Sooners have to keep emotions in check
K-State has been house of horrors in recent trips
NORMAN — Alex Grinch can hardly stand to turn on the tape of the two games he’s coached against Kansas State since arriving as the OU’s defensive coordinator before the 2019 season.
“I can’t stomach it,” Grinch said Tuesday. “I should show it more. That’s me. Talking about emotional reaction. That’s a credit to them. They deserve those outcomes.”
The Wildcats have beaten the Sooners each of the last two seasons, becoming the first team to beat OU in back-toback regular-season games since Baylor in 2013-14.
This weekend, when the teams meet
in Manhattan, Kansas, beginning at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, the Sooners will be looking to break the streak and avoid becoming the first OU team to lose to an opponent in three consecutive seasons since Texas beat the Sooners from 1997-99.
The last time OU played at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, the Sooners jumped out to leads of 10-0 and 17-7 in the first quarter before falling behind 48-23 early in the fourth. OU cut the lead to 48-41 with just less than two minutes remaining but an onside kick try was ruled after replay to have hit Trejan Bridges’ knee, and the Wildcats held on.
That game was also one of the last times the Sooners played on the road in front of a full crowd. And that will be a key Saturday. The Sooners have several youngsters who have not played in front of a hostile crowd while away from Owen Field.
All of OU’s three road games last year — at Iowa State, TCU and Texas Tech — had dramatically reduced crowds due to the COVID-19 pandemic and their expected road opener this season, at Tulane, was ultimately moved from New Orleans to Norman due to Hurricane Ida.
“We really tried to prepare for that all the way through spring … knowing that just about half our roster, maybe close to half, hasn’t played a full college road game,” Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said. “We’ve tried to prepare guys for that challenge.”
The Sooners have lost just two true road games since Riley’s arrival as offensive coordinator in 2015 — that 2019 game in Manhattan and last season’s loss at Iowa State — going 24-2 in those games.
The number of Sooners who haven’t played in a road game with a full stadium of fans cheering against them in college is more than half. There are 32 players remaining on the roster who appeared in a road game in 2019 for the Sooners and six more who appeared in a road game that season for another Football Bowl Subdivision program.
Sophomore receiver Marvin Mims is among those Sooners who have yet to play in such a road environment.
“Honestly, I’ve been looking forward to more away games than I have home games,” Mims said. “Just because to have the crowd against you and stuff like that, I think that’s a really neat opportunity.”
In one of his last road games at Frisco (Texas) Lone Star, Mims remembers sprinting into the end zone and hearing … nothing.
It was Mims’ senior year in a tight backand-forth game against The Colony in a packed stadium when Mims caught a long touchdown pass on fourth down.
“It definitely does fuel me,” Mims said. “One of the things I like the most, even from high school playing against other schools, is silencing the crowd, silencing other teams’ student sections and stuff like that. I just think it’s a neat experience whenever you just take the air out of the stadium.”
There figures to be a much larger crowd Saturday as the Wildcats try to upset OU for the third consecutive season.
And Grinch said the Sooners — the whole team, not just the defense — have to be ready.
“A positive play, it might get awfully quiet out here when it happens,” Grinch said, referring to games at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. “The flip side, now all of a sudden, the crowd noise comes with it. I guess the best way to describe it is a negative play defensively strikes a feeling in you if you’re not careful.
“So just having the appropriate emotional response and getting dialed back in to the appropriate technique and play call (is big). Not allow yourself to get inundated with the emotional reaction of people in the stands. It’s easier said than done. It’s also awfully fun to do at this level.”