The Oklahoma quarterback finally showed his mortal side during the first-quarter stretch that included an interception, a three-and-out offensive series inside the Sooners' 10-yard line and three incompletions among seven passes.
Then — almost as quickly as he pump-faked and passed to a wide-open Juaquin Iglesias for a 46-yard touchdown — he settled back into the same ol' Sam.
"It's not always gonna be perfect,” the redshirt freshman from Putnam City North said. "You're gonna have to battle back. I think we showed some maturity out there. We came back, put some points on the board, settled in and played a fairly good game.”
But it was Bradford leading the way in the maturity department, according to his teammates. He finished 16-of-22 passing for 244 yards and three touchdowns.
"Even though he's young, you see a lot of maturity,” Iglesias said of Bradford. "We did come out slow, but he was one of the guys in the huddle saying, ‘let's get it going.' And just how calm he is, that shows a lot of his maturity, too.”
For the first time of the season, it wasn't a smooth start, but Bradford's demeanor never changed
"We had the same attitude that we were gonna score on that next play, or we were gonna get a drive going,” he said. "We knew we had the capabilities of doing it. We just stayed positive and kept going at it.”
OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said: "He missed some stuff. That first pick, he's got a touchdown in the corner. He missed it. He's human.”
But Bradford rebounded by getting the ball in the hands of his playmakers — even when the Golden Hurricane tried to limit one of them.
Bradford said he often noticed the Tulsa secondary double-teaming junior receiver Malcolm Kelly, who had seven touchdowns on 14 catches coming into the game. So Bradford looked elsewhere, mostly to Iglesias, who had eight catches for 142 yards.
"He knows he missed a couple things, and that's a good sign, too,” Wilson said. "That's a sign of a good team, a good player.
"He's playing good, but I think he's hungry and knows he can be better. That's exciting for us and for him.”
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Good preparation for pass defense, that is all that is lacking. But I think OU can fix it.
Bradford isn't perfect?!?!?! WTF! What a profound statement. This type of "journalism" is why The Oklahoman is consistently rated one of the worst papers in the country. Great article Scott!
I tell you what, I'm really impressed with Tulsa. They played really good football. They have a pretty darn good defence too, I think they just got tired. I hope they go to a good bowl game and win and send a big statement about how good they really are. But OU has depth and I think is good enough to go all the way! BOOMER SOONER!!!
Sam the Butcher, he's gonna be just fine. Showed alot of poise when things weren't working out in the 1st quarter. Give Tulsa credit, they came to play.
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.