Oklahoma football notebook: Sooner defense needs more takeaways

“To drive the ball 12, 14 plays means a lot of people are doing things right,” he said. “We've got to continue to do that. We'd like to mix some big plays in there to get a big chunk, a big pass, a big run, but to be able to execute play after play after play on a long drive to score … that was impressive and we've got to continue to do that.”

IKARD LEADS 14 SOONERS ON ACADEMIC ALL-BIG 12 TEAM

Fourteen Oklahoma football players were named to the 2012 Academic All-Big 12 team, the conference announced Thursday.

Eleven Sooners made the first team, and three were second teamers.

Junior center Gabe Ikard was one of just three Big 12 players named to the team with a 4.0 grade-point average.

Other first-team members are: quarterback Blake Bell, linebacker Jaydan Bird, linebacker Daniel Franklin, kicker Michael Hunnicutt, offensive lineman Lane Johnson, defensive lineman David King, defensive lineman Jamarkus McFarland, fullback Trey Millard, defensive back Julian Wilson and offensive lineman Austin Woods.

Second-team members from OU were lineman Bronson Irwin, defensive back Gabe Lynn and linebacker Corey Nelson.

Also Thursday, Ikard was named as one of eight finalists for the 2012 Wuerffel Trophy, awarded annually to the college football player who best combines community service, academic achievement and athletic prowess.

The award is presented by the All Sports Association in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and named after former Florida quarterback and 1996 Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel.

QUOTABLE

West Virginia radio analyst Dwight Wallace, on the Mountaineers' last few games:

“The last two weeks, we have seen some improvement in our defense. We were really disappointed in special teams last week (at Oklahoma State). We got some bad bounces. ... We saw the resurgence of our offense; it started to come back last week. It started to look like the old offense at times.”