FanHouse DemarcoMurray

It was of little surprise Monday when Texas coach Mack Brown named redshirt freshman running back Tre' Newton as the starter for Saturday's UTEP game.

Newton gave the second-ranked Longhorns everything they had been looking for in a tailback for the last two seasons during Saturday's win over Texas Tech, picking up difficult yards and moving the chains. Filling in for injured starter Vondrell McGee in the second half, Newton rushed for 88 yards and one touchdown on 20 carries.

His 18 carries for 81 yards in the second half proved pivotal in keeping Texas Tech's explosive offense off the field as the Longhorns escaped with a 34-24 win. It was the inability of the Longhorns backs to pick up critical yards late that paved the way for their upset loss to Tech last season.

DeMarco Murray, Oklahoma's star running back, won't play in Miami against the Florida Gators on January 8th.

Murray injured his knee in the Big 12 Championship game against Missouri. Oklahoma's medical staff originally diagnosed the injury as a "deep bruise," but now say the sophomore has a "partial rupture of a hamstring tendon" in his left leg. Surgery is the only option now for Murray, but he'll be back next year.

In the meantime, what does this mean for the Big Game?

Looking back on this season, Murray has rushed for 1,002 yards and 14 touchdowns and caught 31 passes for an additional 395 yards and four touchdowns. And that's not counting his 774 yards in kickoff returns. Yeah, dude's good. He'll be missed.

But all is not lost for the Sooners.

These guys are among the small handful of preseason favorites for the national championship. Easy call putting them in the Contender category today, no? We make no promises on their ability to deliver, given the whole hot stove human behavior thing whereby Oklahoma has lost big in so many different ways in bowl games lately we know better than to bet on crimson anytime after early December.

But there's always that victory over Texas to fall back on, right? Assuming they beat Texas this year, of course.

Why They'll Win

Talent. It's the lifeblood of all college football programs and Oklahoma's fairly deep with it. The guys the NFL loves are on the lines, but college football fans can appreciate great players with diminished NFL prospects like one Sam Bradford. This guy's just got the knack for making accurate throws, on time, and making the right reads. His freshman season is simply the best statistical freshman season ever.

Oklahoma will continue to do what it always does, play fast on defense, and find ways to get the ball down the field on the ground and in the air. Leading rusher Allen Patrick departs but the exciting DeMarco Murray has arrived and he will be pushed in a big way from frosh back Jermie Calhoun. The offensive line is also widely considered the nation's finest.

We've already checked in on the quarterbacks, so why not delve into what's new with the running backs of the Big 12.

We'll start at Texas, where the biggest question mark of the spring is who will replace Jamaal Charles? Charles led the Big 12 in rushing in 2007 on the strength of a fantastic second half of the season. Three backs will fight it out over the starting running back gig in 2008.

Sophomore Vondrell McGee will get first shot at the starting job after serving as Charles' understudy a year ago. When Charles was having consistency problems at midseason in 2007, McGee actually got more playing time, specifically on short-yardage and goal-line plays. He gained 297 yards overall and scored eight touchdowns.

Redshirt freshman Fozzy Whittaker and McGee share the same, low-to-the-ground build. Both resemble miniature linebackers.

Whereas McGee prefers the I-formation, Whittaker is more comfortable running out of the shotgun. That's how he made his yardage at Pearland High School, where he finished with the sixth-best rushing total in Class 5A history.

The third member of the committee is Chris Ogbonnaya, a well-known offensive commodity. The Longhorns often turned to Ogbonnaya on third-down situations last fall because he was as adept at running pass routes as he was at picking up the blitz. He caught 21 passes a year ago. To prepare for this season, the fifth-year senior dropped 12 pounds to improve his speed. He's now at 215.

We'll look elsewhere in the Big 12 after the jump.

Sunday College Football Hangover is a (hopefully) regular feature from a groggy FanHouse writer recovering from 16+ hours of watching as much college football as humanly possible.

The Big Story

What else but perhaps the greatest upset in college football (sports?) history. As our own Ryan Ferguson wrote, Appalachian State is a very good lower division football team. They're the defending I-AA national champs, in fact. But Michigan's loss is absolutely inexcuseable and mind-bending in its implications.

As SMQB wrote:

A I-AA team beat Michigan. This shakes the foundation of my comprehension of the world to such a vastly greater extent than any upset, sighting, conspiracy theory, apparition, miracle or act of nature I could possibly cite. This is frogs raining from heaven. This is physically impossible

Indeed. I don't know whether this is a good or a bad thing for the sport. On one hand, we have a celebration of the underdog and further proof of why style and scheme matters so much in college football. The NFL is a robotic operation with 32 teams all doing the same thing over and over again with people paying them hand over fist to see it. College football's got soul, though, and it's expressed in Appalachian State's defensive effort and utilization of overlooked athletes.

On the other hand, this is clearly the story of the season. How does college football come down from this? There is simply nothing that can happen in the next 14 or so weeks that will come close to matching this upset. Nothing. USC could lose nine times and yet the event everyone will first recall from this season is Appalachian State's upset of Michigan.

