Is this OU line capable of no-huddle?
Someone asked OU offensive coordinator a simple question last week. Will you scale back on the no-huddle because of the new offensive line? The answer was no, and Wilson certainly was truthful. The Sooners didn’t huddle to any extent in their 14-13 loss to Brigham Young on Saturday night.
But should they? Even before Sam Bradford went down with basically a separated shoulder, the offense sputtered: 10 points in the first half, with the lone touchdown coming on a 35-yard drive following a BYU fumble.
The offensive line’s foibles were partially to blame — penalty after penalty put possessions in a hole. Much talk was made last year about Bradford’s ability to handle the no-huddle. But no one discussed whether the new line — four starters are gone from 2008 — could handle the no-huddle.
Huddling is many things. It is a retreat from the rigors of the line of scrimmage. A chance to breathe. A chance to regroup. A chance to get settled, encourage or cajole one another before returning to the trenches.
Maybe this line needs to huddle. It certainly is worth talking about, after the way it played vs. BYU.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Barry,
I really enjoyed your post-game analysis with Jake Trotter. Even if Tress Way would have hit the game winning 54-yard kick, in my opinion, the Sooners would still be in their current predicament. Bradford and Gresham are out; the offensive line is not very good; Oklahoma went from being heavily favored against Miami and a pick-em against the Horns to being underdogs to the Canes and big underdogs against the Horns. Granted, if Tress made the kick, OU would be undefeated and still ranked in the top 10, but how many people really believe they would deserve that ranking?
barry, your article on the BCS being good to the moutain west, was well, insulting to all college football fans. it has been media–television, internet, radio,etc. that has created college football, not the bowl system. just ask the NFL about how the AFL rose to prominence forcing a merger. it was NBC. we need a playoff system, and you know it. Boise state already beat oregon, should they be punished because of the alligance with the WAC? football, like basketball, is increasingly more competitive with athletes around the country getting bigger and stronger. it is called parity. instead of kneeling at the altar of the BCS buddy network, stand up and be an american and true football fan, because only an american and true football fan wants to see a playoff system.
ps. while you are off dogging the mtn west, byu goes into the new dallas cowboy stadium and knocks down the heisman winner for a few games and knocks out the sooners. c’mon barry give the mtn. some love! guess you haven’t noticed they are kicking some serious bcs butt. good job to both boise state and byu cougars for hijacking a rigged system! and this is only week one!
The two players that killed us; Cory Brandon and Ryan Reynolds.
Brandon speaks for himself. He was pathetic.
And Reynolds… though the stat sheet looks great, he was completely ABUSED in pass defense. They ran the TE behind his zone all night. This is not RRs fault. It is the coaching staffs.
Concerning the sec chant, I didn’t hear much of that at the last Sugar Bowl. And what conference is Utah from? The Mountain West.
Does anyone remember the OU home game a couple of years ago against TCU? Their qb got knocked out of the game yet TCU still won. Oh, another Mountain West team. Do I hear another ugh?
We don’t need a play off but there should be a way to move teams and or conferences in and out of the bcs.
Undisciplined, unfocused, and unprepared best describes the sooners effort or lack thereof against BYU. It was the most pathetic effort by a top five rated team that I can ever remember watching and I’ve been watching since 1946. Iff this is the best the coaches can do, we need new coaches.
Larry Batson be careful what you wish for. Oklahoma is lucky to have Stoops as its coach. The defense played a great game, too bad it couldn’t have been an amazing game and stop that BYU winning drive. The offense struggled with the new line, but if Bradford was in there the 2nd half I’m sure they would have scored enough points to win the game. OU has a lot of work to do if they want to beat the Canes and attempt to defend their Big 12 crown. Stoops winning the Big 12 this year would be the most amazing coaching feat and I would not put it past him.
I agree. Scuttle the “hurry up” and back to the huddle! We looked silly, regrettably. I’d rather see them go to a 2 play scenario for a hurry up, much like BYU used against us.
My only 2 gripes with Stoops have been 1) that he doesn’t give any playing time to backups, thus creating that “deer in the headlights” look” when they are called upon to play, and 2) Stoops doesn’t recruit enough Oklahoma kids (the thought being that an Oklahoma kid will fight harder, all things being close to equal. They feel like they are fighting for their family.
If our 2 back up qb’s were 2 and 2a. He should shuttle them in with the plays and give both that valuable experience so we don’t go through this next year. Same thing with the line. This offense was not prepared for the overload and their OLB had a field day.
Too late we decided to go to the run. If we are going to have a bad o-line, let’s have it with freshmen and sophmores, and not seniors. If they can’t hold a count, jerk em!
I always hate it when OU loses and fans jump on the “fire the coach” bandwagon. We all know Stoops is a great coach, but what about Kevin Wilson? It seems there has been no creativity to OU’s game plan REALLY even after embarassing loss after embarassing loss in big game after big game. Sure we’ve won some big games. No doubt Texas Tech and OSU were both big games last season, not to mention Missouri– but in the REALLY BIG games….the games that gain national attention….OU seems to be unable to win! Why is that? And sure OU came out with a different look putting Bradford out at the end a few times against BYU and a few other things in other games but they’re not doing anything different that’s EFFECTIVE. OU made some good plays but penalties erased a lot of them last night. That does seem to be a coaching problem. I hope we come up with solutions soon.
