The Oklahoma Sooners are one of four teams to make it to this years College Football Playoff. The Sooners, though ranked 4th, are to some the most dangerous team of the remaining four. They are big as Alabama, fast as Clemson, and are just as physical as Michigan State.
The Sooners can hit you from every angle. Texas Tech transfer Baker Mayfield can throw the ball on a rope like Drew Brees, or tuck the ball and put a defensive back flat on his back like Cam Newton. Dab.
Sterling Sheppard is one of the most dynamic receivers in college football and could likely see his name called on day 1 of the 2016 NFL Draft. Last, but not least Semaje Perine and Joe Mixon look like a reincarnation of Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown. Both are fast, powerful, and like a wife after twenty years of marriage, they simply refuse to go down.
Individually they are good, but as a collective group, Oklahoma ended the season looking very scary.
There was a turning point for the Sooners this year. Most reports and analyst would say, ‘of course, the Texas game’ in which the Longhorns – who finished 5-7 and 7th in the Big 12 – piled up over 300 yards on the ground and defeated the Sooners 24-17 in a game in which the Sooners were favored to win by 17.
If you ask anyone outside the locker room, the Texas game was the turning point, but if you talk to anyone inside the Barry Switzer Center it was March 7th.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a fraternity on the University of Oklahoma campus released a video filming a song which members yelled in unison, the song included the lines “You can hang from a tree, but you’ll never sign with me. There will never be a n—-r in SAE”
“We’ve come such a long way in this country period when it comes to race,” senior linebacker Eric Striker told ESPN.
“These the type of things that just keep pushing us back, and holding us back, and bring us back when we’re trying to make progress. It’s just like, ugh. Here we go again.”
The video went viral, spreading across the nation and the University of Oklahoma was on the forefront of yet another race inspired issue in America.
“Guys wanted to do something, this is bigger than football. This is an issue in America that we need to address,” said Striker.
It started as angered meetings between a group of players. That group eventually grew into whole team, and after a while, the coaches joined the meetings as well. It became clear to the whole program, something needed to be done.
With the rest of the nation watching, the OU football team banded together, dropped their helmets, and locked their arms.
“If this is not more important than football, what is? Once they understood where we were coming from, that’s where the brotherhood started,” defensive end Charles Tapper told Bleacher Report.
“They were all there, all trying to get the better for the team, get the better for the university, get the better for the world.”
Amidst the controversy, the OU team grew a special bond. Black, white, brown, all coming together. Showing that they are more than just football players, using their unique platform and letting the world know certain actions and slurs will no longer be tolerated in this day and age.
“Because more than three quarters of my team is minority, and so it hits home,” Head Coach Bob Stoops said.
“We felt strong enough. Let’s do something about it.”
The SAE house was eventually disbanded.
When it was time to pick their helmets back up, the Sooners had built a brotherhood that led them to heights they couldn’t have imagined. Dominating opponents week in and week out. And as far as the Texas game, those inside that locker room know the loss against the Longhorns wasn’t the turning point. That was the test. How they responded to the loss and continued their dominance from that week forward proved to themselves, they passed the test.
Now, with undefeated Clemson and dynamic playmaker Deshaun Watson awaiting them in a few hours, the Sooners put on the crimson and white with pride. They have already fought the toughest battle they’ll face all year. With a shot at the National Championship on the line, Oklahoma is ready to rise to the occasion once again.
“Coach Stoops had our back, linebacker Dominique Alexander said. “And if he fought for us, we want to fight for him.”