Fiesta Bowl 2011 Oklahoma Sooners vs. Connecticut: Can Huskies Upset Sooners?

We have heard all of the criticism with the 2011 Fiesta Bowl that would be expected when Connecticut, a team who lost to Temple (8-4 (5-3 MAC)), Louisville (6-6 (3-4 Big East)) and Rutgers (4-8 (1-6 Big East)), plays a team like Oklahoma.

The Big East is too weak to have an automatic qualifier anymore.

Connecticut isn't even ranked.

The Huskies aren't even the best team in their conference.

They lost to a MAC team for heaven's sake, how can they expect to match up with a Big 12 Champion.

Well, certainly there is a huge task at hand for the Huskies, as they are facing a team that won a conference with five ranked teams, and are ranked #7 in the country, while they themselves are in a conference with one ranked team sitting at #22 and probably didn't even crack the top 30 in the BCS.

Well, to all the nay-sayers out there, I tell you one thing. Suck it up.

Yea, there are more deserving teams in the country, but the system is flawed, and there is nothing we can do about it right now.

The way the talk is going, seems that the game has already been played, and UConn doesn't have a snowball's chance in the desert while a big, fat sweaty man scorches it with a magnifying glass of winning this game.

Well, this is sports folks, and if there is one truth that I have learned in my limited number of years watching them, it's that any team can beat any other team on any given day.

So, let's take a look at what the Huskies need to do in order to pull off the major upset on New Years Day.

This may seem like a basic plan for any game, but beating the Oklahoma Sooners starts with stopping them from controlling the run game.

They are not known for their prolific run game, but that doesn't mean that they are a bad rushing team.

In their ten wins this season, the Sooners have run for an average of 166.6 yards per game. When they have lost, that number is down to only 85.5 yards.

Leading rusher DeMarco Murray has seemingly been taken out of the offense bit by bit, as he hasn't had a 100 yard rushing game since Oklahoma beat Iowa State 52-0 in the sixth game of the season.

They have had him split carries with Mossis Madu, Roy Finch and Brennan Clay more in the second half of the season, so as to fool the defense with the feature back out of the backfield.

So, it must be said that even when Murray isn't on the field, make sure to lock down the run game, or they could catch you napping.

When Landry Jones is good, he's really good. When he isn't good, he is shaky the whole game.

If the Huskies can keep Jones from striking downfield early in the game, and delay his first touchdown as long as possible, it will do wonders for the rest of the game.

In games where Jones throws at least one interception, his completion percentage is 61.2 percent. Not terrible, but when compared to his 71.3 percent in non-interception throwing games, it is by far the lesser of two evils.

Even better, in games where Jones has multiple interceptions, he is at a 58.1 completion percentage.

Seven of the 19 times Jones has been sacked this season came in those three multiple interception games.

So, if the UConn front four can get good penetration on the Oklahoma offensive line, a difficult task for even the best of defenses, it has a good chance of rattling the quarterback, and forcing him into a dumb pass.

Yet another obvious thing to do in any given football game, but it is even more important to do against Oklahoma.

The Sooners don't have one of the best defenses in the country, giving up over 360 total yards a game, but they do boast a plethora of players who can take the ball away from the other team.

Oklahoma has 30 takeaways this season, which is the main reason it is only allowing 21 points this season.

The Huskies have been able to take care of the ball with great ease this season, with only 17 turnovers in 12 games, to contrast with 29 takeaways.

If Connecticut can do what it has done all season, and post a positive turnover ratio, it has a chance of winning this game.

I'm gonna tell you a secret. Connecticut doesn't have a terrific offense.

Oh, that's not a secret. Well then, something must be done about this.

It will be almost impossible to stop Oklahoma from scoring, as it has only been held below 27 points twice this season, and is averaging 36.4 points per game.

UConn isn't going to find itself in a game that comes down to the wire with the score hovering around 19-16, much in the way that it played games all season long.

To win this game, the Huskies are going to have to get creative on offense in order to fool the Oklahoma defense, which is prone to taking risks in order to grab an opportune interception.

What better way to fool a defense than to take it from one of the best teams at doing so against good teams: Boise State.

Like the Broncos' upset of Oklahoma in 2007, it will be necessary for Connecticut to do whatever it takes and to pull out all the stops in order to take down Goliath.

The best thing to do when playing in what will be the biggest football game in your school's history is to stay calm and enjoy the moment.

That may sound like an impossible thing to do given the circumstances, but the biggest thing for UConn to remember is that all the pressure is on Oklahoma. Everyone expects it to win the game.

Bob Stoops has been here before, and if he loses another BCS game to a supposed lesser opponent, it may mean trouble.

There will be people who bring up the four losses that UConn boasts this season, and they are some pretty big losses, for a case that there is no reason for them to even be in the game. Maybe they are right, but who cares. What's done is done, and the game is set.

The most important thing to do in this situation is to just zone it out if at all possible.

Finally, the biggest thing to do is hope and pray, because the odds are stacked quite high against the Huskies, and it will take every bit of good luck going in the direction of Connecticut in order for the final score to be in their favor.