NORMAN — The high-scoring, oft-passing offense hit the recruiting trail a couple years back looking for a quarterback.
Having just lost a veteran star and facing the future with a young gun from Texas, the need for an able-bodied back-up led them to the north side of Oklahoma City. The big red found its man at Putnam City North.
Texas Tech really liked Sam Bradford.
Slingin' Sam eventually chose Oklahoma over Tech and several others, and Tuesday, the Sooners chose him over Keith Nichol and Joey Halzle. Bradford is the answer to OU's quarterback question, all of which begs a new query.
What kind of quarterback will he be?
Pundits, both amateur and professional, believe that these Sooners only need a caretaker at quarterback. The thinking goes that this team has so much talent at running back, wide receiver and offensive line, not to mention the defense, that all the quarterback needs to do is manage the offense.
Think of it as a crimson-clad Trent Dilfer.
You remember the Baltimore Ravens quarterback who played alongside one of the most dominating defenses ever. He is a Super Bowl champion not because of what he did but rather because of what he didn't do. He didn't turn the ball over. He didn't make silly mistakes. He didn't lose games.
Then again, he didn't win them, either.
Bradford may not need to win games for the Sooners, but he could be much more than a caretaker.
"Do we have a lot of talent surrounding him, which will hopefully make his job easier as we go along?” quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel said. "Yeah.
"But still, when you're touching the ball every play like the quarterback is, he's going to have to make plays.”
Bradford can. He is hardly the finished product, of course. He will be brought along slowly, but the potential is there.
Texas Tech saw as much in Bradford. The Red Raiders were the first to offer Bradford a scholarship, and they would be the last program to go after an ill-equipped quarterback.
Mike Leach needs playmakers, not caretakers.
Quarterbacks in his system must be dynamic. They have to read defenses and check plays and make decisions and complete passes and win ballgames. Leach thought Bradford could do just that for his team.
Why couldn't he do that for the Sooners?
This isn't to suggest that Bradford will lead the Sooners to a national title and win a Heisman Trophy.
Then again, when Heupel and Jason White arrived on campus, who'd have thought Heupel would quarterback a title team and White would win the bronze statue?
"He might not be a 4.5 40(-yard dash) guy,” Heupel said of Bradford, "but there's different athletic skills.”
He paused.
"I certainly know that.”
Bradford is more athletic than Heupel ever was. Remember, Sammy B. is a kid who is a scratch golfer, who played summer basketball with the likes of Obi Muonelo and Keith Clark on Athletes First and who was such a good junior hockey player that former pros predicted greatness for him.
Bradford has the mental makeup to do great things. He's an intelligent kid, but he's savvy, too.
A few years back, when he wonThe Oklahoman/Jim Thorpe Scholar-Athlete Award, yours truly chatted with him at length. I asked him what it was like when he became the starting quarterback at Class 6A PC North as a sophomore.
"I don't think I've ever been more nervous than before my first game when we had to go to Enid,” Bradford said that day as we sat in his living room. "That was probably the longest bus ride I've ever had.
"That whole year, I got so nervous before every game, especially the big games.”
His mother, Martha, sat stunned as she listened.
"I didn't know you were nervous,” she said.
"Yeah,” Bradford said. "But if you let people know that you're nervous, you're showing weakness. You've got to keep it to yourself.”
Even as a 15-year-old, Bradford understood what he needed to do. Now, he's four years older, four years wiser, four years better.
"We've asked him to play smart but be aggressive in his play,” Heupel said.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said: "We've talked about how (the quarterbacks) need to manage or take care of the ball, but in taking care of the ball, you need not to be so afraid ... that you don't take the shots that are there. You need to not be afraid to fly, but you'd better be ready to fly when it's time.”
What kind of quarterback could Sam Bradford be?
A darn good one.
