OU-Tulane: Three Keys to the Game
Rattler Roll
It’s showtime for Spencer Rattler.
He’s been Oklahoma’s starting quarterback for a little over 12 months now, one full calendar year. That means winter workouts, spring practice, summer workouts, being the point-man on organizing throwing sessions — being named captain.
The Spencer Rattler that takes the field Saturday morning against Tulane in the No. 2-ranked Sooners’ season opener is supposed to be markedly different than the Spencer Rattler that shredded Florida in the Cotton Bowl last year.
Think about the growth Rattler showed from September to December last year, and now think about how much he must have improved since then.
Heisman Trophy? No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick?
National champion?
It seems like no expectation is too high for Lincoln Riley’s current golden-armed thrower.
“We’ve talked about it,” Riley said. “You know, we certainly have. I mean, it was a little different conversation going into last year. Last year was a little bit more, you know, kind of year one. You need to take a step back, take it all in, there's gonna be new challenges — and there'll be new challenges this year as well.
“But I think the conversation this year has been more about, it's going to be a daily fight for him to just stay focused on the things that are going to matter, and things that are going to make the difference in the end, and realize that doing those little things well on the field (and) off the field are going to be what determines your success, not what somebody writes or some outside expectation.
So we try to keep him focused on meeting his own and our expectations and him being a productive member of this team. And, you know, and I think that's why you saw that he was chosen as one of our as one of our captains. I think he's he's done a good job of that.”
Having merely a good game against Tulane won’t be enough to satiate a fan base lathered in high expectations. They’ll want to see Rattler otherworldly.
Maybe that’ll happen, maybe it won’t. Season-openers can be tricky, as this fan base knows all too well.
If Rattler can manage a decent day — no turnovers and six touchdown drives probably isn’t asking too much — he’ll be on his way to a memorable season.
Playing loose with the football and tight with his own standards could get him into trouble.
“So far,” Riley said, “I think he's handled a lot of the things on the outside. I certainly haven't seen that affect his day to day. I mean he's he's practiced an extremely high level. He’s a much better player right now than he was at any point last year.”
Speed D, Year Three
Speaking of high expectations.
Who’s expectations for Saturday’s defensive performance are higher? The fan base? Or the defensive coordinator?
“I don't ever remember coming out of a Week 1 and you check the box and say, ‘We’ve got it all figured out,” said Alex Grinch.
So that answers that.
“On the same token,” Grinch offers, “one of the chief ways you kind of prevent those issues from turning into what ends up being explosive plays, is to gang tackle. Trusting in each other to say there’s no such thing as a one-on-one tackle in a game if there’s that many guys straining to the football.”
Grinch’s expectation as he begins his third season in Norman? Strain to the football and gang tackle.
Sooner Nation’s expectations? Win the national championship with one of college football’s most ferocious defenses.
The opponent’s scheme — Tulane’s rough-and-tumble run game, in this case — isn’t something defenses can hang their hat on in the offseason. Schemes change. Tulane has a new offensive coordinator this year.
Takeaways are always a priority, but it seems Grinch has relented on his unending demand for them. Rather than overanalyzing why OU wasn’t getting them, Grinch seemed to realize late last season the random nature of turnovers and instead just began demanding supreme effort. Eventually, the turnovers came — in bunches.
Major coverage busts, like the Kansas State game last year, will happen early. Physical mismatches and penalties, like the Iowa State game last year, will happen as well. Those can be mitigated through in-game adjustments.
It’s tackling, Grinch said, that’s always the one primary concern going into the season opener. That’s something that, if it’s bad, can only get better over time, through repetition and practice.
To that end, Grinch hopes that’s exactly what the Sooner defense has accomplished in practice.
“You go through eight months of preparation,” he said, “and the thing you do the least is almost what’s the most important over the course of the offseason. So we’ve done live tackle drills. We do that in so many ways because it kind of prevents the pile ups and some of those things, but you still get some of that live contact work.”
Ida’s Wrath
Oklahoma caught a break by not having to travel to New Orleans to open the season.
Tulane, meanwhile, was displaced by Hurricane Ida. But the Green Wave have caught way more breaks than the Sooners.
After fleeing the Big Easy, the team settled in Birmingham and was allowed to practice at historic Legion Field. But with heavy rains in Birmingham this week, the Green Wave shifted practice to Tuscaloosa.
“We just got back from the University of Alabama,” coach Willie Fritz said on Tuesday, “and we practiced indoors there since it's raining pretty hard here in Birmingham.
“We drove over here to Birmingham and weren't sure what to expect. We got enough clothes for a few days and told the guys to pack up enough through Tuesday. Obviously, that was wishful thinking. We’re going to be over here quite a bit longer than that. It's a very unfortunate situation, we feel for the people in New Orleans.”
The team’s evacuation north was sudden and, ultimately, incomplete.
“We went in and picked up some extra equipment,” Fritz said. “Our staff was lucky enough to get on campus and get some stuff. We didn't have our uniforms or our cleats. There are a lot of things we don't have, and hopefully we will be able to get that all back here.
“We really appreciate the people here in the city of Birmingham, and they are treating us unbelievably well. We appreciate Alabama football for allowing us to come over and use their facility, we made one phone call and boom they had it all set up.”
More than half the Tulane roster is from Alabama and Mississippi, so there are plenty of real and very personal concerns among the players and coaches. As grateful as they are to be out of the danger zone of New Orleans, their hearts are heavy, their minds are preoccupied, and now they’re having to shuffle here and there just to practice.
“We've all got family, friends, fellow students, student-athletes that are there and we have a lot of people that lost their homes,” Fritz said. “We got guys on our team that weren't able to hear from their people back home for a few days since cell service wasn't functioning in New Orleans. It sounds like everyone is doing OK as far as our team and their families are concerned."
Fritz, meanwhile, projects poise and positivity through it all.
“We're like the Terminator,” he said. “You've got to just point us in the right direction, and we will go there.”
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