Sam Bradford puts OU back in the race
OU FOOTBALL Decision gives Sooners another shot at national titlebold
By Jake Trotter
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Published: January 15, 2009
NORMAN — What was looking like a team in rebuilding mode now looks like one ready to make another run at the national championship.
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Box to miss spring
Oklahoma linebacker Austin Box is expected to miss spring practice due to elbow surgery, coach Bob Stoops said Wednesday.
Box dislocated the elbow as a senior at Enid High School, and injured it again last year causing him to miss most of spring practice.
Box, a rising sophomore, has battled several injuries since coming to Norman.
He had to undergo arthroscopic surgery last August to repair cartilage damage in his knee, which sidelined him for almost a month. Then, he suffered a knee sprain at Oklahoma State that caused him to miss the Big 12 Championship against Missouri.
Box returned for the BCS National Championship but played sparingly as a backup to Mike Balogun. Box is expected to recover by the end of the spring and participate in summer workouts.
Stoops said he wasn’t sure yet if any other Sooner would have to undergo off-season surgery.
BY JAKE TROTTER
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That’s what bringing back a
Heisman Trophy winner can do.
Quarterback Sam Bradford announced Wednesday that he’ll be returning to Oklahoma for his junior season, putting off entering the NFL Draft for at least another year.
That — combined with the news Wednesday that tight end
Jermaine Gresham and offensive tackle
Trent Williams would also be returning — means the 2009 Sooner offense will be reloading instead of rebuilding despite losing six starters to graduation.
"I’m very confident and the people that we have returning... I feel like we’re going to be very solid on offense again,” Bradford said. "I think that one of the strong points of this program is that we’re able to replace players every year.”
In 2008, OU became the first team in 104 years to total more than 700 points in a season, and led the nation in scoring, averaging more than 51 points a game.
Though the
Sooners graduated starting wide receivers
Juaquin Iglesias and
Manny Johnson, as well as four all-conference offensive linemen, OU should be explosive again on offense with Bradford, Gresham, slot receiver
Ryan Broyles and
running backs Chris Brown and
DeMarco Murray.
That offensive firepower will complement a defense that should improve in 2009, thanks to the return of nine starters, including All-American defensive tackle
Gerald McCoy, who made an announcement earlier in the week that he was also returning to school.
"We’re excited,” coach
Bob Stoops said. "Obviously, it makes our team stronger with that kind of experience and that kind of talent back for another year.”
As for Bradford, he said he didn’t begin thinking seriously about his decision until after last week’s BCS National Championship and wasn’t convinced of his decision to return until Tuesday night.
"It was tough, but I do feel like I’m making the right decision for me,” Bradford said. "There was a lot of information to comprehend, especially in just a short amount of time. There were a lot of things to think about, and I did go back and forth several times.
"But I feel like this is where my heart is, and this is where I want to be.”
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far as conference ratings go, mediocre conference, with the South being weaker than the North.
Texas was the only South team that held up its end of the deal by winning their bowl, just
like they did last year. All this ball-bagging Sooners fans are doing about it being a home game for Fla. is a little weak. They played FSU in 2000 on the same field and it didn't seem
to make a difference. They played Wash. St. in the Rose Bowl and won(LAST BCS WIN) in'02
and it didn't make a difference, quit ball-baggin about the stadium locations. OU is getting
beat for a lot of reasons, but some of the main ones are, being overrated and being selected
by a computer, not earning their Title shot. In 2000 they earned their title shot. Not so since
then. Stoops is a great middle of the pack coach. He's not a Pete Carroll, Meyer, or Sabin etc.
The Sooners make great 2nd tier Bowl competitors, Cotton, Gator, Holiday, etc. They don't
have a staff that can prepare them for a BCS game.
Boomer Sooner!!!!
How can you call for the offensive coordinators head when the offense just finished scoring the most points in college football history. The Sooners could go undefeated every year and some people just are still going to look for things to complain about. With the rotating door of college coaching, we have been fortunate to have several great coordinators. BV redeemed him self and should have a great core of players returning. I think the Sooner D will have its swagger back in 09.