Tilting at Windmills

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.

The entire season is in that sling.

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:

Jackie Treehorn still hasn't paid him his royalties.

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?

Mr. Heisman

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.

A crowd of over 25,000 gathered in Norman for the OU Red-White Spring game. Many, like me, paid $10 to watch a glorified practice. But we do it because we know there won’t be OU football for 4 months and because we have no social life. So my lonely friends and I gathered at GFOMS to see what was going to happen and to look for things to worry and fret about. Before the actual scrimmage there was a flag football game played by several OU alums. I didn’t make it in time and didn’t hear much discussion about, but apparently Snorter Luster saw it.

The pregame coin toss group was joined by honorary captains Jamelle Holieway, Tony Casillas, Lydell Carr and Brian Bosworth. The team with the highest number of honorary captains with DUIs got to call the toss. The scoring system for the Red-White game was created by a combination of test lab monkeys on acid and the International Finance Department from the Price School of Business. I’ll admit up front I’m not sure what the final score was, but the white team (defense) won.

Casillas and Boz were there to show off their rings.

Initially the first team offense went against the first team defense. Jermaine Gresham, Matt Clapp, Brody Eldridge, Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray did not play but Sam Bradford did … for 3 series. Madu started in the slot and Justin Johnson started at TB. OU never ran the I-formation today and the schemes were very vanilla. It was a hurry up offense, but mostly hurry up and punt. Stephen Good was also sidelined, and Brian Lepak started in his place. He spent most of the day diving at DE’s and DT’s who ran by him. It was not a good day for the walk-on transfer from Colorado State. After a few plays the red team was forced to punt. Tress Way lost the coin toss so he was elected to punt today. His first few efforts were very poor, although I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and dismiss it as first game jitters from a redshirt frosh.

Landry Jones led the 2nd team offense against the 2nd team defense. Very quickly the young LB’s Franklin, Wort and Bird stood out. Javon Harris also got the call at safety for the #2′s. Jermie Calhoun was the #2 RB and he did show occasional bursts, but spent most of his time stopping short of the line and looking for a hole. Given the quickness of the OU defense, that was not a good idea.

For most of the first quarter (or for most of the game actually), the defensive line controlled the trenches. Bradford found himself under more pressure today than he had all of last year, but still stepped up to hit Brandon Caleb with a nice slant and followed it with a nice TD pass to Adron Tennell. Brian Jackson was the victim on both of those plays. J.R. Bryant and Mike Balogun got the start at LB with the #1′s, and Bryant was all over the field. He seems to be a little small and does get lost in traffic, but going downhill or side to side he is very effective. He appeared to separate the shoulder of TE Trent Rattaree on one vicious tackle. OU’s LB depth is absurd at this point. Brent V must be thinking he has died and gone to LB heaven and I’m sure he is scheming some way to get 11 linebackers on the field at one time.

Looks like Pooh has shaken off the injuries.

Drew Allen got work as the #3 QB and then began alternating with Landry as Bradford took a seat with 3 minutes left in the 1st quarter. Landry threw a pass to a stumbling Madu which was intercepted and returned for a TD by Dom Franks. Franks got 2 oskies on the day and appears to be our best CB right now, although Jackson was solid. The quarter ended with Donald Stephenson getting a couple of holding penalties. The LTs for the offense struggled all day as the DEs were just too quick.

Drew Allen was mostly ineffective today. He does show a good arm, but it seemed at times that he was going for the home run and not progressing through his reads. Jones was much steadier, although it is apparent it will take time for the rust to fall away. The second quarter was a hodge podge of bad blocking and impressive defense, although like most callers on the post game show, I’m not convinced the Oline is only a step above the band’s drumline in keeping people off the OU QBs. The blocking schemes in the scrimmage are very limited, and the offense was handcuffed by not having the big play weapons available. Also, the OU defense is pretty darn good.

Halftime was filled with the passing of the microphone to a long line of alums who had returned for the game. Most of their comments were muffled, but I know of one alum from the 1946 class who attended. Curtis Lofton, Jammal Brown, the Boz, Casillas, and Kent Bradford were a few of the notables who returned. And there was even another appearance on Owen Field by Bubba Moses. You know there is only 1. Dean Blevins got a smattering of boos and some light applause from the crowd. I’m not a fan of Dean’s, but it was rather sad.

