It’s week 4 and we finally start to get a fairly significant slate of conference games! You know, like Tennessee @ Oklahoma, Northwestern @ Washington, and Stanford @ Syracuse. Looking at conference schedules is going to be like looking at an Arby’s menu for a while. They’ve become cluttered with chicken wraps, gyros, and burgers for the new generations, but for us traditionalists the core of roast beef sandwiches and potato cakes can still be found if we look hard enough.
Week 4 Pro Tips:
- When you mix extra covid years, medical redshirts, and now lucrative NIL deals you end up with some dudes that know NFL futures are slim, so they do what any of us would and hang onto their college glory days as long as possible. This has never been so prevalent as this week when Utah travels to Stillwater. The combined age of their QBs is 49 years old, while the combined age of the QBs in Colts-Bears this week is 44! Icy Hot is really missing out on a gameday sponsorship here.
- One tip we’ve learned is you should never be too confident about any wager involving weeknight games because something about them always seems so unpredictable. Maybe it’s because we’re already cheating by sneaking in football on a non-traditional night, but things just get weird. Just look at this Thursday’s South Alabama-App State game. Not only did the 1st half under miss on this play, but those that had over 62.5 missed by half a point thanks to what happened here.
- If you’re in on biscuits, you gotta go to Marshall. Marshall coach, Charles Huff, didn’t pull any punches in his presser this week trying to lure away talent from tOSU with the best bait he has in his tackle box. The only criticism we have for Coach Huff shooting his shot is maybe he should target the “big, strong” guys rather than the “fast” guys when all-you-can-eat biscuits is his biggest selling point.
TOS GAME OF THE WEEK
Tennessee (-7) @ Oklahoma 6:30PM CDT ABC
What we like about this game: If you haven’t been beat over the head with it yet, you will come Saturday. Coach Josh Heupel returns to Norman for the first time since being fired by Bob Stoops as the Offensive Coordinator and replaced by some guy from East Carolina named Lincoln Riley. Folks around Norman originally assumed he would be in line to take the head job from Bob eventually – unfortunately, the Sooners fan base and their notorious message board trolls couldn’t wait to run him out of town. The last time Coach Heupel donned the headset for the Sooners was an embarrassing 40-6 loss to Clemson in the Russell Athletic Bowl. The DC he was matched up against on the other sideline in that game? You guessed it, Brent Venables. Since the firing, Josh Heupel has not spoken to Coach Stoops, even with Coach Stoops doing as much damage control as possible. Coach Heupel also quarterbacked the Sooners to their last national title back in 2000, the same year Coach Venables joined the OU staff. Lots of mixed emotions in this one, but the bottom line is Heupel will be out for blood. If you think onside kicking up 30-0 last week was something, just wait until this week.
What we love about this game: It’s time for OU fans to put their money where their mouth is. After spending all last year chanting S-E-C any chance they got as they completed their final lap around the Big 12 circuit, they are finally hosting their first SEC conference game and boy did they get a doozy. Reality is coming and those cocky Sooner fans finally have to own up to the talk. Unfortunately for them, Vegas is painting a grim picture. Not only is this the first time in 26 years OU has been a 7+ point underdog at home, but it’s the first time in 46 years that they’ve been more than a 4 point underdog when ranked! However, the last time OU was backed into a corner against Tennessee, they found a way to walk away victorious. This game is going to have the build up of one of the best games of the year, let’s hope the play on the field lives up to the hype. Otherwise, the Toby Keith sing-a-long in the 4th quarter might have a somber tune for the Sooner faithful.
To download a .PDF copy of the watch guide, click here.
