Tilting at Windmills

This week presented the first real challenges in ranking

• Do you rank OU ahead of BYU?
• Do you rank Ohio State ahead of USC?
• How can you not rank FSU ahead of BYU?
• How high do you rank the young Canes?
• What’s more important how you lost, or how you won?

As always comments are appreciated and like last week will be integrated into the final ballot that I have to submit Tuesday night.

Just a reminder, here’s the criteria that I’m using

The prior Top 25 will have no significant impact on the new one. Teams won’t hold positions playing scrubs in OOC play over teams with real wins in September. Just because a team is 18th doesn’t mean it moves up because the 17th ranked team loses. Teams resumes will go up and down as the season goes on.

It was the unspeakable unmetionable that nobody wanted to say. It was the most obvious “what-if” nightmare scenario and it showed up in a crumpled heap on the floor of Cowboys Stadium right before halftime Saturday night.

Slingin’ Sam Bradford became Sam-in-a-sling when he landed hard on his throwing shoulder just after passing fellow Sooner Heisman winner Jason White for the all-time passing record at Oklahoma. You could feel and hear 90 percent of a 74,000+ crowd gasp a collective “oh shit” as Sam lay writhing on the Jerryworld turf.

Up to that point, Bradford wasn’t looking great, but he sure wasn’t bad: he was efficient and making good reads, but wasn’t able to take enough time to go through all of his progressions and hit the downfield balls he was used to completing to Iglesias and Gresham. The real problem was an offensive line that looked like they had all been moved over from tight end, rather than just Eldridge who was needed more as a backup starting center than as a backup starting tight end.

So, what went right and what went wrong? A little and dear lord, where should we start.

The Good

OU’s defensive line. BYU’s Max Hall might have gone Leach on the OU secondary in the first half, but it wasn’t for lack of line push. He was able to pick apart a soft middle on short drops before anybody could get to him. In the second half when the Sooners needed something big from the defense to help out a struggling offense, Gerald McCoy and Jeremy Beal were huge. McCoy literally took over one series. The coaches must have thought so, too, because McCoy signaled to come out after getting gassed from making just bout every play in the series, but everybody on the sidelines looked like they were texting Sergio Kindle the number of a good DWI attorney instead of looking at the field.

Travis Lewis is playing like a Butkus finalist already. Whenever the defense needed a play, Lewis was there. He finished with 13 tackles and was a force all night.

Ryan Reynolds. You’ll see him mentioned again, but here we’ll cite him for playing very well as long as the play was run or thrown right at him. He was part of a big push up the middle (along with McCoy) that limited BYU to 28 yards on 33 carries. He also made some nice jujitsu moves after his interception, but the fear was that he’d blow a non-existent knee while juking air.

Brandon Caleb. In his first significant action of his career, Caleb was OU’s best receiver on the field, catching 4 balls for 57 yards.

Tress Way. You know it’s a bad night when you cite the punter for a good game, but after a shaky WTF start in the first half, Way was booming kicks after halftime. The bad part was he had to punt seven times.

What went wrong

Again, where to start. The most glaring and obvious place is in the offensive line. With apologies to the Fiesta Bowl fiasco against West Virginia, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a Stoops unit so ill-prepared and undisciplined. The OL had three (3) false starts on the first series of the game with right tackle Cory Brandon logging two of his four on the night. Those are Flozell fucking Adams numbers. Brandon was also flagged twice for holding. The glass half full thought there is well, at least he waited for the fucking snap count on those plays.

Brandon might need some of Schmitty’s motivational techniques.

Brandon’s death knell was his last false start of the game on OU’s final drive, pushing the inexperienced Landry Jones back into a 3rd and 14 from unmakeable field goal range. Which dovetails into …

Coaching. Nevermind that there’s not a single person on the roster trusted to kick a field goal past 45 yards (and even that’s stretching it). The decision to send out Way was almost an act of desperation, as if to say that the chances of him making that were greater than the freshman QB converting a fourth and long. I vehemently disagree and I’m not alone. There’s at least a chance of making that fourth down. With all apologies to whoever the fuck wants an apology, there’s zero chance OU is making that field goal this year.