More after the jump.

Depending on my mood this could be the first, last and only entry in this "07 Breakout Stars" series. I'm not even sure Murray will be a breakout star, but I want to write about him, dagnabbit.

Murray is a redshirt freshman tailback at Oklahoma who has been tearing up the practice field of late.

Redshirt freshman DeMarco Murray played a starring role in his third straight scrimmage on Saturday, piling up 103 yards on only four carries in the Sooners' spring game. Murray scored on an 18-yard run on his first carry and later darted around defenders for a 68-yard gain that set up another touchdown.

Murray totaled 327 yards and four touchdowns on 29 carries in the three spring scrimmages, averaging a whopping 11.3 yards. He had at least one run 65 yards or longer in each outing.

Murray came to Oklahoma last year highly regarded but the presence of Adrian Peterson and some turf toe forced a redshirt. It's doubtful he can be an everydown back given his build and style (more of a speedy slasher than the traditional Oklahoma bruiser), but his spring performances have been a revalation. Be sure and peek at the video below, he has several highlights (wearing No. 7), particularly the run at 3:28.

One of the biggest questions in the Big 12 this year is who will replace Adrian Peterson as Oklahoma's starting running back? If the spring is any indication, Sooner fans can rest easy, knowing an abundance of talent appears ready to run in Norman. For starters, Allen Patrick and Chris Brown both return after stepping up in Peterson's absence and propelling the Sooners to the Big 12 Championship. In addition, a new star has emerged in Oklahoma's spring scrimmages in redshirt freshman DeMarco Murray.

In Saturday's scrimmage Murray carried the ball 16 times for 132 yards and a touchdown. His 65-yard run was also the longest play of the day for the Sooners. Despite these efforts, Head coach Bob Stoops remains understated.

"DeMarco's a special player," Stoops said.

Murray was also the most impressive back in Oklahoma's first scrimmage of the spring on March 14. In that scrimmage he carried the ball 9 times for 92 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught three passes for 37 yards.

The emergence of Murray, gives the Sooners all sorts of options in the backfield. Patrick and Brown both look durable enough to be every down backs. It is doubtful, however, that Patrick will average anywhere near the 30 carries a game that he did in the second half of 2006. Instead, offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson should be able to spread the ball around amongst Patrick, Brown, Murray and Mossis Madu another talented redshirt freshman. You can probably expect to Murray and Madu to line up in the slot and perhaps split time as the feature back when the Sooners operate from the shotgun.

However they decide to use the four backs, I think this qualifies as one of those "good problems to have."

Last Year: 11-3 (8-1), # 11 AP, # 11 Coaches

Fans Are: Optimistic. It's been a wild run under coach Bob Stoops. There was the championship in his second season and several more frustrating title game appearances, Jason White's Heisman trophy, Adrian Peterson's near-miss with the Heisman, many wins over Texas and finally last year the end of the Adrian Peterson era and the epic bowl loss to Boise State. It's breath-catching time with a roster depleted of stars but full of quality.

Expectations: Beat Texas, play in the Big 12 Championship Game, play in a BCS bowl game.

Questions:

1. What's going on with the quarterbacks?

This sounds like a rare "open" competition. There is no holdover player with a vast experience edge on his competitors who are often less experienced but more talented. Joey Halzle has some JUCO experience but otherwise has been at Oklahoma as long as redshirt freshman Sam Bradford. The Sooners snuck true frosh Keith Nichol out of the grasps of Michigan State. He has enrolled early and because of that has a legitimate shot at the job.

2. Can freshman quarterback Keith Nichol win the job?

It's doubtful at best, at least out of spring. I read a Stoops quote somewhere recently where he said a frosh starter, particularly at quarterback, has to be special unless injuries have killed the depth chart. He may be more competitive later in the year but the real task this spring is probably to get Nichol to grasp the offensive basics while evaluating the competence of Bradford and Halzle.

3. Can the tailbacks fill in for Adrian Peterson?

Absolutely. We saw that last year as Allen Patrick and Chris Brown led the Sooner offense through an 8-0 league run after the Red River Rivalry loss to Texas. Coach Stoops is also talking up redshirt frosh backs Mossis Madu and DeMarco Murray who are more slippery runners and nice counters to the inside styles of Brown and Patrick.

4. Will the defense still dominate?

Probably. It all starts up front and the Sooners lose three senior ends that have to be accounted for. Zach Latimer and Rufus Alexander also depart, leaving vacancies at linebacker. The defensive interior should be fantastic once again with Steve Coleman, Carl Pendleton, Cory Bennett, DeMarcus Granger and others around to clog things up inside.

The secondary is young but has lots of speedy veterans in Lendy Holmes, D.J. Wolfe, Nic Harris, Darien Williams, Marcus Walker and All America candidate Reggie Smith. The Big 12 has become increasingly pass-happy and the Sooners have the secondary to manage against the league's best passers.