Berry Tramel, Sports columnist
Summer Magic
Heat was on in camp; now, so is OU offense
Heat was on in camp; now, so is OU offense
By Berry Tramel
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33
Published: September 19, 2007
NORMAN — Pro, college, prep, sandlot, backyard, living room, heck, maybe even video. Doesn't matter. Most football offenses start slowly.
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Malcolm Kelly and the rest of the Sooner offense have begun the season better than anyone could have expected.
By NATE BILLINGS, THE OKLAHOMAN
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That's why scrimmages and exhibitions and cannon-fodder games exist. Let an offense ease into execution, so that when showdowns that really matter arrive, catchers and pitchers and runners and blockers are ready.
Yet the 2007
Sooners have zoomed out like a jet-fuel dragster, despite a rookie quarterback,
Sam Bradford, who 17 days ago excited no one outside the OU practice moat.
How did this happen? How did Sudden Sam lead an offensive explosion that pales the getaways of
Josh Heupel in 2000, or a fifth-year
Jason White in 2003, or even a sixth-year Jason White in 2004?
The Sooners stumbled upon an elixir that pays unseen benefits. Offensive chief
Kevin Wilson told us in August that coaches turned up the fire on OU's trio of quarterbacks.
Not just in scrimmages, but practices, too. More full-speed drills. More 11-on-11 drills. Less coaching, less listening, more doing.
"We've tried to escalate it by
playing as much as we can,” Wilson said in August. "That's our answer, not to be coachaholic. We're coaching them on the run. Coaching them off the field.”
In other words, Bradford — and Kid Nichol and
Joey Halzle — got a souped-up August camp. More real snaps. More real looks. More experience for guys who had virtually none before.
And those other 21 guys on the field, every time that ball was snapped, got the same.
"It did sharpen us, I think,”
Bob Stoops said. "We are so competitive all spring and all through our early camp, until we get in that first game week. We're going good against good, everything we do.
"We do a lot of that work against each other, to try and make each other better, and put ourself in as tough a situation as you ought to see and work yourself out of it.”
There is no question Bradford's toughest assignment of the last six weeks has been trying to move his offense in scrimmages. The OU defense spouts sharp fangs and knows well its pals on the other side of the ball.
Bradford played OK in scrimmages but nothing special. Nothing at all foretelling the coming of Sudden Sam.
But he had a talented and veteran offensive line, many of whom have been playing since 2005, and great ballhandlers. Put in a microwave on the August practice fields, this offense was in mid-season gear on opening day.
The Sooners pinned 79 points on North
Texas and 54 on
Utah State, no big deal in either case, but 51 on
Miami, was a very big deal considering the Hurricanes always play defense and still have pure-bred dobermans manning their huddle.
"It's hard to say what reason there is for it,” Stoops said. "There's a lot of maturity and experience now on both sides that's showing up, whether we did that or not.”
But the Sooners did turn up the heat in August. And it has paid off famously. I suggest the Sooners do it every year.
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Last I checked nobody.
Am waiting for the texas game - a true gauge of how good OU is.