Sunday Lookahead: University of Oklahoma

Yeah this is going to be a tough one. But it also has the potential for being a huge game for the Bears. Baylor will travel to Norman on September 29, the week after their game against Kansas, for their second Big 12 conference matchup, facing off against the Oklahoma Sooners.

Oklahoma had a divisive—but undeniably outstanding—quarterback, Baker Mayfield, leading the team last year. Now they have to start a top 10 MLB draft pick, Kyler Murray, who also has a similar talent set to Baker Mayfield (see: very mobile). Honestly, the offense should look fairly similar scheme-wise to last year’s Sooner attack, with a strong dual threat quarterback, a great runningback in Rodney Anderson, and a strong O-Line.

Defensively, there could be some room for improvement. Much to the dismay of nearly every Sooners Twitter fan, Mike Stoops is still Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator. The defense was very up and down last year, allowing 36.2 point per game in the middle 6 games, while a much lower number than that at the beginning and end of the season. The defense is undeniably talented, but very young. That could lead to a lot of head-scratching plays and decisions this season. By the 2019 season, the defense could be terrifying... they could still be terrifying this season, but that would require a lot of maturing from last year. Luckily, Baylor faces the Sooners relatively early in the season, meaning they might be able to take advantage of defensive kinks the Sooners are still trying to resolve.

Playing at Oklahoma is always a tough challenge for any team. Baylor will need to bring their A+++ game to try to pull off a win against the Big 12 Championship favorites. However, given the relative ease of the four games prior (Duke being the toughest of the bunch), Baylor might be able to enter this game 4-0... which would lead to a huge, early conference showdown, especially if Oklahoma is also undefeated at that point (although, the Sooners face challenges of their own early, playing Lane Kiffin’s FAU, UCLA, a darkhorse Big 12 favorite Iowa State, and Army before facing Baylor). Obviously, the Bears need to take care of business before even thinking about this game. And losing at Oklahoma is no season crusher by any means. But last year’s team played Oklahoma within an inch of their life. So, all I’m saying is there’s a chance...