The Sooners have long stressed their strength and depth at running back.
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They're proving it, too.
With a strong fourth quarter against Missouri, third-teamer Chris Brown made his case for continued carries in the rotation with Allen Patrick and DeMarco Murray — carries Bob Stoops is more than willing to give him.
"Chris is an excellent back,” Stoops said Monday during the Big 12 coaches teleconference. "He more than showed — and he's shown us over and over — he's a quality player. He has great vision and great feet in the hole.
"And he did a great job the other night, finding his holes, finding his spaces, breaking a tackle and coming up with some big plays in the fourth quarter.”
Murray, of course, was coming off a breakout game in the Red River Rivalry against Texas.
Patrick has been a consistent producer dating back to last season, when he replaced an injured Adrian Peterson.
How to juggle so many viable options?
"It's who's hot. Who's fresh,” Stoops said. "There's 75 to 80 snaps in the game, it keeps them fresh. I think having (Brown) fresh in the fourth quarter showed.
"These guys are all good players. There's enough snaps for everybody. And they're getting them and making the most of them. The position is always strong for us when you can rotate guys and keep them fresh.”
More Stoops thoughts from the teleconference:
On the BCS ratings:
"There's nothing to talk about. It's way too early in the year. We're just halfway through. It's not for me to talk about, it doesn't matter right now. We're just worried about playing Iowa State. Everything changes from week to week and you just try to do your job and try to win.”
On the play of defensive end Auston English:
"He's just been fantastic. He's been incredible. He leads the league in sacks. He had a couple again the other night, had a deflection in the fourth quarter that tipped the ball right to one of our defenders and led to a touchdown. So he's been huge. The guy's played as well as, or probably better than anyone we've had at that position in our nine years here. To this point in the year he has.”
On a redshirt season helping English:
"I think it helped him physically, just to gain strength and develop power and explosiveness, all that. He's a great worker, so he really took advantage of that time to build himself physically.”
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Brown was solid last year when Peterson and Patrick were injured. I really like his shiftiness and ability to hit even the slimmest holes. The o-line is really tiring out teams. With the exception of the Colorado game the o-line has blowing back people in the 4th quarter. Easily the best pass protection in Stoops' tenure. English is incredible. And he still has a couple more years just like Brown.
Brown's best game this year. Really hit the holes harder and cleaner than anygame this year. OL played well in the 4th, but i think something clicked for Brown. English has been great and had another great game.
Just means that we'll be even better next year. Getting all these young backs experience and game time will help greatly! If we don't get to the national championship this year we'll be there soon.
Actually we have more than 3 good running backs. Moses Madu (spelling?) is also an outstanding player that will make a name for himself, when given the opportunity. Probably be next year after Patrick is gone.
Was a good showing for Chris. I have been off of his bandwagon as of late, but I got back on it in the 4th quarter of the MO game. Our offensive line is just punishing defenses right now and it's showing late in games. Kudos to the OU coaching staff and the players for working hard in the offseason.
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