One of my all-time favorite books is Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising.
A major plot point in the first third of the book (first published in 1986) involved the subterfuge, misdirection and camouflage presented by the Soviet Union to draw attention away from a big scheme.
The Soviets planned to invade western Europe and spark World War III, but they wanted to divert the world’s attention from the impending operation. Thus, the nation created a “maskirovka” — a military deception — to make the western allies think nothing of the sort was in the works.
Brent Venables must also be a big fan of the book, or maybe some Russian ancestors were mixed up in the Venables woodpile over the past few generations.
Either way, all week leading up to the OU/Texas game on Saturday, Venables played as coy as the Soviets about the condition of starting quarterback John Mateer, who underwent thumb surgery two-and-a-half weeks earlier. The then-Heisman contender was listed as questionable or probable at times on the official injury report, while Venables dodged and darted from inquires about his signal-caller’s health all week.
The Sooners even practiced indoors for much of the week, away from unauthorized prying eyes. That decision, ostensibly, was made to enjoy some air-conditioned comfort, yet the practices took place on some of the coolest days in Oklahoma over the past four months.
Some reporters, tongues firmly planted in cheeks, crawled around in bushes outside OU’s practice facility hoping to get a peek of the quarterback derby. (Kudos for using the old-school NBC Nightly News jingle, Eddie.) Others offered helpful suggestions on where OU could practice beyond the prying eyes of the public.
Luckily, no student journalists were banned by grumpy coaches and overzealous athletic department officials for simply doing their jobs, nor were any dormitory windows painted over.
Football coaches are legendary weirdos. I opined about this two years ago when I said their oddities must just be part of the overall package when encountering one in the wild, along with headsets, whistles and overly tight practice shorts. So, I wasn’t surprised by Venables’ gamesmanship over the past week, but I was still bemused.
Whether any of it made a whit of a difference in his Sooners’ disappointing 23-6 loss to Texas on Saturday can hardly be measured. It won’t, however, stop me from measuring out a shot of vodka to my comrade Brent “Ronovich” Venables for his use of maskirovka. Of course, whatever hangover I receive from said vodka will hardly be as painful as this week’s Hangover Highlights!
- It feels obvious to me that OU has a Bill Bedenbaugh-sized problem right now, especially after the offensive line’s performance against Texas. Bedenbaugh carries a reputation as one of the best o-line coaches in the country, yet his unit proved to be the main impetus for losing to the Longhorns.
- Many other things went wrong Saturday, but it started with the offensive line. A continued inability to run block allowed the Texas defense to sit back and await the Sooners’ passing game. That resulted in OU having little consistency as an offense that was also marred by big turnovers and errors.
- Sure, injuries up front left multiple linemen out of Saturday’s rotation, but the line OU threw out there at the opening of the game has basically been the starting unit for nearly the entire season.
- Without a running game, too much was thrown upon the shoulders of quarterback John Mateer, who was coming off surgery on his throwing hand just 17 days prior. Mateer had some positive moments, but he also seemed too quick to scramble and made some head-scratching throws that led to three interceptions — which could have been four or five.
- Defensively, the Sooners were as good as advertised for the first half. Outside of a Mateer interception and a 37-yard run by running back Quintrevion Wisner, Texas would hardly have sniffed a single scoring opportunity in the opening 30 minutes.
- But the Sooners’ 6-3 halftime lead felt ominous at best owing to the offensive struggles, as well Venables’ continuing inability to manage time-sensitive situations. OU’s fire drill in the final seconds of the half that resulted in an end zone interception cost the Sooners a chance at more breathing room and momentum.
- In the third quarter, Texas took control behind Wisner and a physical rushing attack. The Longhorns didn’t exactly skip down the field at ease against the Sooners, but they did chew up clock and wear down the OU defense. Before connecting with a 27-yard pass on the last play of the quarter, the Sooners managed just five yards on three plays over the entire 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Texas ran 26 plays for 140 yards and was rewarded with a 13-6 lead going into the fourth.
- That proved to be enough since OU’s offense continued its sputtering ways and repeatedly fell victim to drive-killing errors. The Sooners had back-to-back possessions in the opening five minutes of the fourth quarter down just the single touchdown, but they ended after penalties and a befuddling backwards-pass fumble that lost lots of yardage. So, when Texas’ Ryan Niblett returned a punt for a 75-yard touchdown with 10 minutes left, the game was all but decided.
- Where does this loss leave OU? Well, with a tenaciously tough schedule looming, Saturday’s loss does not have to define the Sooners’ season. Heck, they could probably withstand another defeat and still reside within the College Football Playoff bracket battle, but it’s also conceivable they could lose four or five more games and flip fan sentiment back to where it was at the end of last year.
