Coming off his Heisman moment – a five-play, 75-yard scoring drive to beat then No. 3 Texas 34-30 on the final play of the game – Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel and the Sooners (6-0, 3-0 in the Big 12 Conference) entertain Central Florida, Gabriel’s former team, entering their morning kickoff Saturday on ABC in Norman at 3-3 and 0-3.
Not bad for a team coming off its worst season in a quarter-century 6-7 with a 5-0 record with pretty-much blowout wins against Arkansas State, Tulsa, SMU, Iowa State and Cincinnati prior to its Red River Rivalry triumph over Texas, which admittedly didn’t play well enough to win, especially in the last two minutes.
Besides vaulting seven spots to No. 5 in the Associated Press poll, now No. 6, and seventh in the Coaches Poll on the heels of an open week, they’re ESPN’s Allstate Playoff Predictor favorite with a 22 percent chance of winning the national title, followed by Ohio State, Penn State, Florida State and Michigan.
It’s still too early for the College Football Playoff rankings, but can you see Brent Venables and his boys right there with Georgia vs. Michigan and Florida State?
I can. Just a thought on my part. Colin Cowherd of FOX apologized to Venables for not giving the Sooners enough street cred prior to the win over the Longhorns in Dallas a couple of weeks ago.
ESPN/ABC’s Kirk Herbstreit said at the time he believes Gabriel was the only quarterback thus far to have what we call a “Heisman moment.” The other hopefuls (at least to me, with a lot of season left to play) are Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., last year’s winner, Southern Cal quarterback Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders. Of course, all of them are quarterbacks.
A look at Week 8, all on FOX, gives us a Big 10 matchup between No. 3 Ohio State and No. 7 Penn State at the ‘Shoe in Columbus at 11 a.m., followed by No. 8 Texas at Houston at 3 p.m., and No. 14 Utah facing Williams and No. 18 Southern California tonight. Those are good games, but just speaking for myself I’ll keep an eye on (Coaches Poll) No. 15 Tennessee at No. 8 Alabama in a rivalry known as “Third Saturday in October.”
Alabama winning out would be more beneficial for the Longhorns, than Oklahoma finishing the regular season 12-0. The Texas-Houston matchup is interesting between a couple of old rivals in the Southwest Conference. Houston needed a last-second comeback of its own to defeat West Virginia for its initial Big 12 win on Oct. 12.
After its loss and a bye week, Texas needs to make a statement both offensively and defensively against the Cougars, who always see themselves as the underdog with something to prove when they play the Longhorns.
Enjoy.
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