Ryan Reynolds. In a footrace between a sloth, a chunk of granite and Ryan Reynolds, #4 is taking silver. It took BYU exactly half a series to figure out OU couldn’t cover anybody over the middle. Granted, it’s not Reynolds’ fault: the guy literally has no knees, so expecting him to cover even slow, 26-year-old Mormon missionary-returnees is asking a little much. In fact, the Cougars rarely threw outside the hash marks, knowing that they’d be wide open with YAC downfield between the tackles. Which brings us back to …

Coaching. The upside with Brent Venables is he can coach linebackers like nobody’s business. See: Curtis Lofton, Rufus Alexander, Teddy Lehman, Rocky Calmus, Torrance Marshall, Lance Mitchell and Travis Lewis. The downside is that Venables suckles at the teat of three linebackers on the field no matter the down, the distance, time on the clock or day of the week. Venables was a hot commodity not too long ago with head coaching vacancies around the country and can we honestly say OU is better off with people failing to hire him away? I realize that we at TaW are just some hack bloggers who paid $80-100 to see the game, $30 to park and $8.50 for a fucking hot dog, but it doesn’t take a resume littered with Butkus winners and Big 12 Defensive Players of the Year to see that Ryan Reynolds can … not … cover … anybody … over … the … fucking … middle. Whither Mike Stoops.

Inconclusive

Landry Jones. The worst you can point out about Landry is that horrible growth is above his lip. Landry, do something before you start looking like this:

No, Landry didn’t look great. He looked like a redshirt freshman on national TV who had no clue he was going to be called upon. He did not look like Sam Bradford, which isn’t his fault whatsoever. He also didn’t have time to look through any reads at all unless Brandon was bear-hugging his man. Landry needs to grow up in a hurry, though. He’ll get some good scrimmage time against Idaho State while we learn more about the extent of Sam’s injury.

Final analysis

It didn’t just look ugly: it was ugly. It wasn’t even butterface ugly where the chick might be marginal above the neck, but displays such a nice rack that you can kind of overlook it. The Sooner defense, for all of its pass coverage flaws, was opportunistic and able to hold BYU to 14 points. Anytime you do that to a MWC team, you should win. Obviously, the Sooners desperately need Bradford to summon the regenerative healing powers of Wolverine, pop his shoulder back in like Detective Murtock Riggs and be ready for Miami. Jermaine Gresham returning immediately, if not sooner, will also help Landry immensely.

Right now, all we can do is wait and hope. If Sam’s injury is as they say (A/C joint sprain – I don’t even know what the hell that means) and it’s 1-3 weeks, it could give the OL time to gel and give Brandon enough soap-in-a-sock treatments that the Sooners could turn this around. If Bradford’s injury is more severe and he’s out for an extended period of time, start making your plans for San Antonio and be thankful.

It’s that time.

Two months from kickoff and Coach Stoops has released his patent summer depth chart. Let the hoopla begin.

On the offensive side of the ball

We all know that last year was, literally, a year for the ages. Will college football ever see an offense like that again? If Oklahoma’s four new starters on the O-line can hold up, the 2008 Oklahoma offense may have company in the record books.

QB - Sam. Bradford. Need I say more?

RB – The thunder and lightning of the great plains. Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray are back, giving Oklahoma the best backfield in the nation. If Murray can stay healthy, and the O-line can make a couple holes, these two will be spending there Saturday afternoons in the opposing teams secondary. Last year, both Brown and Murray had 1,000 yard seasons. They do that again, it will be another long season for the opposing teams. Besides racking up the yards, Brown and Murray will play an integral part in keeping the opposing D honest, opening up the airways for Sammy B.

The new name on the depth chart is that of heralded recruit Jermie Calhoun. I suspect that Jermie will be receiving a fair amount of playing time this year, and  I am excited about this kid’s potential. 6′ 0″ 218 Jermie adds yet another dimension to this already stacked running game. Some season previews out there are predicting Calhoun to be the third down specialist. If Calhoun is successful, he will be extremely beneficial to Brown.

