Way back in 1992, within the walls of Room 1142 West in the University of Oklahoma’s Walker Tower dormitory, I discovered exactly what to do when a favorite football team suffered a rash of untimely injuries.
Just hit the reset button.
Yup, there I was, piloting the Miami Dolphins on Tecmo Super Bowl. About one quarter into my season-opening game against the Cleveland Browns, wide receiver Mark Duper was carried off the field. About 5 minutes later, legendary ‘Phins QB Dan Marino joined him as an annoying animated cut-screen showed the legend being lugged to the sidelines.
I didn’t exactly start a season with the Dolphins with the anticipation of throwing off-target passes from Scott Mitchell to Tony Martin. No, I had looked forward to dissecting defenses with Dan The Man’s darts to Super Duper. I mean, I understood injuries were part of the Tecmo Super Bowl experience, but I couldn’t abide it happening to my two best players in the first half of the first game!
So, with a heavy sigh, I reached over and reset the Nintendo Entertainment System in front of me, started a new season and continued merrily along.
If only real life were so easy.
Before the University of Oklahoma Sooners even got started on a much-anticipated inaugural season in the Southeastern Conference, the dark clouds of injury issues lowered upon them. Wide receivers Nic Anderson and Jayden Gibson were befallen by leg injuries. Not even halfway through the season opener, fellow receiver Jalil Farooq joined them by breaking his foot.
The hits kept coming. Starting defensive backs Gentry Williams and Kendel Dolby, along with offensive linemen Geirean Hatchett, Jake Taylor and Branson Hickman, were all seriously injured before the first month of the season was in the books. Oh, and another wide receiver, Deion Burks, joined the wounded in the fourth game.
Hell, even starting kicker Tyler Keltner missed time with an appendicitis.
As in Tecmo Super Bowl, I understand injuries are simply part of sports, particularly football. Still, the sheer number of wounds suffered so early in the season by so many players expected to be important cogs on OU’s team had me looking for a giant reset button.
Oklahoma State has not been immune either. The Cowboys have seen defensive end Collin Oliver and linebacker Nick Martin miss large chunks of the season, a debilitating pair to have absent when your defense is currently near the bottom in college football. Additionally, halfway through the season, the Cowboys looked for a spark by trying to switch up the quarterback situation. Well, they’re right back where they started as BOTH immediate backup quarterbacks were knocked out within the same week and likely for the rest of the year.
I hate using injuries as an excuse. OU could be down to its second- and third-teamers on the entire offensive unit, but it wouldn’t excuse how they have looked against Auburn, Texas, South Carolina and, ultimately, Saturday night against Missouri. OSU could opt not to even replace Oliver and Martin and simply play nine men on defense, but I’d still expect a better effort than we’ve seen all season long, especially against TCU on Saturday.
There are, however, certain realities that must be faced when the injury bug bites. Even when the OU offense has its head on somewhat straight, as it did against Ole Miss two weeks ago, the Sooners lack explosiveness because they lack any breakaway receiving threat. Similarly, when OSU had undefeated BYU on the ropes last month, the Cowboys’ defense simply ran out of gas at the end, with its depth compromised by the lack of two top-notch playmakers.
It all seems entirely unfair, such as when I watched Marino and Duper being carried off the pixelated gridiron that day in my dorm room. Yet, fans of the Sooners and Cowboys are left only to wish they had real-life reset buttons.
Who else fancies they could hit reset buttons after this weekend? Let’s boot up the Hangover Highlights and see!
- Here’s a reset button to push: The hiring of Brent Venables at OU. Saturday’s 30-23 loss at Missouri was one of the most embarrassing in my time watching the Sooners. Against an overrated foe with a mediocre backup quarterback, this Venables squad found new and altogether interesting ways to lose a game.
- My job here is not to write a game recap-type article on what exactly happened. What I will say is this is the most discombobulated OU football team since 1998. On Saturday, the offense kept stepping on their own manhood, and it took until four minutes were left in the third quarter for OU quarterback Jackson Arnold to surpass his own team’s PUNTER in passing yards (thanks to an admittedly nifty fake punt in the first half).
- Oh, that nifty fake punt? Although it ended at Missouri’s 10-yard line, the Sooners still had to settle for a 40-yard field goal. Why? An over-exuberant celebration on the sidelines from Venables, other coaches and players resulted in a delay-of-game penalty. Two sacks and a QB scramble later, the field goal was no chip shot.
- Think about what I just said there for a second …
- An incredibly boring game culminated in a wild final nine minutes. Turnovers for both turned into scoop-and-score touchdowns as the lead and score bounced about. The most important thing to remember, though, is OU scored a touchdown for a 23-16 lead with 2:16 remaining in the game … and still lost by seven points in regulation.
