OU football notebook: Safety Sims still not on campus
OU football notebook: Safety Sims still not on campus
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Published: September 3, 2008
LB Box to play Saturday
Coach Bob Stoops said Tuesday he expects weak-side linebacker Austin Box to play Saturday when the fourth-ranked Sooners take on Cincinnati.
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Box missed the season opener against Tennessee-Chattanooga after having arthroscopic surgery last month to repair torn cartilage in his knee.
"He looked really good in practice yesterday," Stoops said. "He went through the whole practice yesterday and looked good. He'll be out there. We'll see through the week how much, but he's going to play."
Redshirt freshman Travis Lewis made his first career start in place of Box in the opener. Junior-college transfer Mike Balogun also saw time at weak-side linebacker.
• Stoops: UC a big challenge: With Chattanooga out of the way, OU has its first challenge of the year in the Bearcats, who are coming off a 10-win season.
Stoops said Tuesday he's impressed with the players that UC will be bringing to Norman.
"You look defensively and they have nine seniors and the two juniors that start for them are fourth-year juniors. So there's great experience, they're very athletic, talented guys, who really do an excellent job. I love watching defenses and these guys are very sound fundamentally and play hard and really do a good job," Stoops said. "Offensively they do an excellent job spreading the ball around, a lot of zone and zone read, throwing the ball on screens and a lot of what you see from spread offenses and no-huddling. They do an excellent job executing.
"They tied for the lead in takeaways a year ago and I can go on and on. We recognize it as a major challenge in this season. We're just focusing on having a great week of practice and being ready to play on Saturday."
• Replacing Williams: Stoops said Monday that he doesn't expect senior defensive end John Williams to return to the team.
"John's mentally having a hard time staying with it," Stoops said. "Right now, we don't anticipate him rejoining the team. In the end, you have to want to play, to do the things necessary to play and do well. It's unfortunate."
Williams, a starter at the beginning of last season, received a hardship waiver for a sixth season of eligibility after tearing his Achilles in the fourth game last year.
But after sitting out the spring recovering from the injury, Williams was not listed on OU's opening week 2-deep depth chart, falling behind sophomore Jeremy Beal, senior Alan Davis and redshirt freshman Frank Alexander.
Williams was not in uniform against Chattanooga.
Losing Williams means the Sooners could be without two defensive ends for at least the UC game. The status of Alexander, who was stabbed at party over the weekend, remains unclear.
Besides Auston English, Beal and Davis, the Sooners are left with sophomore Pryce Macon and freshman R.J. Washington as possible replacements at end.
• Sims still not on campus: Defensive coordinator Brent Venables said junior-college safety David Sims has still not finished his academic work at Butte (Calif.) College and thus not able to enroll at OU yet.
He'd better hurry.
Sims has until the end of the next week to make it to Norman, else he won't be allowed to enroll at OU for this semester and practice with the football team this season.
• Harris' home OK: Safety Nic Harris said his family returned to Alexandria, La., Tuesday morning to find their home and belongings intact after Hurricane Gustav swept through the Gulf Coast.
Harris' family members had been staying with him in Norman since last Friday to avoid the storm.
Guard Alex Williams was excused from practice Monday to be with his evacuated family members, who reside in New Orleans.
"I know they evacuated, and I believe they went to Shreveport and they were going to try to come up this way, so I think he went to try to help them get back up this way," offensive line coach James Patton said. "I don't think they've been up here before, so hopefully they'll make it up OK and stay a little bit and get the chance to watch him play."
Running back Chris Brown and wide receiver Tyler Stradford also are from and have family members living in Louisiana.
Harris noted that their families were OK, as well.
• UC tickets still on sale: The UC game is nearing a sellout, but approximately 100 tickets are still available for purchase. The remaining tickets were returned by UC. Tickets, which are $62 each, can be bought at SoonerSports.com or by calling (405) 325-2424 or (800) 456-4668. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m.
By Jake Trotter
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