Despite crucial early-season victory over Michigan Wolverines, Oklahoma Sooners aren’t in the mood to celebrate just yet
Even after a crucial win over Michigan, the Oklahoma Sooners aren’t looking to celebrate anything until the season is over
The Oklahoma Sooners pulled off one of the biggest wins of the Brent Venables era last night, taking down the Michigan Wolverines in a 24-13 drubbing that didn’t feel as close as the score indicated. In front of a raucous crowd itching for a win, Oklahoma outmuscled the Wolverines, controlling the lines of scrimmage all night long.
This was a must-win game for the Sooners and the statement victory that Brent Venables desperately needed to hang his hat on. The defense thoroughly dominated an overmatched Wolverines’ offense, while the offense generated plenty of big plays and drives to play complementary football.
Despite this well-earned victory, however, the Sooners aren’t looking to celebrate just yet. It’s a long season, and Oklahoma knows that they are going to keep getting everyone’s best moving forward. They can’t afford to relax with their SEC schedule looming just ahead.
Oklahoma Already On To The Next Game
In the postgame interview with John Mateer, Mateer outlined the team’s mindset moving forward after winning such a monumental game. He relayed that the team will celebrate tonight, but need to move on quickly and continue grinding and practicing like nothing happened.
“It’s important to just come back tomorrow and get ready to go. Tonight? Yeah, eat right, get some good sleep to prepare, but it’s on to the next. We have a veteran team; with a young team it’s hard to do, but we’ve learned from our experience. Coach [Venables] talked about a big win two years ago that they took too long to get over. I won a big game last year [at Washington State] but you gotta come back and get after it. How you respond to success shows who you are as a man.”
This is a lesson well-applied here, and it speaks volumes about Venables’ growth as a coach. The big game from two years ago Mateer referenced was Oklahoma’s victory over Texas. The following week, they eeked out a 31-30 win over UCF before dropping two games to Kansas and Oklahoma State that cost them a chance at a Big 12 title and College Football Playoff appearance.
While I don’t think the Sooners are quite as threatened with their next game being against Temple, it is important for them to not get complacent and continue improving. Despite such a dominant win, Oklahoma left plenty of meat on the bone and made some execution mistakes that kept Michigan in the game longer than they should have been. Even with a well-called game on offense, the Sooners have room for improvement moving forward.
The Sooners get a bye week following their matchup against Auburn in Week 4. Perhaps they’ll take the time to celebrate then. For now, it’s business as usual in Norman.
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