Video: What to expect from the Sooners
Murray: ‘Pretty sure I’ll be back’
When DeMarco Murray dazzled fans in the spring game before his freshman season, plenty in attendance wondered how long they’d get to watch the Las Vegas native run over and around opposing defenders.
Injuries have kept Murray from playing in several of the Sooners’ biggest games since, including last year’s national title game, and they’ve no doubt played a role in his draft stock as well.
With at least three members of his offense destined to hear their name called on draft day next April, Murray said on Tuesday he likely won’t make it four.
“It’s something my family and I will look into, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be back here next year,” he said.
Non-committal, perhaps, but Murray likely didn’t expect the questions about his future to come so soon. He’s played the entire season without suffering a major injury, sitting out just one game, and making it through a second injury-free season could only help his stock.
As he showed on Saturday, there’s been little doubt about his performance when he’s on the field.
The only worries are making sure he stays there.
More on Jeff Capel
Lots of leftovers from today’s story about Jeff Capel. Capel said his most important job is getting his players to believe in him and trust him, but I was struck by just how much that’s the case within his program.
From Willie Warren, on why he came to OU:
“You get a chance to play with a first-round draft pick, which Blake was, and you come to play for, who I think, sometime later on, will be one of the greatest coaches of all-time.”
Call it hyperbole. Call it bias. Whatever. For Capel, when one of the nation’s best players says something that complimentary about him, it gives him leverage for further recruits. That speaks to just how much Capel has accomplished what he wanted to at Oklahoma, i.e., getting players to believe in him.
Just a bit, I’d say.
Warren also said that though he doesn’t suit up against his team as much as he used to, everyone on the squad knows very well what Capel did at Duke, and that he’s still got plenty of game, even at 34.
I alluded to this in the story, but another thing Tiny Gallon mentioned is that when he first met Capel, he had no idea he was a coach, let alone a head coach. It’s not true of all his recruits, but Capel went from a non-factor and a guy Gallon knew nothing about to his college coach in only a few months. Obviously, he’s new. He hasn’t known these players since they were in the 8th grade. Few coaches could pull that off, and I think it’s the biggest reason why Capel is establishing himself as one of, if not already the best, recruiter in the conference.
Lastly, Gallon and Mason-Griffin mentioned this specifically, but one of the big reasons why they came was because Capel told them he knew they would make mistakes as freshmen, but he wanted them to learn from it by playing through those mistakes, rather than being yanked to the bench by the collar and being chained to a film projector until the next game. That doesn’t mean he’ll let mistakes go unnoticed, but his players response to those mistakes circles back around to the relationships he fosters with them.
“You can get on someone when they know you care about them. And you can help impact them when they know you care about them as a person,” Capel said. “If I had known when I was in school that I was going to coach, I would have majored in something different than history. Probably psychology. Actual coaching is only about 10 percent of the job, to be honest. Especially at this level, there’s so much other stuff involved.”
Sooners name starters
Oklahoma released its projected starters on Monday for Tuesday’s exhibition opener against British Columbia.
G: Tommy Mason-Griffin, freshman
G: Willie Warren, sophomore
G: Tony Crocker, senior
F: Ryan Wright, senior
F: Tiny Gallon, freshman
Though coach Jeff Capel has been publicly non-committal about how much impact Mason-Griffin and Gallon could have right away, for them to be starting this early in the season says plenty.
Capel said junior forward Orlando Allen’s conditioning was not where he wanted it, but expect him to get some quality minutes spelling Gallon and Wright. Against British Columbia, a lot of players could get a lot of minutes, but anyone who shows up to the Lloyd Noble Center on Tuesday night should get a good, long look at Oklahoma’s new pair of McDonald’s All-Americans.
British Columbia has seen another memorable Sooner debut. In his first game, former Sooner Blake Griffin scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against the Thunderbirds in 2007.
Bradford’s surgery a success
Sam Bradford underwent successful surgery on his throwing shoulder on Wednesday in Birmingham, Ala.
The 35-minute procedure was finished at 10:45 this morning, and Bradford, though still experiencing soreness, was resting comfortably.
“It all looked great in the end and everyone seems to feel very good about it,” said Kent Bradford, Sam Bradford’s father, in a release.
Kent Bradford was able to watch some of the surgery, performed by Dr. James Andrews, and said the reigning Heisman winner would go through a limited exercise session on Wednesday before returning home in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Obama reaches out to…Sam Bradford?