FB – Matt Clapp is back. The man is a blocking machine. Voted Big 12 first team by the coaches last year, he also proved last year he can do more than just block. He  caught touchdowns in three games. Could we see him utilized more this year in short dump passes, or on the goal line like last year? Brody Eldridge is Clapp’s backup, more on him under TEs.

TE – The man, the myth, the legend once again leads the TEs.  Predicted to be the first TE taken in last year’s draft, Jermaine Gresham (Grishem for those of you who listen to Herbstreit) could be listed as either a TE or WR on the depth chart, all 6′ 6″ 258 lbs of him. Gresham will quickly become Bradford’s No. 1 target regardless of the performance of the O-line. I’m sure just like last year, we will be seeing Gresham line up as a split end in a 3 or 4 wide out set. Why not? With his downhill speed and overall size, he makes the saltiest downfield target in college football.

Opposite Gresham in two TE sets is Brody Eldridge. Brody knows how to throw a block party. He is also listed as the backup to Matt Clapp at FB. Obviously it looks as though his ankle is back to 100%. Brody could end up playing a huge role in the O-line. James Hanna, Eric Mensik, and Trent Rattarree don’t have measurable TE experience except for Hanna who recorded a reception against e”aTm”e last year.

WR – The WR corp is anchored by Ryan Broyles and Adron “Pooh” Tennell. These two could make for a very exciting tandem. Broyles had glimpses of grandeur last year, and is going to make for an extremely exciting flanker to watch. Will he follow in the footsteps of Clayton and Iglesias and be the new YAC-man? At only 5′ 11″ 178, Broyles can easily make the defenders miss.

Pooh has the physical ability to be a big play home run ball receiver, but has been hampered in recent years by an ACL injury. Apparently one of the biggest stars in spring practice, 6′ 4″ Pooh has a chance to step up for the Sooners in a big way.

Backing up Broyles and Pooh is Brandon Caleb, fresh off his move from RB, Mossis Madu, Dejuan Miller and Jameel Owens. All four saw playing time and the ball last year, but the most exciting has to be Mossis Madu. His display in the Big 12 Championship showed his athletic ability with the ball in his hands. He will make a great backup to the Broyles in the flanker position.

OL – The first major question mark on this side of the ball. Is it possible to replace two starters that both topped out over 6′ 7″ and 350? We can try. The only remaining starter from last year is Trent Williams, and he has been moved from RT to LT to protect Sam’s weakside. Right now it looks as though the other four starters are Brian Simmons at LG, Ben Habern at C, Stephen Good at RG, and Cory Brandon at RT.

Don’t be mistaken about the potential of this line. These guys are by no means scrubs. LG Brian Simmons played in all 14 games last year, and led the reserves with 50 knockdowns, 10 coming against TCU, and played 421 snaps. ESPN ranked C Ben Habern as the No. 2 C in the nation out of high school, last year Habern had nine knockdowns against Baylor in nine plays before suffering an ankle injury. RG Stephen Good was ranked the No. 2 run-blocker in the nation out of high school by Rivals. (Trust me, that’s a good ranking by Rivals for an OU player.) And, RT Cory Brandon saw 148 snaps last year in nine games, with 16 knockdowns.

The reserves aren’t scrubs either. Backup LG Tavaris Jefferies ranked in the top 25 JUCO transfers is living up to expectations, and the back up RT Jarvis Jones has seen ample playing time in his one season at LSU.

I will say this about our O-line. I am glad we are starting the season against BYU. Three of their defensive lineman will not be playing. One for academic reasons, and two have opted to serve their mission trips.

On the defensive side of the ball

This year’s defense will make your mouth water. While they had their ups and downs last year, when they were called out, they came to play. Remember Texas Tech? The front seven is vicious. Boasting what could be the best defensive line in the nation, and a line backing corp led by a healthy Ryan Reynolds, I wouldn’t want to be named Colt or Zac this year.

