Big XII games aren’t going to prepare OU for playing the best in the SEC. It’s a whole different level in the SEC.
Per Colley rankings, the conference order is:
1. Big 10
2. Big 12
3. American Athletic
4. SEC
5. Pac-12
6. Mountain West
7. Atlantic Coast
8. Sun Belt
9. Independents
10. Conference USA
11. Mid-American
SEC was 15-0 vs. FCS teams, ACC 14-1. Big 12 9-0. Big 10? 4-0.
You may be right. But LSU does not run an SEC offense. They run the spread, pin ball, dazzle dazzle, exciting form of football. Never forget that the spread was perfected by all teams (except for Kansas State) in the Big 12 for the last ten years. The teams of OU, OSU, Baylor, West Virginia, and even Texas taught the country about putting speed and athletes on the edge every play. OU has thousands of hours preparing for the spread offense. As I have told friends before, the strength of the spread offense is that it puts 5 receivers in play for every snap. It virtually guarantees man to man defensive coverage on every down. Tackling in the open field is a premium. A QB that reads progressions, is accurate and makes snap decisions will light up the scoreboard. That was Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. That is Joe Burrow this year. The way tp beat a spread offense is with speed on defense.
This season OU runs the spread, but because of the skillset of Jalen Hurts, it is a running team. Before the Oklahoma State game Mike Gundy (head coach at Oklahoma State) was asked how he prepared for the aerial circus of OU’s offense. He said that OU is not a throwing team - they are a running team. He even called it the wishbone out of the spread formation. After thinking about it, and reflecting on it, I tend to agree with him. One thing wishbone teams were known for was the running of the QBs. That is what made the triple option work. Gundy then listed the number of carries of Jack Mildren, Thomas Lott, JC Watts, Jamelle Holiday, and a few other wishbone QBs. none of them had over 145 carries. Then he said look at Jalen Hurts. At the time JH had 180 carries for the season. He got double digits against both OSU, and Baylor yesterday. I think Gundy is right. OU is a running team. Before OSU, OU ran the ball on 72% of its offensive plays. Against OSU they ran the ball 44 out of 71 plays - 71%. Yesterday was running plays were 50 out of 74 total - 68%.
LSU may be the real deal because of Burrow, but he will have to have the game of a lifetime. I like OU’s chances against the spread, and also over on the total. The early line is OU getting 12.5 points with 75 being the over/under. Someone taking OU straight up on the money line would increase their amount wagered by 3.5 times.
The lay people (not oddsmakers) have determined that the four are the best four football teams in America at this point in time. It will be interesting if any players from any of the four decide that their future NFL prospects are worth more than playing in another college game. It will be interesting to watch it all unfold from my seat at the Mercedes-Benz Dome in Atlanta.