President Barack Obama named University of Oklahoma president David Boren co-chairman of his Intelligence Advisory Board today.
But at the tail end of his speech announcing the decision, Obama had this to say:
“I thank David for agreeing to serve in this capacity, even as he continues to lead the University of Oklahoma.”
Obama added: “And we are sorry about (Sam) Bradford’s shoulder.”
Bradford was scheduled to undergo surgery in Birmingham, Ala. today, and while Obama’s words likely won’t speed his recovery, Oklahoma’s own Sammy B can’t hate to hear that.
Unfavorable comparison for Bradford
Not the kind of buzz Bradford would like to inspire at this point.
Last season, Sam Bradford played behind a dominant offensive line, racking up 50 touchdown passes and helping the Oklahoma offense score 716 points.
Bradford’s lack of contact, though good for Oklahoma’s laundry bills, brought a flood of questions about how Bradford would perform behind an average offensive line. It wasn’t his No. 1 reason for coming back, but Bradford won’t get his chance to definitively answer that question.
Now, he’s drawn an ominous comparison from at least one NFL scout.
From the New York Times:
The former N.F.L. scout Dave Razzano projects Bradford as an upper-end first-round pick, but he said he needed to watch more game tape of Bradford.
“I need to see him in games where he was pressured,” said Razzano, who scouted in the N.F.L. for 21 years and most recently worked for the Arizona Cardinals.
Razzano said Bradford reminded him of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart, who played at Southern California, in that neither faced much defensive pressure in college. When Bradford played against Texas earlier this month, Razzano said he was bothered that Bradford locked in on receivers and threw errant passes when pressured.
He said that many quarterbacks who struggled in transition to the N.F.L. rarely faced defensive pressure in college.
“Everybody can sit back and make throws with time,” Razzano said. “Now, the question is, can he without time?”
While it’s doubtful Bradford flies up the Google Trends chart with a barrage of party photos featuring him bonging beers and getting friendly in a hot tub with bikini-clad co-eds, the on-field comparison is probably fair.
That said, Bradford is still a long way from being a key player in one of the great all-time postgame rants.
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.
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.
Stoops takes to the airwaves
Bob Stoops talked about the decision to play Landry Jones over Sam Bradford, who was cleared to play, on ESPN’s College Football Live.
Here’s what he had to say:
Why Landry over Sam?
Well, watching practices through the week and where Sam has progressed to, we just feel it’s the right thing to do. He’s just not quite where he feels comfortable enough, or that we feel comfortable enough that he’s totally ready to go.
We love what Landry’s been able to do, we have a lot of confidence in him. We just felt it’s the way to go for this game.
Will Sam Bradford dress against Miami?
Probably not.
How far away is Sam from being in uniform and taking the field?
That would be speculation. Just don’t know. It’ll be a another week similar to this week, once we keep progressing, toward getting him more healthy and back on the field.
What does Landry Jones do to make trouble for Miami?
I think what matters most, is there’s been all this attention on the quarterback and who it’s going to be, but what really matters is all the players around him and how they’re going to play. In the end, if you’re not protecting the quarterback, and if you’re in first-and-20, due to penalty, or if you’re not establishing some kind of run game, or if your receivers aren’t getting open, it doesn’t matter if Sam Bradford, Superman or Landry Jones is in there, you’re not going to do well.
To me, the main issue is are the players around him going to perform and play well and give him an opportunity.
Do you shorten the playbook with Landry Jones at quarterback?
Really, not much. A little bit, but overall, over the last couple of weeks, we always have had plenty of offense going into the game. And we will again this week. Sam, obviously, with his experience, can handle a little bit more, but it isn’t like we’re shortchanging anything.
We kind of tailor it to what he likes the best, but they’re very similar style quarterbacks and have very similar likes as far as what plays they like. So, we really don’t shorten it too much.
What did Sam do when you told him he wouldn’t be playing?
Sam wasn’t told. He was part of the decision. We’ve been working through the week. He’s a smart guy and understands where he’s at. He’s frustrated because he’s a competitor. He wants to be back. If it was up to him, he wanted to be back last week. But it just takes some time. But again, he was part of the decision, he understands there’s a long season in front of us. He’ll keep working toward getting back on the field.
He was part of the decision, he understands.
