OU Football Notebook: Bob Stoops wasn’t as optimistic about offensive line
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Published: November 4, 2009
Stoops wasn’t as optimistic about offensive line
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops admitted Tuesday he wasn’t nearly as optimistic about an offensive line replacing four starters as offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson was before the season.
He was "a lot more so than I was,” Stoops said Tuesday during his weekly press conference. "You never heard me that way.”
Before the season, Wilson publicly built up the potential of the Sooner line, even though only two of its members, tackle Trent Williams and guard Brian Simmons, had played meaningful snaps in their careers.
But from the opener, the line has struggled throughout the season, both in paving running lanes for running backs DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown and protecting quarterbacks Sam Bradford and Landry Jones.
"There is no replacement for experience,” Stoops said. "Experience is a major factor at every level of this game.”
Later, Wilson was asked about Stoops’ comments.
"You guys never played cards? You watch that Texas hold ’em deal, where sometimes you bluff a little bit, too?” Wilson said. "But those guys, the only problem I have is that those guys are more talented than they have played. They’re gaining on it. But their talent level does not match their performance.
"So to me, I see their talent and their potential. But potential’s a dirty word. That just means you haven’t done it yet.”
Carter continues to shine
Free safety Quinton Carter sometimes gets overshadowed because of how prolific some of his defensive teammates are. But Carter’s coaches realize how valuable he’s been this season.
Last Saturday, Carter had another strong outing, recording a team-high nine tackles, recovering a fumble, and picking off a pass in the fourth quarter to end Kansas State’s late rally.
"Quinton has had an excellent year,” Stoops said. "He had an interception on the opening play against Kansas to start us off with great field position. Run support, tackling, he has been a very good player.”
Good coming along
Coming into the preseason, sophomore Stephen Good seem to be a lock to start at right guard. But midway through August, Good got sick for a couple days, and when he got back on the field, couldn’t win a starting job back.
But due to an injury to Simmons and a suspension to Tavaris Jeffries, Good has been back in the starting lineup the last two games and playing better, his coaches say.
"From the beginning of the year I feel like I’ve made great strides,” Good said. "I know that at the beginning of the year I wasn’t playing as well as I should have and I feel like that I’ve stepped up a little bit in these past two games especially."
OU-Nebraska greats to congregate in Lincoln
Prominent past players from the Oklahoma-Nebraska football rivalry will be in Lincoln this weekend for a private dinner. Among the more than 20 award winners who have been invited include Heisman Trophy winners Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier and Eric Crouch of Nebraska and Steve Owens, Billy Sims and Jason White of OU.
Several members of the 1959 Nebraska team will be holding their own reunion. That’s the squad that beat OU 25-21 to end the Sooners’ 74-game conference unbeaten streak.
Suh to face in-house discipline
Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said star defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has been disciplined for getting a ticket for negligent driving — not for a violation of team rules — as a result of his ramming three parked cars with his sport utility vehicle over the weekend.
Pelini said Suh’s discipline would be kept in-house.
Suh told police he swerved to avoid hitting a dog or cat crossing the street when his Land Rover hit the first of the cars on a narrow street in Lincoln early Sunday. Suh had alcohol in his system, but he tested well below the legal limit. Pelini has a zero-tolerance policy on alcohol-related offenses, but pointed out Suh was not drunk and that the crash was an accident.
"I was just glad he was OK,” Pelini told reporters. "But he explained to me exactly what happened. I was really happy with the way he handled it. He did everything the right way. It was very responsible in how he went about handling it.”
BY JAKE TROTTER
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Don't know what time of day this accident occurred. Doesn't really matter though as it is quite imagineable that a person that had not touched a drop of alcohol, noticing an animal dart out into the road, a narrow road as the article points out, day or night, but particularly if dark out, that then rammed into parked vehicles causing damage to 3 vehicles would easily be confused as to whether it was a dog or a cat. You can condemn that alcohol was in his system and have some justification for that. That being said, there are so-called "legal limits" to blood alchohol for a reason and Pelini has no obligation to punish him for something that was not illegal in the eyes of the law.
Now as to our inexperienced O-line. I just don't understand, with all of our blow-outs last season, why some of these guys couldn't have gotten more substantial playing time last year.