The second half was fairly non-eventful. There was another nice oskie by Franks, a fumble forced by Jeremy Beal which was returned for a TD by J.R Bryant and some bad punting by Tress Way. On one occasion following a poor punt, Bob Stoops chewed on Way for a solid minute before shaking his head and turning away.

So, were questions answered today? Probably not. I don’t put a lot of stock in these games, but do think they serve some guide on individual players. When John (Finding) Nimmo throws what was the best pass of the 2nd half I remind myself that this is a game played to give guys like him a chance, but not a game to draw final conclusions on a team or player. Last year Sam Bradford struggled mightily in the Red White game. But he had a decent fall don’t you think?

I’ll close with some final thoughts, but this is just what I saw today. It doesn’t mean that these are trends or ultimate conclusions on the makeup of this team.

1. The Oline needs work. Habern was solid at center and probably had the best day of any of the linemen. The LT’ struggled against the quick DEs, but those DEs ARE quick so that can be forgiven.

2. We didn’t learn much about the receivers except that Broyles is the best one and Tennell is good when healthy. Madu at the slot has potential, but if Brown or Murray go down he needs to be back at the tailback slot. He is superior to Calhoun and Johnson right now. I can’t comment on their WR blocking at all, and I give an “incomplete” to Owens and Miller.

3. Our LB’s are good. Period.

4. Special teams are an issue. Again. Bob said after the game that Tress was nervous and that he has looked better in practice than he showed today. Of course, we heard the same things about the Hobbit Stevens last year so I’m not so sure that is good. Kickoff coverage was a non-issue today because the return game was never practiced. However, Way kicked off and his kicks were not very good. Hopefully the kid coming from Norman North can fill that role.

5. There were a LOT of recruits there today. In fact, an entire lower section was roped off for them and their families. I wasn’t able to get close enough to see who was who or measure vertical leaps so I’ll leave that discussion to others.

6. It was a good day. Nice weather, surrounded by Sooner fans, watching football on Owen Field. Yes, it was a good day.

The problem with judging spring scrimmages is that if the offense looks great, it could mean that the defense really sucks, and vice versa. And with that caveat in mind, based on Saturday’s Red and White Game, sophomore Frank Alexander is going to win the Lombardi, and senior Trent Williams is going to finish his OU football career in the same state of exile in which Brandon Crow currently resides.

You didn’t need to have the ghost of Isaac Newton again explaining the arcane scoring system to know that the white team (defense) had kicked the asses of the red team (offense). For the record, the defense won, 63-36, but even with the offense being awarded points for saying excuse me after belching or for linemen not noticeably staining their britches , the red team couldn’t make a game of it. Sure, the offense was missing more weapons — DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown, Jermaine Gresham, Brody Eldridge, Matt Clapp and maybe most importantly, Jarvis Jones and Stephen Good — but still, with the biggest questions being how would the Sooners replace the graduation-depleted offensive line and wide receiver corps, after Saturday’s game, those questions remain unanswered.

Now when you go from having Gresham as your main target at tight end to walk-on sophomore Trent Ratterree (sophomore James Hanna failed to distinguish himself), you’ve got a problem. But if you’re a freshman quarterback and you get precious little time to throw before Alexander or junior Jeremy Beal or a defensive tackle is all over your ass, you’ve got an even bigger problem. Williams, at left tackle, was slapped around by Alexander worse than Rihanna is by that other Chris Brown, and junior Cory Brandon didn’t fare much better against Beal on the other side. Now Beal’s really good, and Alexander, in the little time he played last season after recovering from a stabbing, showed a lot of potential, but still, your best OT has to block his guy at least some of the time. (Williams, who went most of the way at LT, held his own against the second-teamers, while sophomore Donald Stephenson, the second-team RT, was caught holding frequently.) Colorado State transfer junior Brian Lepak, who was playing LG and getting a lot of Good’s reps, was cast aside by whatever DT he was facing with the ease of Lindsay Lohan tossing away her show-biz career (but at least Lindsay got laid a lot in the process). Redshirt freshman center Ben Habern and senior quasi-starter Brian Simmons held up the best, but then, that’s probably akin to being the ace of 1962 Mets rotation.

Bradford handled the pressure all day.

