Tennessee vs Oklahoma: Two Programs Who Need A Big Win
By Seth Norris
The game fans have been hopelessly waiting for is upon us.
The No. 23 ranked Tennessee Volunteers will be taking on the No.19 ranked Oklahoma Sooners (AP Poll rankings) Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. This will be the fourth meeting all-time between the Sooners and Vols (OU leads 2-1), and the first in Knoxville.
Although this match up does not have any conference implications, it is a big game for both programs.
Saturday is key because the teams have a hump that has recently plagued them. That hump is actually beating a ranked team.
2013-14
The last time either program beat a ranked team came in the 2013-14 season. That may not seem like a long time, but these are two squads who are constantly playing ranked teams. They are traditionally expected to win big games.
In the 2013 season, the Sooners did that. They finished with an 11-2 record with five of those wins coming over ranked teams. Four of those were top ten teams including the No. 3 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl.
Meanwhile, in Knoxville, the Vols ended the year with a 5-7 record, but under new direction of coach Butch Jones, the Vols claimed a win over the No. 11 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks. The Vols went on to lose four of their last five games.
Streaks
As mentioned above, the last win over a ranked team for the Sooners came at the end of the 2013 season against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Although it seemed that Alabama team wasn’t there mentally, the win catapulted Oklahoma to title contenders for the 2014 season.
That was not the outcome.
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The Sooners, who were ranked as high as fourth in the country in 2014, struggled against ranked opponents. To be exact, Oklahoma went 0-4 against teams inside the Top 25. They fell to TCU, Kansas State, Baylor, and Clemson. The most notable, were the end of the year bouts with Baylor and Clemson. They lost both by 34 points.
Tennessee’s streak is a bit longer. Doubled in fact. Sorry.
After the win over South Carolina, the Vols carried a three game ranked losing streak to the 2014 season. The Vols went 0-5 last season, with one of those losses coming to the Sooners in Norman, OK.
What it Means
First of all, a win for either team will end a streak, and propel one team to an unblemished record through two games.
However, for each program, there’s a bigger purpose at hand.
For Oklahoma, coach Bob Stoops can get his legacy as “Big Game Bob” back on track, and the program heading towards a potential playoff berth. Oklahoma is a team that has not had to go through a rebuilding process in the last ten years. Since the national championship under Stoops in 2000, Oklahoma has not won less than eight games in a season. The goal is the same for them every year, and that is to get to a national championship.
A win over the up and coming Tennessee team would continue that traditional goal, but it would also help aide Stoops’ apparent anti SEC agenda. He has been quoted calling the SEC “propaganda” implying that the SEC is overrated. It is clear that he does not believe the SEC is the best conference in the nation, and a win over an SEC opponent would just further his belief.
For Tennessee, this win means much more. People are paying attention to the Vols again. The goal for the program, or at least the fans, is at least an eight win season with the potential to win the SEC East. Some have even called the Vols a “dark horse” contender for the playoff.
Tennessee has endured more over the last few years than Oklahoma. Tennessee’s had four different coaches during the era of Bob Stoops. A legend was relieved of his duties, one ran the program into the ground, and the other bolted in the middle of the night. Butch Jones has seemingly cleaned up the mess, and this might be the year he can finally put the broom up.
A win over Oklahoma will give the Vols momentum going into SEC play, and an important game against Florida. With a decade long losing streak to the Gators, a win over Western Carolina (September 19) will do nothing for confidence; the Vols will need something meaningful to help get the Florida monkey off of the back.
Saturday night could be a huge step in that direction.
It will also be a step in the right direction for the legacy of Coach Jones. In his time with Tennessee, he is 1-11 against ranked opponents.
Jones has proven that he is a great recruiter bringing in top 10 and top 5 classes in his first few seasons at the helm. However, he has yet to prove that he can coach a team to a “big game” victory. Whether that’s attributed to inexperience, lack of talent, or just plain old mistakes, prevailing over Oklahoma could be the start of many more prime time wins for Jones.