Five people who know Sam Bradford share their insight

Connor Boyd was dazzled by the quarterback on his little league football team.

"I just remember playing with Sam, I was like ‘Wow.' None of us could do the things he could do. The way he could throw the ball, other kids just couldn't do that,” said Boyd, a wide receiver.

Bradford and Boyd would go to star at Putnam City North High School, both earning Big All-City honors.

"He could read defenses and he always put the ball in the right place,” Boyd said. "I knew since little league and later middle school that he would be a phenomenal athlete. Anything Sam wanted to do, he was pretty good at.”

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson recalls the moment he knew he had a special quarterback in Bradford.

In last season's second game against Miami, Wilson called a play designed to go to wide receiver Malcolm Kelly.

"We had practiced all week play-action and throwing the ball to Malcolm,” Wilson said. "When we play-faked in the game, they stayed high on Malcolm.”

Instead of forcing the ball into double coverage, Bradford dumped the ball off in the flat to little-used fullback Dane Zaslaw, who scored an easy 9-yard touchdown to put the game away.

"I thought, ‘Wow, that was pretty good,' ” Wilson said. "After that play, I knew this guy could process stuff. It may seem like a simple play, but in my eyes that was really big. I knew how we prepared for that play to work and it didn't happen that way. But he made the proper play and we scored a touchdown.”

Oklahoma defensive back Nic Harris wasn't quite sure what kind of quarterback the coaches had decided on leading up to the 2007 opener with North Texas.

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