Traffic in South Florida delayed both schools team buses from arriving at the site of the BCS national title game on time as scheduled, a trivial tidbit to the season's final game you'd be excused for not knowing.
Oklahoma's record-setting offensive unit did eventually make it, but if you watched Florida's 24-14 win over the Sooners, you'd be excused for not knowing that either.
Because what took the field was trivial compared to the biblical 702-point offense that burned through the Big 12 and burned out scoreboards.
After a season in which they spent more time scoring in the 60s than Tiger Woods in his best week, Oklahoma's high-octane offense played like it had a pound of sugar in its gas tank, a herky-jerky rendering of a once prolific offense.
It was less like they were playing football and more like every member of the team had been simultaneously asked to recite the alphabet backwards. It was like watching Usain Bolt run the 100-meters only after twirling around enough to make himself dizzy.
And in the end it rendered 360 yards. Two interceptions. Fourteen measly points.
One awfully familiar feeling.
Another year, another bowl loss for Oklahoma. And it only seems to be getting worse.
We've reported before (here, here) on Oklahoma's various snafus as it relates to the whole Rhett Bomar little work/big pay deal with a certain auto dealership. Oklahoma felt it did the right thing in catching Bomar in the act and kicking him and teammate J.D. Quinn off the team as sacrificial lambs. But then the NCAA smacked them down some more and now Oklahoma's steamed.
Red meat, please settle nicely onto my plate:
Oklahoma ``strongly disagrees'' with the NCAA's allegation that the university failed to adequately monitor the employment of dismissed starting quarterback Rhett Bomar and other athletes at a Norman car dealership, according to documents released by the university Friday.
``We ... assert that the University met, if not exceeded, industry standards regarding our student-athlete employment monitoring,'' University President David Boren said in a letter dated March 7, which was obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request.
``There were no other reasonable additional steps we could have taken that would have prevented these violations or detected them any sooner,'' Boren said in the letter.
The NCAA has claimed that Oklahoma violated its own guidelines by failing to collect earnings statements from 12 football players who worked at the dealership, and as a result did not detect NCAA rules violations.
Strangely enough, both sides are right. Welcome to the wacky world that is the NCAA ...
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.
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."
"We strongly disagree with this charge and assert that the University met, if not exceeded, industry standards regarding our student-athlete monitoring," OU president David Boren wrote in a letter dated March 7 to the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
"There were no other reasonable additional steps we could have taken that would have prevented these violations or detected them any sooner. "The employment standard the allegation attempts to establish goes beyond current industry expectations and would add an impractical component to an already involved monitoring process for all Division I schools."
Oklahoma self-reported the violations and dismissed Bomar and Quinn from the team last August. The Sooners have not reallocated the scholarships of the two dismissed players and they will also utilize one less coach for off-campus recruiting during the fall evaluation period. The school hopes that the NCAA will accept these self-imposed scholarship and recruiting restrictions, rather than dishing out more severe punishments. Oklahoma is expected to appear before the NCAA's Committee on Infractions on April 14.
The annual rivalry game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State has been moved to Saturday, November 24th by the Big 12 Conference. This year's game was originally scheduled for October 27th. The move means that the game will add to a quality slate of conference games during Thanksgiving weekend. Currently, the Texas-Texas A&M and Nebraska-Colorado rivalry games are played annually on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The OU-OSU game will now join the Missouri-Kansas game – the nation's second most-played rivalry – on that Saturday.
The decision to move the Bedlam game was prompted by ... wait for it ... television revenues!
We've done this, in part, because on that weekend, you have two play dates, which adds to our potential television windows," [Big 12 assistant commissioner Bob] Burda said. "With these games, we can offer attractive matchups on both Friday and Saturday."
It is hard to argue with the move given that all four of the contests are now guaranteed to be televised by either ABC or Fox Sports Net. The move also has the support of OU head coach Bob Stoops who believes it will help his team prepare for the Big 12 Championship game:
"We've played in five of those games during our eight years here, and the only one we didn't win had an open week before we went to play," he said. "Of the four we've won, three went directly from our last regular-season game to the championship game. If that's what works best for us, I'm all for it."
Coach Stoops talks as if Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game is a forgone conclusion. Heh. Texas fans have to love that.
In case you've missed the FanHouse's awesomely awesome and fantastic Spring Practice Questions, I've cobbled together the "Complete Series" for Big 12 teams.
Seriously, read these, folks. They're about football. And right now the sporting world isn't about football. And you're dying for more football. That's why you're here. To endure this choppy writing of mine. And read these Big 12 Spring Practice Questions. The complete series. Below.
As you can see, all three quarterbacks lack that classic dropback build. They're smaller, more combo-style passers, particularly Nichol who has some running ability and played cornerback as well as quarterback in high school. He's also the closest thing to a blue-chipper among the quarterbacks. The Sooners earned his commitment late in the recruiting game this year after he spurned homestate Michigan State where he would have been one of the gems in their recruiting class.
Halzle was signed out of a junior college last year (probably as much-needed insurance) and failed to beat out senior Paul Thompson last year after incumbent quarterback Rhett Bomar was kicked out of school.