DL – Led by the man who would have been OU’s 3rd first round draft pick last year, DT Gerald McCoy, this year’s D-line could live up to the D-lines of the Mike Stoops era. One of the DE is Auston English, we all know what this kid is capable of when he is healthy. If he is back to his 2007 form, someone give him a tent because he will camped out in the opponents’ backfield on Saturdays. The NG is Adrian Taylor, who exploded onto the D-line last year starting all 14 games, tied for third on the team with 4.5 sacks, and was second in the DT rotation with 21 tackles.  Cemented next to him is DT Gerald McCoy, the Big 12 defensive player of the year. He led all interior lineman with 30 tackles and was 2nd on the team with 6.5 sacks. Face it, you don’t want to be lined up across from this man. The other DE is Jeremy Beal. This kid is nasty, all Big 12 first team last year, leading tackler on the D-line, led the team with 8.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for a loss. I just hope Auston has room for two in that tent.

Here comes the scary part. The “reserves” on the D-line could be starting at any other of the 118 Div-1 schools. Frank Alexander, Demarcus Granger, Cordero Moore, and David King round out the scariest D-line in the nation. You may think I forgot to mention Stacy McGee or RJ Washington but I assure you I didn’t. They aren’t on the two-deep chart.

LB – There have been some conflicting reports at the LB position. In the early June depth chart, Ryan Reynolds and Austin Box were missing, and the MLB depth chart was Mike Balogun followed by Tom Wort. In the July 1 update posted on soonersports.com Reynolds is the starting MLB backed up by Balogun, and Box is still missing. If Reynolds and Box both come back 100% like soonersports.com is reporting they are, will Box be No. 3 at MLB come start of the season, or will he jump Balogun? Either way we have a plethora of stud LBs.

On the SLB is Keenan Clayton, who set an OU record last year with six forced fumbles, and was third on the team with 84 tackles, and is backed up by JR Bryant. The WLB is Travis Lewis, who was all over the field last year. The Big 12 newcomer of the year and first teamer broke the Boz’s freshman tackles record of 144. He had at least 10 tackles in six games, including a monstrous 19 against texas, and also had 4 INTs on the year. Backing up Lewis is Jaydan Bird, the other star LB we landed last year. His 4.5 speed should make him a nice backup to the 4.34 Lewis.

If the LB corp can stay healthy, you want see any RBs get past them, or any passes over the middle, just like the beginning of last season before Reynolds went down. The LBs are the most important part of this defense. A strong consistent year from the LBs will have the Sooner defense ranked among the best in the nation.

CB/SS/FS -  What has been the weakest part of the defense in recent years, is making a comeback. The CB duo of Dom Franks and Brian Jackson held steady last year, and continued to improve as the season went on. Jackson was all Big 12 honorable mention, fourth on the team in tackles with 66, and tied for the team lead in fumble recoveries with three and 10 pass break ups. Franks was all Big 12 first team by the Dallas Morning News, led the defense with two touchdowns and tied Jackson with 10 pass break ups. Look for these two to become two of our strongest defenders.

Quinton Carter became the starting FS last season when the defense shifted to the five d-back set.  He had 10 tackles in his first start, and we can all remember his hits against Missouri in the Big 12 Championship.

Next to Carter is SS Sam Proctor who has some big shoes to fill. He will be the weakest link in the defensive backfield. With no experience in game situations Proctor may have some difficulty coming out of the gates, but with the experience surrounding him, hopefully it will be a smooth transition.

This is the one area of the defense where we are rather thin. The reserves, Jonathan Nelson, Javon Harris, Emmanuel Jones, and Jamell Fleming have as much experience playing their respective positions as I do.

Special Teams

Ohhh special teams. The thorn in our side.

K/P – Jimmy Stevens is handling place kicking duties again this year, after coming off a year where he tallied 116 points on the season. He missed five PATs and his longest boot was 42 yards.

We have a new face our punting game, Tress Way. Way redshirted last year, but was ranked the No. 11 punter in the nation coming out of high school. Our punting game can only improve over last year, right?

KR/PR - Broyles and Franks are listed as our returners right now. While this could change in an instance, I don’t see it happening. it would be shocking to see Murray fielding kicks again. After his last two injuries we need to keep him on the sidelines when the special teams is on the field.

So there you have it. My look at the OU summer depth chart. Which could change next week, or the first day of fall practice.