Florida State has lost its last four meetings against Oklahoma, including the last three in the Orange Bowl. Saturday’s contest marks the first regular season game between the two teams at Oklahoma since Bobby Bowden’s first year as the Seminoles head coach in 1976. Oklahoma has 31 consecutive home wins, which is currently the longest streak in the nation and the longest in school history.
Kickoff on Saturday is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET and the game will be televised regionally on ABC.
Hayes, Tampa Bay’s starting weakside linebacker, fires the opening salvo in his war of words with McCoy, the Bucs’ starting three-technique tackle.
GENO HAYES: “We’re going to prevail because we’re Florida State, baby! We’ve got a new coach and a new scheme. Christian Ponder is going to play great at quarterback and the running backs we have now are fast. I know they are too fast for Oklahoma. They don’t have speed like that up there like they do in the state of Florida. We’re going to beat them with speed. That’s the easy part. We’re going to beat them down the field and stretch their defense out and then hurt them on defense. They lost a lot of offensive starters in the draft.”
GERALD McCOY: “We’ll win because we’re Oklahoma. It’s as simple as that. We play with pride at home and we always protect our house. We slipped up and lost a game in 2005, but since then we haven’t lost. It’s been a long time. We don’t plan on losing at home. We have too much pride at home. We need to work on our performance on the road, but at home, it’s a little different.”
GENO HAYES: “We had a big-time win on the road last year at [No. 7] BYU. Nobody thought we had a chance because BYU was ranked and we killed them [54-28]. They can key off of last year’s win at BYU and they can key off being on a bigger stage in a nationally televised game against an opponent who is up there in the rankings. This has a chance to really thrust us up in the polls where we can get a better bowl game.”
GERALD McCOY: “When Texas Tech came in and they were the No. 2 team in the country, we beat them by 40. It doesn’t matter. If you come to Norman, prepare yourself to lose.”
GENO HAYES: “The deciding factor is going to be our defense stopping [running back] DeMarco Murray. He’s a good back and you have to respect that. If their offense doesn’t score a ton of points, we’ll win. Our defense is the key, but I think it will be a fairly high-scoring game.”
GERALD McCOY: “DeMarco Murray is a real good back. He’s got four years under his belt. He knows what to do. I’m not saying our O-linemen won’t block well, but even if they were not to block well he’s good enough to make something happen on his own. I like the matchup between our defensive end, Jeremy Beal, and [quarterback] Christian Ponder. Beal is going to win that. He’s a hard guy to block because they use him in so many different ways. He’s going to have some help, too. They are going to fix the defense after last week’s game against Utah State. We have [defensive tackle] Adrian Taylor, who started next to me, [defensive tackle] Casey Walker and [defensive tackle] Jamarkus McFarland. There is a lot of talent there. Our guys were not on top of their game last week and I let them hear it, too. I called all the leaders of the defense and told them that’s not the standard we want to set. They’ll fix it.”
GENO HAYES: “I think our guys are just motivated altogether just to play against Oklahoma. These are two big schools with two great traditions. They are going to have fun with that. The Noles are going to win – I’m not even doubting that.”
GERALD McCOY: “I don’t predict scores, I only predict wins. That’s what is going to happen. This game won’t be a blowout, but we will win.”
THE VERDICT: Pewter Report thinks both players made strong cases. McCoy stressing the play of Murray, Beal and the Sooners’ dominance at home was good, but Hayes’ reference of the upset at BYU, the play of Ponder and the speed of the Seminoles’ running game was just a bit more informative smack talk.
THE PREDICTION: Although Hayes talked a better game, Pewter Report is going to give the edge to the Sooners, who will be hell bent on showing that last week’s 31-24 close call against Utah State was a fluke. The play of Murray and wide receiver Ryan Broyles in Norman will be the difference in a high-scoring game.
Who do you think made the best case in the College Football Smackdown, Hayes or McCoy? Which team do you think will win? Sound off in our article comments section below.
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