Saturday's matchup against the West Virginia Mountaineers at OU Memorial Stadium, the Sooner Schooner crashed as it was circling the field while celebrating the team's fourth touchdown:
Oklahoma said in a statement after the accident that none of the riders or ponies were injured, and it believes the crash was caused by uneven weight distribution in the back of the wagon:
"The Sooner Schooner tipped over today. We believe it was the result of weight distribution among riders in the rear of the wagon. Three individuals were evaluated at the stadium and released. All others reported that they were uninjured.
"Upon initial evaluation, it also appears the ponies are uninjured. Medical staff responded immediately as did the expert horse handlers and veterinarian who staff all games. We are grateful that the injuries were not serious and for the staff members who responded so well."
The Sooner Schooner has been a staple at Owen Field since 1964. The wagon is pulled by ponies Boomer and Sooner V.
Texas' B.J. Foster: Jalen Hurts Should Slide 'Or It's Not Gonna Be Good for Him'
Oct 9, 2019
LAWRENCE, KS - NOVEMBER 23: B.J. Foster #25 of the Texas Longhorns in action against the Kansas Jayhawks at Memorial Stadium on November 23, 2018 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
Texas safety B.J. Foster is getting started on the trash talk leading into Saturday's showdown against Oklahoma.
Per 247Sports' Chip Brown, Foster said Sooners quarterback Jalen Hurts should slide when he runs the ball.
"He's not dumb," Foster said. "He's gonna have to slide, or it's not gonna be good for him."
Hurts' dual-threat ability has made him a front-runner for the Heisman Trophy and has the Sooners ranked second in the nation with 53.4 points per game. The senior star leads the team with 499 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 57 attempts.
Texas will be looking for its second straight regular-season victory over Oklahoma this Saturday. Last year's Red River Showdown was the coming-out party for Tom Herman's Longhorns when they stunned their rival 48-45 en route to their first 10-win season since 2009.
The Sooners got their revenge in the Big 12 Championship Game with a 39-27 win. They are a 10.5-point favorite this week, perCaesars Sportsbook.
Foster will be an integral part of Texas' defensive game plan. The sophomore was a big factor against Kyler Murray last year in the regular-season win with two tackles for loss, one sack and one pass breakup. He will need another big performance if the Longhorns are to avoid a second 2019 loss.
Lincoln Riley Says Oklahoma Won't Do 'Horns Down' Gesture vs. Texas This Year
Oct 7, 2019
LAWRENCE, KANSAS - OCTOBER 05: Head coach Lincoln Riley of the Oklahoma Sooners watches from the sidelines during the game against the Kansas Jayhawks at Memorial Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners will leave the Horns celebrations, up or down, to the No. 11 Texas Longhorns during Saturday's Red River Showdown.
"Our players won't do it," Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley told reporters Monday in reference to the Horns Down gesture, meant to mock Texas' long-standing Hook 'Em Horns tradition. It is not limited to Oklahoma and is used by other Texas opponents.
Last season against West Virginia, Mountaineers quarterback Will Grier and receiver David Sills V were penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct because they did Horns Down during their 42-41 win over Texas.
Former Sooners quarterback and reigning Heisman Kyler Murray also did so on a CBS broadcast. The phenomenon gained more steam when OU defeated Texas in the Big 12 championship despite Murray telling ESPN's Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter in the days ahead of the game that the team had "been warned not to."
While the Sooners football team won't be employing Horns Down, Oklahoma fans didn't adhere to the same guidelines:
The controversy was addressed at Big 12 media days over the summer.
"It depends," conference coordinator of football officials Greg Burks said (h/t Dallas News). "If somebody scores real quickly, turns to their cheering section, and it's real quick and moves on, we'll probably not react like that. If they happened to turn to the other crowd or the other bench or it's prolonged toward another player, it will be treated like any other unsportsmanlike act."
The OU-Texas matchup will be charged regardless, with the Sooners undefeated at 5-0 and the Longhorns right behind them at 4-1.
