Sooner football players excited to take show on the road

The Oklahoma football team will take on the Florida State Seminoles this Saturday, facing a fifth-ranked Seminole team looking for revenge after getting throttled 47-17 last year in Norman.

Even though Saturday’s game is receiving a lot of hype, coaches and players said Oklahoma is no stranger to big games.

“We’ve played in a whole bunch of big games,” defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “We don’t say, ‘OK, these are nonconference, and now these are conference.’ Every week is a challenge. You get everybody’s best shot. Everybody’s got players these days. Everybody can score. They’re a really good team, and so are we. So the biggest game is the next game on the schedule.”

While the OU coaching staff is quick to point out Saturday will just be another game, players acknowledged it is a little bit easier to get excited while preparing to play a team as good as FSU in the biggest game of the week.

Sophomore linebacker Tom Wort had a big game in the first week of the season while representing Austin Box by wearing the No. 12 jersey. However, as hyped as he was for the season opener, Wort said getting ready for FSU will not be a problem.

“The mindset of this group is they want to take the ‘Sooner Show’ on the road,” Wort said. “We’re excited to go perform in a big game like this. I mean, it’s what you come to school here for — to play in big games. And you can’t say it’s just another game because it is against a top-five team, it is on the road and it is College GameDay. So, you can’t help but to get excited.”

Florida State will be prepared to make a statement against the Sooners. The Seminoles have said publicly that they have this game circled on the schedule. The Sooners, though, have their fair share of motivation as well.

This is a team that knows what it is like to have high expectations and come up short. The Sooners were ranked No. 1 in the BCS last year before losing on the road to Missouri. This year’s squad does not want a repeat performance.

“Florida State is the next team in a 12-round playoff,” Wort said. “Nothing is going to get in the way of our goals. Of course it’s a big game, but I feel like there’s not a team that can beat us except us. So, we just have to go in with the right mindset. We’re going to be excited. We’re going to be hyped up, but we just have to go out there and perform.”

Greg Fewell

Greg is a former staff member of The Oklahoma Daily who worked as Sports Editor, Assistant Sports Editor and Sports Reporter.