- The question is whether Venables can rally the troops for a road victory next weekend at South Carolina and win any of their three-straight games against top-15 opponents in Ole Miss, Tennessee and Alabama. I honestly don’t know. Saturday’s game marked the third time in four years Venables’ Sooners couldn’t even muster a single touchdown against Texas, so it seems — in some regards — that little has changed within the program. Can Venables and the Sooners show enough growth to pull out four or five more wins and challenge for the playoffs? Stay tuned, because it won’t take long to answer that particular question with the gauntlet of a schedule looming ahead.
- If Oklahoma State interim head coach Doug Meacham played EA’s NCAA Football like he coaches in real life, he would be banned. Meacham lined up erstwhile receiver Sam Jackson V behind center on Saturday with the Cowboys’ entire quarterback room beleaguered by injuries.
- Jackson did pretty much how one would expect against a good Houston defense in a 39-17 loss. He managed just 84 passing yards on 7-of-16 throws … stats that compare favorably to his wide receiver numbers this season (five catches for 30 yards).
- The game against Houston in Stillwater appeared, arguably, the most winnable one left on OSU’s schedule. Of course, in true fashion with how their season has unfolded this year, the Cowboys were forced to play with a receiver at quarterback.
- In a far more entertaining turn of events than the football-adjacent substance played on the turf at Boone Pickens Stadium was the weeklong catfight between notable OSU social media influencer grumpus @OKSTProbs and the owner of notable bars on The Strip in Stillwater. It took me a while to unfurl the intricacies — including the owner’s recent time as a federal prisoner for “multiple fraudulent schemes” — but once I got a grasp on what was happening, it became the most entertaining OSU social media watch of the past few days!
- As for OSU’s game against Houston, the most entertaining moments came from an impromptu gathering of male fans who took their shirts off in the stands, presumably to distract themselves from the aforementioned football-adjacent substance on the field. The amusing moment of mass-shirtlessness spurred OSU women’s basketball coach Jacie Hoyt to invite the fun-loving fellas to her team’s games this season with a tweet that began, “Dear shirtless guys….“
- Meanwhile, Indiana stamped itself as one of the top two or three teams in the country by traveling west and beating third-ranked Oregon, 30-20. Any thoughts the Hoosiers were a one-year wonder, or a product of a bad non-conference schedule, were put to rest with the win.
- At least I think they were. Oregon’s wins this season have come against Oklahoma State, Northwestern, Oregon State and Penn State. There’s a lot of hat but not much cattle within that lineup of foes. So, who knows how good the Ducks really are and, by consequence, Indiana … or anyone in the Big Ten, really?
- I mean, look at Penn State. With a 22-21 loss to Northwestern on Saturday, the Nittany Lions became the first team since 1990 to lose back-to-back games despite being 20-plus-point favorites in both. They also lost their quarterback for the rest of what is quickly becoming a nightmare season in western Pennsylvania.
- Michigan, meanwhile, was handled easily, 31-13, by a Southern Cal team whose best win before Saturday had been a home victory over, I guess, Michigan State? The same Michigan State that lost to 1-4 UCLA on Saturday?
- I guess I do feel comfortable in saying Ohio State is pretty good. With a season-opening win against Texas, a road victory at Washington and another Saturday at Illinois, the Buckeyes have a clean-enough resume, although certainly not immaculate.
- Alabama outlasted a spunky Missouri team, 27-24. Coming into the season, I thought Missouri would be among the two or three worst teams in the SEC. At this point, in spite of the loss, the opposite might be true. Although the Tigers fell Saturday, the fight they showed coupled with a relatively friendly upcoming schedule likely means we haven’t heard the last from Mizzou.
- Georgia survived a game at Auburn, 20-10, thanks to some questionable officiating. It looked like Auburn was on its way to an upset win when quarterback Jackson Arnold jumped over a scrum for a touchdown in the second quarter. It would have given Auburn a 17-0 lead and put Georgia squarely on the ropes.
- It was ruled, however, that Arnold had fumbled the ball before crossing the goal line … much to the consternation of many watching. The play completely switched the momentum of the contest, as Georgia dominated the rest of the way.
- One of the more consequential games between mid-majors this season unfolded in Denton, Texas, on Friday when hometown North Texas fell 63-36 to South Florida. UNT came into the game undefeated and in front of the first sellout of DATCU Stadium in its history. South Florida, despite a big loss to Miami, had wins against Boise State and Florida under its belt, so the winner would have an early inside track to the group of five conferences’ single playoff bid.
- When the Bulls turned the ball over THREE times in the first quarter, yet only trailed 7-0, it made me think that if they would quit committing turnovers, they could take control. That’s exactly what happened — helped by four turnovers in the final three quarters by the Mean Green — as USF scored four touchdowns in less than half a quarter coming out of halftime to blow the game open.
- Finally, my pet-crush on Pudge the Cat rages on after his Bowling Green Falcons upset Toledo, 28-23. Pudge was featured in an ESPN College Gameday segment Saturday morning before rallying the capacity crowd at Bowling Green for a come-from-behind win.
- If you ask me, as far as off-the-field shenanigans go, I’d take Pudge’s presence over Venables’ weeklong will-he-or-won’t-he-play maskirovka.
