Bradford travels with team
He may end up having surgery. But not this weekend. OU quarterback Sam Bradford traveled with the team to Lawrence, Kan., for the Sooners’ game Saturday against Kansas.
-JT
Alex Smith offers Bradford advice
When Bradford suffered his original shoulder injury, he spoke with the New York Giants’ Eli Manning, who returned from a less-serious injury in 10 days, eventually leading his team to a Super Bowl win.
Now that he’s re-injured the shoulder, Bradford spoke with a source who had a less positive experience with the injury: San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith.
Smith suffered a third-degree separation in September, but the original diagnosis was that surgery wasn’t necessary. Smith missed three games, the same amount as Bradford, and then returned to the lineup. He played poorly, blaming the injury for his lost accuracy.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
“We’ve been trading phone calls,” Alex Smith said Thursday. “He called, twice. When you’ve torn ligaments in your shoulder, it takes time to heal. It’s different than other positions. When you take hits like that, it impairs your ability to throw the ball.”
Smith eventually saw Dr. James Andrews, who Bradford has also consulted with, and he determined that the injury hadn’t healed like they thought it would, and Smith underwent surgery.
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Jeff Capel Q&A
Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel had a lot to say at Big 12 Media Day on Wednesday in Kansas City. Here’s a few things that won’t make tomorrow’s paper:
Will it be a struggle to keep big man Tiny Gallon in the paint when he likes playing on the perimeter?
You must have seen Tiny play somewhere.
That is something — he is a versatile guy. He can do a lot of different things. One of the things he can do is shoot the basketball. But it is something that we have to remind him of, or we’ve had to remind him of so far is don’t fall in love with just being on the perimeter because you are 6’9″. You do have a 7’4″ wingspan, and you are 290 pounds. And to use that.
I haven’t seen any 6’9″, 290 pound shooting guards out there. LeBron is close, but, you know, by any means, he’s not LeBron. There’s only one of those guys walking the face of the earth.
It is something that we’ve had to remind him, and I keep using the word “had,” past tense. Hopefully it’s not something, as we get into November and December and January and February, that we don’t have to continually remind him of that.
What have the two big-name newcomers, Gallon and Tommy Mason-Griffin, shown you in early practices?
Tommy Mason-Griffin has been as good as anyone in practice for us first six days. He’s been that good.
I knew he was good coming out of high school. One of the things I thought about Tommy was I thought he had a large room to grow to get better. Same thing with Tiny.
Once those guys got into a situation where they were forced to work consistently, and that’s where they are right now. And because of that, Tommy’s made a little bit bigger jump right now than Tiny. Tiny’s coming, and Tiny’s very talented. He’s worked to get his weight in check. He’s at 290. He was 360 going into his senior year. He’s at 290.
We weighed him on Sunday. He’s 290 pounds. He’s awfully proud of that. He’s very talented. Has an incredible skill set.
One of the things with Tiny — as with all freshmen — they have to get used to the speed of the college game and the sense of urgency that you have to have in the understanding of how important every possession is. But those two give us a lot to work with immediately.
How has Tony Crocker developed over the summer heading into his senior year?
Crocker will always have a special place for me because he’s the only (recruit) that stayed (after Capel was hired).
That was a difficult time when all that stuff happened when I first got here. We’ve talked about that. But Crocker’s had a good career so far, and I hope he has a great senior year.
He’s stronger now. He finished our preseason conditioning at about 215 pounds. He lowered his body fat, improved his vertical, was more explosive and quicker.
Yesterday was the first time he practiced. We’ve had a little flu thing going on with our team. He’s been out.
Yesterday was the first time. So I don’t know how much weight he lost or things like that. But we need him to be more consistent.
And one of the things I challenged him with at the end of last season was, in my opinion, in order to become more consistent, you need to work more consistently. You need to do the things that you can control on a more consistent basis, getting in and working on your game. So we’ll see if he’s done that.
OU at Kansas: Breaking down the matchups
Quarterbacks
Landry Jones has three career starts. Todd Reesing has 31.
Edge: Kansas
Running backs
DeMarco Murray is questionable with a gimpy ankle, but Chris Brown is healthy and ready to go.
Jake Sharp is a nice back, but he’s no Chris Brown.
Edge: OU
Wide receivers
Dezmon Briscoe and Kerry Meier give Kansas the best 1-2 punch at WR in the Big 12.
OU’s WR rotation changes week to week.
Edge: Kansas
Tight ends
With Brody Eldridge at guard, the Sooners are left with walk-on Trent Ratteree and James Hanna.
Kansas can’t do much better.
Edge: Even
Offensive line
Neither unit has stood out. Sooners are banged up. KU has allowed Reesing to be sacked 12 times already, and behind its line, could only rush for -8 yards against lowly Colorado.
Edge: OU
Defensive line
The Jayhawks are better up front than they’ve been. Still not enough to come close to competing with GK McCoy and the bunch.
Edge: OU
Linebackers
KU is unveiling three new starters this season. OU has three starters back, who are playing better than they did last season.
Edge: OU
Defensive backs
Darrell Stuckey is an All-Big 12 safety for the Jayhawks. But OU’s overall unit is better, coming off a shutdown performance of Texas, the league’s best passing offense.
Edge: OU
Special teams
Neither team excels here. But Tress Way is a better punter than Alonso Rojas, and Jimmy Stevens has been more accurate than Jacob Branstetter.
Edge: OU
Prediction: OU 30, Kansas 17
Jayhawks hit some big plays with Briscoe and Meier, but OU’s defense gives the Sooner offense a couple of easy scoring opportunities, which proves to be the difference.
-JT
Chat recap: Trotter (10-22-09)
-JT
Bradford cancels press conference; wants to gather more information before making decision
Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford has cancelled tonight’s press conference.
He was expected to announce his next step after re-aggravating his throwing shoulder against Texas last weekend.
According to a school spokesman, Bradford still wants to gather more information before making a decision about whether to undergo season-ending surgery.
-JT
Sam Bradford: What to expect
When Bob Stoops finally got around to Sam Bradford during Tuesday’s press conference, he had a hard time keeping his head up. That’s when you knew, Bradford’s season was over.
Tonight, Bradford will officially announce his next step following a re-aggravation of his separation shoulder suffered last weekend against Texas. That announcement is expected to be that Bradford will undergo surgery on his shoulder, effectively ending his junior season.
During tonight’s press conference, Bradford, however, will probably not get into the next step: jump to the NFL or come back for his senior year. And even if he is leaning one way, it would be unwise to make that decision before seeing how the surgery turns out. What if Bradford’s shoulder is slow to heal? What if he doesn’t feel right three months from now? Limiting his decisions now would be a mistake, and the Bradford family knows this.
But at least this will finally put some closure on what has been a nightmare season for the returning Heisman Trophy candidate. And at least now, the Sooners can begin to move on with Landry Jones, who has the pedigree to be a worthy successor.
-JT
Sooner recruit suspended for season
West Orange-Stark football player Trey Franks was suspended for the remainder of the season by the school board Monday, according to a report in the Beaumont Enterprise. .
Franks, a wide receiver and defensive back, is verbally committed to OU.
It’s unclear what Franks did to warrant the suspension.
Franks was one of three students suspended from extracurricular activities for the fall semester for “violating the district’s student conduct code.”
-JT
Chat: David Ubben (10.19)