And most of all, I seriously question the reasoning behind putting OU in a huge kickoff (national focus) game against a team like BYU, with nothing to lose and everything to gain, in the first game of this season after we haven’t been able to win that type of big game for so long. I say get your feet wet–and your confidence up–with a no-name team like Texas and Florida did! That just seems obvious to me.
“give us your huddled masses
yearning to be on the same page.”
What we got were un-huddled messes.
Offensive Lines are like sausage;
putting them together may be ugly;
but, some OL’s are pretty tasty
while some OL’s (one comes to mind)
are rather tasteless.
I agree that Stoops is a great coach, but complacency has been there for a few years now. The calls to fire Stoops keep coming because of the nasty, embarrassing losses to Kansas State, USC, Boise State, West Virginia, Colorado, Texas, etc.. It wasn’t that they just lost those games, but that the execution wasn’t even up to NCAA Div-1 level college football. I don’t include the loss to Florida because they at least showed up and played with discipline and heart. He’s getting paid Urban Meyer/Nick Saban/Pete Carroll money but you don’t see that level of consistency in the preparation of players and the game plan.
There does seem to be the need for a fire to be lit under him.
Coach Wilson says that Trent Williams is the best offensive lineman he has coached while at OU. Then he says Brody Elridge is the best blocker on the current line. And then we see that mess we saw against BYU. I think these coaches say what they want to say and don’t deal in reality. Now the team is in a hole and I’m sure the coaches are focused. Why does it takes a loss or some adversity to get Stoops and his coaching staff focused. No doubt in my mind that now the coaching staff will do their best work trying to save the season. But it is damage control now. I think sometimes Stoops and his coaches go through the motions, believing their superior talent will win the games. That’s why we get beat by mid-major football schools on a regular basis. They take these games seriously.
Barry…
Maybe I’m dumb, but…
Do we really expect the O line to sit in a 3 point stance for 30 seconds, while the coaching staff plugs in mathmatical formulas, using the theory of relativity, into their computers to decided what play to call…no wonder they jump and have false starts…is that so hard to figure out?….and then send the play call in seconds before the play clock is down to nothing…and then the team has all of 1 to 2 seconds to remember what their supposed to do to execute the play.
I even saw Chris Brown waving his arms on the field, like saying….what are we waiting around for.
In the second half…Jones had moved the ball by throwing 3 nice passes…all moving at a nice pace…then we run the ball…go nowhere…and then the coaches take so long to get the next play in…we have to call timeout…and then go to a 6 minute TV timeout…which negates the entire reason for the no huddle offense!!….If you are going to have a no huddle, up tempo offense…at least be “up tempo” about it….call the play within few seconds or so…and then run the dang play…don’t force the lineman to sit in a stance all day…and then expect them to jump on command.
The same thing occurred when we were at the 2 yard line..with 4 plays to “must” score…we take forever to decide what to run…heck…everyone runs the same defense in that situation anyway…stacks the line…whats so hard to figure out…I we just go the line…and run the same plays these kids have been running since pee wee football…we would have had a better chance to score…Instead…once again…our offense stares backwards at the sideline for 20 seconds…and then rushes to get a play off, before the play clock expires…and, of course, we get another last second false start…costing five yards…and they force the field goal..and thus the game.
The Kevin Wilson “Einstein” offense, right now, is “too cute by half”….and directly cost us our ability to come out with a very ugly win against BYU.
Football cannot be this complex…or maybe I’m too dumb to figure it out….
Why can’t we just be ready to play a football game. This includes players and COACHES! Even if Sam stays in the game we still lose the game. The goal line calls are killing us. I believe the same thing happened against Florida, where we couldn’t stick the ball in the end zone. The D” plays well but we all know they can’t make the play when we need them to. Brent seems to have a tough time with schemes against teams that can run and pass. We need the fire that coach MIKE STOOPS had the D” play with. Let us not be fooled by the score this week. Lets wait for Tulsa and then Miami. Scrap the no huddle and then lets be ready to play!
William’s comment @ 11:01 am was spot on. K. Wilson is taking a superior talented team and tying one hand behind their backs. Keep it simple. . . and if he wants to continue with no huddle fast tempo then DO IT! You lose all offensive benefit and edge by constantly delaying execution
Today was Stoopsy’s press conference. Did all the employee’s
of the radio and TV stations that are on the OU payroll get
all their “soft-ball” questions lobbed at Bob. What a bunch
of candy ass’s they are. How about “Bob, you were 21 pt.
favorite, ranked #3 in the nation with a veteran defense
returning, the nucleus of the offense at the skilled
positions returning, was coaching and lack of preperation
the problem. BYU looked sharp and the Sooners looked
discombobulated, to say the least. “Bob, having all those
defensive starters back, poise, dicipline and intensity
what happened and why?” “Bob, the off-sides, motion, 5-yd.
tic-tac penalties are back this year along with the poor
tackling, was this not addressed this spring and fall?”
These are questions you never hear the “candy-ass” squad
on Tuesdays ask. They are to busy sucking up!
seemed very problematic and at time missing, what happened?”
How about the fact that BYU was given no respect by OU. They weren’t prepareed to play BYU and even after the heartbreaking loss to a better team from ….. ug the Mountain West, vomit, everyone is blaming the loss on loosing Bradford? Please…… OU’s “amazing” offense was getting stuffed on every drive. The only thing OU’s offense was proficient at accomplishing while Bradford was in was 3 and outs. BYU’s defense was under rated and not respected.
OU’s miserable offence under Bradford never made it down the field under their own power. If not for BYU’s mistakes at the goal line and and field goal delay of game the score would have been much worse.