Oklahoma-Kansas State: One Big Thing

If the Sooners' 3-0 start and No. 6 ranking is not a mirage, they'll handle their business Saturday against the feisty Kansas State Wildcats.

John E. Hoover | Sep 23, 2022

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Oklahoma Sooners

NORMAN — UTEP wasn’t very good. Kent State didn’t present a lingering problem. Nebraska was a bad football team, wounded and weak.

What, then, is Kansas State?

The Wildcats come to Norman a little emotionally bruised after dropping a 17-10 home loss to Tulane last week. K-State was a popular dark horse pick to contend for the Big 12 Championship — and maybe they still will — but they looked more than vulnerable at the hands of the Green Wave.

OU coaches and players say it all the time: the opponent doesn’t matter. The standard is the standard. Take care of business by taking care of yourself.

If that mantra holds up this week, the Sooners — a 12.5-point favorite and the No. 6 team in the country, according to the AP Top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Poll — should be fine.

But if the players have fallen in love with their performance in Lincoln or their rankings or their undefeated record and somehow lose sight that Kansas State enjoys a 60-minute fist-fight, then the Sooners’ winning streak might be in jeopardy.

Brent Venables is a new head coach, but he’s been around the business long enough to spot a trap.

Oklahoma has notoriously played down to its competition in recent years. Fans were frequently frustrated by such unforeseen stumbles.

Venables seems made of sterner stuff than his predecessor. Maybe this game is the litmus test for whether that bears out on the scoreboard.

Published Sep 23, 2022

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.