Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones said it’s not a pressure the Sooners are feeling, just the need to get back in sync and play well.
“We just have to get better each week. We want to play well on Saturday. We want to put up a lot of points. We want to play well as an offense,” he said of Saturday’s upcoming game against Florida A&M. “But if it doesn’t go like that, at the end of the day, we’re looking for wins … On Saturday, you’ve got to cut it loose and play. We’re looking for a win.”
No pressure. Just go play.
Sounds hopeful, because the Sooners would seem to need to play well against the Rattlers. They laid an egg at UTEP for three and a half quarters before escaping with a 24-7 victory that was much closer than that. Now, all they have is a Football Championship Subdivision program between them and a Big 12 Conference slate that begins with Kansas State in Norman, Texas Tech in Lubbock, and Texas in Austin.
It’s not an ideal opponent to build confidence against. On the other hand, it may be the ideal opponent to rack up yards and points against, and that’s always good for confidence.
The Sooners probably would have dropped more than one spot, to No. 5 in the polls, had the voters been awake for a season opener that began at 8:30 p.m. in El Paso and 9:30 p.m. in Oklahoma. Instead, they’re still right there. And yet their performance was so suspect, if they’ll ever play like they belong in the top five is a real question.
Even against a lowly FCS team, there’s no time like the present to start playing like a good football team for the first time this season.