It’s gut-check time for Jimbo Fisher and the Florida State Seminoles, but it’s also put up or shut up for Bob Stoops’ Oklahoma Sooners. Both teams have huge potential, and all that remains to be seen is how they’ll use it.

Florida State certainly had the easier game last week, blasting Samford 59-6, while Oklahoma had to hang on to beat Utah State 31-24 for the 800th win in the history of the program. But that was just a warm-up. Oklahoma in particular is going to need to execute better to maintain their number ten ranking and bring the home crowd a win.

Oklahoma’s defense didn’t equate itself very well on the passing attack last week, giving up 341 yards to an average Utah State team. That simply won’t cut it against Christian Ponder and the FSU offense.

Ponder didn’t play long in the rout of Sanford, but you can bet he’ll be in for the long haul this week. In his limited duty, he went 12-14 for 167 yards and four touchdowns. In addition, Ty Jones was bowling people over on the ground, averaging a whopping 13.4 yards per carry. He’ll have a lot more trouble putting up those kind of numbers against Oklahoma, who held Utah State to 80 yards on the ground. In fact, a bright spot for Oklahoma might be that their defense, while it took its licks last week, is far superior to that of Sanford, so the Seminoles might come out of the gate and make some mistakes that the Sooners can exploit.

FSU’s opening date couldn’t have gone better. They moved the ball very well on the ground and in the air and were able to keep Sanford bottled up. But this week, they’re in the big leagues, and they’ll have to approach the game with the same or greater intensity.

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