Brett Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners “liked our look and our opportunities” down the stretch of the Armed Forces Bowl loss to Navy
What a weird game it was for the Oklahoma Sooners on Friday in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl against the Navy Midshipmen. Despite being down a ton of players due to opts outs and transfer portal decisions, the anemic Sooner offense came out firing early and often. It was a stunning first quarter of […]
What a weird game it was for the Oklahoma Sooners on Friday in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl against the Navy Midshipmen. Despite being down a ton of players due to opts outs and transfer portal decisions, the anemic Sooner offense came out firing early and often. It was a stunning first quarter of action.
Led by freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins, the offense scored two touchdowns very quickly, leading them to a 14-0 victory when the first quarter concluded. From there, that side of the ball was futile in its efforts, and managed just one more touchdown for the remainder of the game, but it didn’t come until less than 10 seconds left in the contest.
Down 21-14 against the Midshipmen, the Sooners made a late rally. Hawkins found tight end Jake Roberts with just six seconds left in the football game to cut the lead to 21-20. With an opportunity to kick the extra point and force overtime, head coach Brent Venables opted to go for the win.
Hawkins was sacked on the two-point attempt, preserving a massive victory for Navy, ending their season with a 10-3 record. Although it was probably the right call to go for it, Coach Venables did face some scrutiny after the game. People were going to second guess the decision when it didn’t go their way, which obviously it didn’t.
"We were going to get exactly what we thought we would get,” Venables told the media. “We worked hard in that situation all year long, particularly the last few weeks. In that situation when it was four minutes to go in the game, we knew we would go for two. So we made that decision earlier in the drive. Liked our look and our opportunities there."
It’s easy for people to second guess things when the results don’t come. With how that game played out, and with all the context of how many players you were missing, the process was sound. It doesn’t, however, change the optics.
The frustration from many naysayers out there is going to come directly from how the season played out, and the general state of the program. That one play merely allowed those emotions to come out.
You just finished up year three under Coach Venables, and it’s hard to say that the program is in a better place today than where it was when he took over. It’s even harder to say you trust the vision for where the Sooners are heading.
Heading into year four, you shouldn’t have lost four more football games than the year prior. You shouldn’t have to flip a roster this far into your tenure based upon deficient talent. This isn’t a great example of good roster building.
For those who had frustration with the final play, it’s more than likely misplaced anger with the bigger picture. Some will try to convince themselves that the future is still very bright, and this is just a part of the process.
It’s hard to convince people of that when you, an SEC program with a proud tradition, just lost to a military school to give you a losing season in two out of three seasons. The optics are not in your favor.