Jalen Hurts Isn't Nervous About Oklahoma vs. Texas: 'I Played in the Iron Bowl'
Oct 5, 2019
LAWRENCE, KANSAS - OCTOBER 05: Quarterback Jalen Hurts #1 of the Oklahoma Sooners watches from the sidelines during the game against the Kansas Jayhawks at Memorial Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
As Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Jalen Hurts prepares for his first Red River Showdown, he expects to be just fine in the spotlight thanks to prior experiences.
"I played in the Iron Bowl," Hurts said on Saturday, according to Kelly Hines of Tulsa World. "I've played in big games before. I think I'll be all right."
Hurts spent three years playing for the most accomplished college football program of the last decade: Alabama. And he proved to be more than capable of handling himself right from the start.
He started for the Crimson Tide as a true freshman, winning the first 14 games of his career and being named the SEC Freshman of the Year and the SEC Offensive Player of the Year. He led Alabama to victories over archrival Auburn in the Iron Bowl, Florida in the SEC title game and Washington in the College Football Playoff semifinal before falling to Clemson in the national championship game.
As a sophomore, Hurts went 12-1 en route to an appearance in the CFP final. He was replaced at halftime of the national championship game by Tua Tagovailoa, who rallied the Crimson Tide to an overtime victory over Georgia.
Of note, Hurts replaced an injured Tagovailoa in the 2018 SEC title game and helped Alabama win the conference championship over Georgia, once again wrapping up a spot in the playoff.
During his tenure in Tuscaloosa, Hurts appeared in a number of high-profile games:
Iron Bowl (three times)
SEC Championship Game (two)
College Football Playoffs semifinals and finals (six total)
Hurts did not play meaningful minutes during his 2018 Iron Bowl or 2019 CFP appearances, but regardless, he has no shortage of experience in pressure-packed showdowns. And with all due respect to the Red River Showdown, a national title is not literally up for grabs next weekend—but bragging rights certainly are.
Texas and Oklahoma split their two meetings last season, with the Sooners coming out on top in the 2018 Big 12 title game. The Sooners enter next weekend at 5-0 while the Longhorns (4-1) have already suffered a defeat this year.
Oklahoma Kicker Calum Sutherland Under Investigation for Alleged Assault
Oct 4, 2019
The new paint on the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium that fans chose during an online voting for the Oklahoma NCAA college spring football game in Norman, Okla., on Saturday, April 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)
Oklahoma kicker Calum Sutherland is being investigated by the school's Title IX office following an assault allegation made by his girlfriend.
Per The Oklahoman's Joe Mussatto, a police officer's affidavit from Sutherland's Sept. 21 arrest on a charge of public intoxication also included details of a disturbance reported the same day at an apartment complex on Oklahoma's campus:
"During contact with the female party she stated a short physical and verbal altercation occurred. I did not observe any injuries on her person. The female subject stated her boyfriend was Calum Sutherland. From information obtained by the victim an uninvolved witnesses it was believed Calum was extremely intoxicated and there was a high likelihood he was going to return back to the apartments and continue to cause problems."
An Oklahoma University spokesman told Mussatto that Sutherland has been indefinitely suspended after the school was made aware of the investigation.
Sutherland wasarrestedby the Norman Police Department and taken to Cleveland County Jail on Sept. 21.
PerTyler Palmateerof the Norman Transcript, Sutherland appeared to be released from custody that same day because his name didn't show up in a detention center inmate search.
A redshirt sophomore, Sutherland started 2019 as the Sooners' primary kicker. He hasn't appeared in a game since Sept. 14 against UCLA. Gabe Brkic handled field-goal duties for the team in last week's 55-16 win over Texas Tech.
Limited QB No More: Jalen Hurts Has Unleashed Full-Field Fury at Oklahoma
Oct 1, 2019
Sure, but how much can he handle as a passer?
All offseason long, that question followed Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts. Any number of analysts, fans and outlets asked a version of that concern, and this writer was a part of that crowd.
While the opinions―and tones―varied significantly, it was reasonable to contemplate.
