QB situation no distraction for OU's Landry Jones
BY DAVID UBBEN, Staff Writer, dubben@opubco.com
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Published: October 6, 2009
NORMAN — If Landry Jones’ upper lip is any indication, Monday was the dawn of something new in Oklahoma football.
One has to wonder if the constant questions regarding Sam Bradford’s playing status is a distraction for the Sooners. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
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The most famous mustache in football was MIA, but while the look is new, the words coming from beneath it weren’t. The redshirt freshman quarterback was adamant that a second week of uncertainty under center wasn’t a distraction.
"If Sam comes back this week, that’ll be great,” Jones said. "If he doesn’t, I’ll be ready to go.”
He and his coach,
Bob Stoops, said the attention paid to the quarterback situation wasn’t a distraction last week, either. But on Monday, Stoops said he wouldn’t make a decision on his starter until Thursday at the earliest, presumably in an attempt to dodge a daily barrage of Bradford questions.
He answered several during Monday’s
Big 12 teleconference but grew frustrated at the repeated inquisition.
"Until you see them progress, you don’t know. Until you get out there and work it, you don’t know,” Stoops said. "Everybody keeps asking the same question, and the answer is impossible to give.”
Bradford and Jones split snaps with the first team last week, but Bradford didn’t suit up against
Miami. For Stoops, managing two quarterbacks isn’t the problem. The problem is unappeasable critics.
"You’re always working two quarterbacks, and sometimes working a little bit of the third guy to get him some snaps,” Stoops said. "Everybody says he gets all the snaps, and then it’s, ‘Well, how come the second guy wasn’t ready to play?’ He didn’t get enough snaps if you ever have to go with him. So then when you split them up and you give the second guy some, ‘Well, you shouldn’t be giving them to him. The one ought to get them all.’ We handle it. They’ve got enough snaps.”
For now, Jones will continue playing the role of starting quarterback and leader.
"When I was the backup, it was Sam’s team,” Jones said. "When I knew he wasn’t going to play, I kind of stepped up and took it over as my team.”
Oklahoma fans might have spent last week glued to the television, constantly clicking their Web browser’s refresh button in hopes of hearing who would be leading their team into Land Shark Stadium against the Hurricanes.
Level-headed Jones said he stayed away from a seemingly unavoidable string of daily reports on his status as starter.
While his teammates might not have followed suit, he said the issue was no distraction, and his mental approach has been no different once Sam playing became a possibility.
"If I get to start this week, I’ll be excited,” Jones said. "Hopefully, I’ll take care of business.”
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I wish that you could edit or delete your own comments on here after posting like on espn.com. you make a mispelling or typo and it is forevers.
The Offense should be able to protect Jones and keep him un-molested.
Hopefully he can now shine like a real p o r n star. Thanks goes to Whitney Hand for forcing these important personnel change on Landry's Lip.