Saturday’s matchup with No. 18 TCU will be one of the most important home games for the Sooners in years. But it will also be the last home game for one of the most influential classes in recent memory.
“I’m just trying to soak everything in,” senior receiver Durron Neal said of walking off Owen Field for the final time on Saturday. “When it comes, I don’t know how I’m going to react to it.”
Neal is one of seven starters who will be making his final start on Owen Field on Saturday. He’ll join receiver Sterling Shepard, offensive linemen Ty Darlington and Nila Kasitati, defensive end Charles Tapper and linebackers Eric Striker and Devante Bond.
Excluding Kasitati, who is a fifth-year senior, and Bond, who is a JUCO transfer, this group came in together in the class of 2012. From the beginning, they were a tight-knit group.
Neal remembers messaging Shepard and redshirt junior Zack Sanchez on Twitter before they even arrived on campus. He claims Striker insisted everyone listen to his “Tampa music." Though he despised it at first, Neal says it grew on him over time.
Those were the beginnings of what would become a very close senior class. And given the ups and downs of their tenure in Norman, they would need it.
“We stayed together,” Neal added. “We didn’t let it break us. We have a very close senior class. I wouldn’t want to do it with any other class.
“We have been through a lot of adversity, and we embraced it, we never let it us down and we always embraced one another and we always helped one another.”
This class has seen it all. They went through the highs of a Sugar Bowl win at the end of the 2013 season. They endured a five-loss campaign in what was supposed to be a national championship caliber season.
They led a team through the depths of a campus-wide racial issue after the SAE video surfaced last spring.
“We’ve seen everything,” Sanchez said. “Our leadership, I think, is the biggest thing that we needed to contribute this year to the team especially with as many young guys as have on (both sides of the ball).
“Our bond together just helped out the team a lot more," he said.
That leadership, coupled with a new offense led by Baker Mayfield, has translated on the field. After losing a game to Texas on Oct. 10, the Sooners have rebounded in a way they weren’t able to last season.
“That’s something we do talk about as a senior class,” Neal said. “We took it upon ourselves as the leaders of this team to rally the guys and lead the way from every position group and try to make this a special season.”
Sanchez will, in all likelihood, be around for another season while other members from that 2012 recruiting class move on to the next step. Asked if he would miss those guys after the season is over, Sanchez didn’t hesitate.
“Of course, I’m going to miss them,” he said. “We’ve grinded together for three, almost four years now, so we’re definitely a lot closer than teammates.
“They’re my brothers, from Ty to Shep to (Durron Neal) and Strike obviously and Tap. (Senior night) is going to be a very special night for those guys, and we’re hopefully going to send them out the right way. That’s the plan.”
