Oklahoma football notebook: Quentin Hayes reinstated

During the Sooners' loss to Notre Dame on Saturday, Demontre Hurst ran out of bounds and into a metal rig that serves as the base of a television camera crane.

Stoops said Hurst didn't get hurt, but it could have been a lot worse.

“I said walking off the field to our trainer Scott Anderson, ‘We need to not complain, but everywhere, they need to have more padding, make sure a player can't slide underneath one of those contraptions, they need to be safer on what they put on the field.'” Stoops said. “I don't think there's any question that could have been really bad if he slides underneath whatever that was, a crane, and rips his leg up. That should not happen to a young man playing ball.

“They need to be safer. It's just like the camera that falls and hits the kid from Iowa in our game. If that thing hits him square, or hits an official, it's over.

“Hopefully they're really investing in the safety of equipment that's on the field.”

Corner Aaron Colvin said he didn't know what happened on the play at first but got worried when he went over and saw Hurst lying on the ground.

Colvin said the two tightest sidelines that Oklahoma plays on are at home and at Oklahoma State.

“I didn't even know (the crane) was over there,” Colvin said. “They kind of need to get that off the field though. Things like that can happen and it could have been a lot worse than it was.”