- Think about what I just said there for a second …
- With all the built-up seriousness I can muster from covering and watching OU football since the beginning of the 1980s, I think every Sooner fan can agree: This type of performance is only comparable to the 1996-98 stretch when John Blake was at the helm of the program. There was little for anyone to hang their hats on after Saturday’s outing. Even what seemed to be a solid performance from the defense is far less impressive when you remember the opposing quarterback was a cast-off from two previous teams. Against said backup QB, OU’s defense had multiple opportunities to stiffen and secure a win, yet it did not.
- Instead of joining the braying mob at the heels of the vulnerable Venables, I would instead like to give serious side-eye to OU Athletic Director Joe Castiglione. The seemingly uncriticizable AD gave an absolutely unnecessary contract extension to Venables this past offseason. I cannot imagine other schools were beating down the door to hire Venables, yet Castiglione handed over more money and more years to “keep him.” Now, when it’s obvious “keeping him” might not be the best move, the OU athletic department is hamstrung financially in its ability to move on.
- Maybe the powers-that-be at OU could convince the City of Norman to create a TIF to finance the $44.8 million contract buyout for Vulnerable Venables? Just an idea to be helpful.
- Speaking of more reset buttons, embarrassing losses and coaches on hot seats, let’s cast a tired eye to Fort Worth, Texas, where OSU laid an absolute egg in a 38-13 beatdown to TCU.
- Mike Gundy has been the OSU head coach since 2005, and other than his first year, he has ALWAYS managed to make his teams respectable. Either they would start hot enough to coast in for a bowl season, or — more frequently — his Cowboys would shake off a slow start and stun everyone with a strong finish.
- Neither of those are true this season, as further evidenced by Saturday’s loss. I’m so used to Gundy pulling his usual magic, I picked his Cowboys to win both last week hosting Arizona State and on the road Saturday. The combined final score of both games was 80-34, leaving egg on my face alongside a bevy of orange-clad fans.
- Gundy’s weird-as-hell comments earlier in the week failed to help his cause. Still, I don’t think he’s in much danger of being fired UNLESS he himself decides to pack it in. While my prognostication for the Cowboys has been off this season, I would still bet he returns for 2025.
- Fourth-ranked Miami also wanted a reset button for this week as it finally succumbed to another team in a 28-23 road loss to double-digit underdog Georgia Tech. The Cardiac ‘Canes have been whistling past the graveyard all season, narrowly avoiding their first defeat several times. It finally came at the hands of a devastating rushing attack from the Ramblin’ Wreck. On the Yellowjackets’ second possession of the game, they put together a 17-play, 10-plus-minute drive that consisted of just two passes. It ended in a touchdown and a lead they would never relinquish.
- BYU — as well as the Big 12 Conference — whined about its low standing in the initial College Football Playoff Poll last week. For a moment, it seemed to be a bit of sound and fury signifying nothing, as BYU struggled Saturday against a 4-4 Utah team. The Cougars, however, managed to avoid their first loss of the season thanks to a go-ahead field goal with nine seconds left. The Utah athletic director took issue with the officials after a late defensive holding call revived the Cougars’ chances. “This game was absolutely stolen from us. We were excited about being in the Big 12, but tonight I am not,” AD Mark Harlan said after the contest ended. “We won this game. Someone else stole it from us. Very disappointed. I will talk to the commissioner. This was not fair to our team. I’m disgusted by the professionalism of the officiating crew tonight.”
- For conspiracy theorists, BYU’s victory buoyed the conference’s hope that at least one of its 16 teams will remain a legitimate contender for the rest of the season. With the Big 12’s constant cannibalization though — see Iowa State’s loss to Kansas on Saturday, for example — it’s hard to imagine more than a single team from the Big 12 makes the College Football Playoff this year.
- Alabama absolutely punked LSU, 42-13, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was a total statement-type win for the Tide, who showed they are a serious contender for everything going forward, earlier losses be damned. LSU, meanwhile, once again has proved to be simply “good” but not “elite” in its third year under head coach Brian Kelly.
- Georgia couldn’t put a stake through the heart of Ole Miss’s season, losing 28-10 to the Rebels. Mississippi was considered the best team money could buy, thanks to a bevy of NIL-lured transfers. Yet, the Rebels’ playoff hopes were on life support after two losses before Saturday. Thanks to a plethora of turnovers by Georgia, Ole Miss coasted in for what was a surprisingly easy win.
- I still think Georgia is the best team in the country … when the Bulldogs feel like it. No school has a wider range of possibilities simply because of its seeming disinterest in some weekends. The Bulldog squad that showed up in Oxford, Mississippi, on Saturday was NOT the same team in Austin, Texas, last month. Hell, the Georgia team in the first half of its game against Alabama a few weeks ago didn’t resemble what took the field in the second half of the same contest.
- Let’s just call the rest of the season the “Georgia Invitational.” If the Bulldogs deem to do so, they could absolutely roll to the national title. Yet, they might also turn around and lose to Tennessee at home next weekend and miss the 12-team playoff entirely. It’s all on the table and for them to decide — thus, the season is truly “their” tournament from here out.