And if what we learned about the OL is that they still need to get a whole lot better by fall, we learned even less about the receivers. Sophomore Ryan Broyles was hands-down the best of the bunch, which has been the assumption since January. Senior Pooh Tennell showed a couple of flashes of brilliance — like on the 23-yard TD pass he caught from Sam Bradford — but then he’s always showed flashes; his problem is staying healthy, and that remains to be seen. Youngsters like sophomores Jameel Owens and Dejuan Miller need to step up, and whereas Owens had a solid but not spectacular game, Miller was a nonfactor. Mossis Madu looked pretty good as the slot receiver (although he fell to the ground making a cut and allowing junior CB Dom Franks to get a pick for an easy score), but he was far and away the best of what was healthy at RB. Redshirt freshman Jermie Calhoun had a couple of nice runs early on, but after that, he was being met by three defenders in the backfield whenever he got the handoff. Sophomore Justin Johnson was pretty much the same thing only less so. It’d be nice to see what they could do with blocking.

Calhoun should be productive in a bit role this year.

At quarterback, well, hey, that Bradford kid looks like he could be a player. The Heisman-winner, despite facing the same limitations as freshmen Landry Jones and Drew Allen, managed to complete more passes than the other two combined. He seemed to be able to find an open WR against senior CB Brian Jackson (such as the TD pass to Tennell) or the tight end across the middle against senior MLB Mike Balogun whenever he needed to. Given the pass rush he was facing, Jones probably played acceptably, or at least as well Joey Halzle did in this game the last couple of years. And although their numbers were roughly the same (5 of 12 for 73 yards for Jones, 4 of 14 for 58 yards for Allen, with both throwing a pick), Allen looked significantly worse. Two or three more of Allen’s passes probably should have been picked off (freshman safety Javon Harris had a couple of drops) and he threw a couple of passes to nowhere. But hey, the guy should be getting ready for the prom, so what do you expect?

But then, the same can be said about the entire crew of second-team LBs, Jaydan “the Raptor” Bird at weak side, Tom “the English Football Hooligan” Wort at middle and Ronnell Lewis at strong side. Heck, they might have been the best-looking group the Sooners fielded Saturday. Bird has a nasty streak that the Sooners haven’t had at LB in a while. Not just the ability to be in the right place and make a play — Travis Lewis does that, and so did Rufus Alexander pre-knee injury — but the meanness to just blow people up as well. And if anything, Wort is even nastier. Ratterree could consistently catch a quick pass over the middle for a 4-yard gain against Balogun, but with Wort lowering the boom as the ball arrived, he couldn’t. Nobody could. I’m not sure when the Sooners have had an MLB who looked equally competent and vicious against both the pass and the run as Wort, and I can’t see how any Texas prep LB could have been ranked ahead of him. You’ve got to love this kid’s moxie. He was one of the few players who went over and signed autographs for fans after the game (Bradford, of course, was one of the others), and for a kid who has yet to play in a varsity game, that takes a lot of chutzpah. I think the last MLB we had with that level of talent and attitude was Brian Bosworth, and we did OK with him.

Anyway, not a lot to be said about the defense, other than the first- and second-team defensive fronts pretty much kicked ass. Franks had a great game at one corner, and Harris, other than the drops, had a nice game at safety, but once Bradford was out of the game, the DBs didn’t have a lot to do, and it didn’t seem to matter that Quinton Carter didn’t play. The quarterbacks didn’t have enough time to find receivers downfield, and the running game was getting stuffed without the DBs having to come up and help out. Keenan Clayton didn’t play either, and senior J.R. Bryant, who largely looked clueless last year, had a very good game in his place. Balogun’s still iffy against the pass, but Justin Johnson’s going to be checking for Balogun before sitting down for the next two weeks, because Balogun was always in his back pocket. Seniors DT DeMarcus Granger and DE Austin English didn’t play either, and and although they’re capable when healthy, we got along without them for a large part of last year. Sophomore LB Austin Box and junior LB Crow also didn’t play, but I think it’s safe to say they’re now both about as far behind Wort as a politician running as a Whig candidate, and Crow will be lucky if somebody e-mails him the practice schedule. But I do find consolation in the fact that the offense looked nearly as lousy in last year’s spring game, and that bunch wound up posting some fairly decent numbers, I seem to recall.

As for the kicking game, not to change the subject, but the weather for the spring game was really nice. Sunny, but not too hot, breezy, but not too windy. I mean last year, it really sucked, cloudy, colder than hell and a fierce wind. Redshirt freshman Tress Way had a couple of really great punts, but most of them looked like they could have come off the foot of Mike Knall. Maybe we can at least cover the damn things this year.