Alabama thrived with Hurts as its starter in 2016 and 2017, but his largest aerial contribution was near the line of scrimmage. That inability to push the ball downfield is the primary reason why Tua Tagovailoa is now a pivotal part of Crimson Tide history―and why Hurts is spending his final season of eligibility at Oklahoma.
Four games into 2019, the question has changed. Hurts has quieted critics with an explosive start to the season.
The discussion has now turned to where he ranks in the Heisman Trophy race alongside Tagovailoa, LSU's Joe Burrow and Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor, among others.
Entering October, Hurts is second nationally with 434.5 yards of total offense per game, trailing only Washington State quarterback Anthony Gordon (437.5). Gordon has provided 8.8 yards per play compared to Hurts' remarkable 13.2-yard average, though.
Sure, it's early. Oklahoma's level of competition to date is relatively low. Nevertheless, Hurts is shredding opponents and producing at a sensational standard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lANMki81oWU
The senior has connected on 66 of his 85 attempts (77.6 percent) with 1,295 yards and 12 touchdowns to one interception. Hurts has also scampered for 443 yards and five scores, showing off his intelligence as a runner on both designed runs and scrambles.
Still, the biggest change is how Lincoln Riley and the Sooners have steadily unlocked the potential of Hurts as a passer.
According to tracking by B/R's Ian Wharton, Hurts has already completed 11 passes of 20-plus yards in the Sooners' four games this season. He's hitting the downfield shots at a superb 52.4 rate and has four touchdowns in 21 such attempts.
That's a dramatic change from his time at Alabama in 2016:
.@ESPN_ReceDavis just mentioned on @CollegeGameDay that Jalen Hurts needs to improve throwing in the intermediate range... spot on analysis. pic.twitter.com/cCJRC4Q6Zq
During those two seasons as Alabama's full-time starter, Hurts found his target on only 33 of 101 passes that traveled 20-plus yards. Only six of those completions resulted in touchdowns, too.
While at Alabama, Hurts did everything possible to avoid turnovers. Considering the elite defenses Nick Saban and Co. assembled, that was a completely understandable plan. Rely on the run, score a few touchdowns, trust the defense. It worked.
However, Riley has coached a little more risk into Hurts' game, encouraging the lower-percentage throws that can lead to explosive gains. That's needed because OU doesn't have as strong of a defense, but the Big 12 is more susceptible to high-powered passing attacks. And this offensive line is giving him plenty of time to throw.
Hurts had five 250-yard passing performances for the Crimson Tide. He's already at four with the Sooners.
Jalen Hurts continues to evolve from his days at Alabama as a conservative passer. We’re now seeing him cut it loose under Lincoln Riley in this Oklahoma offense.
Granted, you can take Hurts from Alabama, but you can't totally remove Alabama's impact on him. After OU rolled Texas Tech 55-16 on Saturday, he quickly pointed out the missed opportunities.
"We know there's plays to be made, something we can learn from. I definitely think that today we were pleased to get off to a good start, but we know there's still money on the table that we need to collect. We need to get to work, we've got to fix it and learn from our mistakes."
Still, his updated approach is excelling.
Again, we know the Sooners haven't played a difficult state. Through Week 5, their strength of schedule ranks 89th in the country, per Sports Reference. It isn't a coincidence that blown coverages and shoddy tackling are regular sights―and, yes, have inflated Hurts' counting stats.
But he's doing a much better job putting receivers in position to create yardage after the catch.
Hurts has significantly improved his ability to see a second or third read. He isn't staring down pressure as often. His accuracy, while always a work in progress, is much sharper. Thanks to an offense that intends to scheme receivers open downfield, Hurts' touch on deep passes is more effective, too.
Combine those upgrades with his previous strengths―mobility, half-field reads and the willingness to take a hit―and the result is a championship-caliber offense yet again in Norman.
As with any September upgrade, the key is sustaining it. More talented opponents await, and the number of glaring mistakes should drop. While he has showed improvements mentally, an old habit―bailing from a clean pocket or putting too much air under long, contested throws―may appear once in a while.
Unlike his previous stint as a starter, though, Hurts has demanded full respect as a thrower. Tougher games are ahead, but Hurts has never been better prepared to handle the challenge.