The way I see it, Halzle has a slight edge on Bradford thanks to his junior college experience and extra semester with the offense. Neither quarterback distinguished himself as a backup last year. If form holds this spring and fall, Halzle will probably be the Sooners' starting quarterback as ties tend to go to the veterans.
Eventually, Nichol has a chance to make a push for the job as his pedigree's a little better than the other quarterbacks who are both relative unknowns at a position that tends to be played amongst blue chippers at major programs like Oklahoma.
I suspect Halzle earns the starting nod in the fall and plays well enough to hold the job for much of the year. From there he's either going to run away with the job, look decent and buy time for Nichol or fall on his face and open the job to Bradford or Nichol. The first option sounds unlikely, as does the third, leaving the second option as a time-buyer who will complement the Sooners' ground game rather than propel the offense as happened with guys like Jason White and Josh Heupel.
The real question at that point becomes this: can Nichol distinguish himself enough through spring, fall and the early season to be ready to outplay Halzle and become a long-time starter in the mold of Rhett Bomar before he got himself kicked out of school? There's no way to really know, obviously, but I suspect he'll fall just short and Halzle will ride out the season as the Sooners' starting quarterback.
Agree? Disagree? Be kind as this is just an outsider's perspective to what certainly will be a very guarded, highly competitive situation.
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.
Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles is expected to step down this week. His departure is yet another symbol of the passing of one of college football's greatest generations, the great coaches who presided over the game from 1960 or so until the mid to late 1970's. Broyles coached the Razorbacks from 1958 to 1976 helping them win a championship and competing nationally in a great era against powers like Alabama, USC, Notre Dame and Michigan.
Another giant of his time has left us in the mortal sense: Bo Schembechler. Schembechler coached Michigan from 1969 to 1989 becoming the face of the program until his death just before the Michigan/Ohio State game last year.
Among the magnificent but dead is Alabama's Bear Bryant (1958-1982) who retired at the end of the 1982 season and promptly checked out of mortal existence. Ohio State's Woody Hayes (1951-1978) hung around until his death in 1987. Nebraska's Bob Devaney (1962-1972) checked out in 1997 and USC's comedic John McKay (1960-1975) lasted a little longer, passing away in 2001.
All those giants left the coaching ranks long ago, but each stewarded elite programs for a decade or more. To this day most of them remain the standard for which current coaches aspire to at each of their programs. Schembechler's death and Broyles' departure signal the end of their collective direct involvement in the college game.
They are the ones who were the game's caretakes from the mid to late 1970's until the late 1980's, an era of great transition and upheaval due to parity measures such as scholarship limits, the completion of racial integration and the rapid and dramatic death of plodding, run-heavy conventional offenses such as USC's "Student Body Right/Student Body Left" approach.
We'll save that analysis for another day, another time. Until then it's one final embrace of perhaps college football's "greatest generation" of coaches. Thanks for the memories, fellas.
Few things awe people more than the act of speed. I sit here writing this while the Daytona 500 plays out on my television screen, cars ripping across asphalt at nearly 200 miles an hour. The main event at the Olympic games is the 100 meter dash. In college football, our fastest players have quite often been amongst the most celebrated.
Reggie Bush and Adrian Peterson came along and spent three seasons simply running right by defenders. They gave way to Ted Ginn who capped his career with a kick return touchdown that was Ohio State's lone highlight in January's BCS Championship Game.
But now that those guys are gone, who is left to fill the void as captivating speedster?
For players already on college rosters, Clemson has two of the zoom zoomiest around in receiver/returner Jacoby Ford and tailback CJ Spiller, both sophomores. There are other players out there yet to make their mark and we'll be on the lookout for them. One such burner is Jamere Holland, a redshirt freshman receiver at USC who clocked somewhere in the 10.3 range in the 100 meters in high school.
Florida sophomore receiver Percy Harvin is also a superb choice, weaving expertly through defenses any time he so much as has a step on a defender. West Virginia junior tailback Steve Slaton has excellent speed and is a worthy candidate. Junior Arkansas tailback and Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden is an obvious selection here. Finally, there is junior Texas tailback Jamaal Charles who ran somewhere in the 10.2 range in high school and owns several long touchdown runs to his name.
Among incoming recruits, many people have made comparisons between Louisiana's Joe McKnight (a USC signee) and Reggie Bush, but McKnight is probably a step slower with a personal best of 10.71. There are some reports of him having clocked a 10.4, but I have yet to find anything legitimate and official backing that up. He's definitely a playmaker but I'm not sure he's quite in that class of guy who simply runs right by college defenders as Peterson and Bush and Ginn were able to do.
My nominee among this year's incoming freshmen to fill the speed vacuum would be tailback Jahvid Best, a 10.41 runner who has signed with California.
Noble reader: now that you've seen my list, I ask you now who else should be under consideration as an impact player with awe-inspiring speed? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Traffic in South Florida delayed both schools team buses from arriving at the site of the BCS national title game on time as scheduled, a trivial tidbit to the season's final game you'd be excused for not knowing.
It's starting to sound like it.
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, 
The University of Oklahoma 
This is one amateur's assessment of how the Oklahoma quarterback derby will shake out this spring.
Arkansas Athletic Director 
