(L) Sherry brings little Mason to his first Oklahoma
Sooners "game";( R) Beau and Tommy travel from Nor Tex to
Norman.
Spring Red-White Game: Soggy Show
Landry Jones leads White team to 23-0 win
Sooner
fans got their Spring fix by watching the white-clad Sooners
defeat the red-clad Sooners 23-0 on a rainy and cold Saturday in
Norman.
Figuring this game out was a no-brainer once I learned that
starting QB Landry Jones was pulling on a white uniform.
Jones was 17 of 34 for two touchdowns in a journeyman's
performance.
What stood out for me was the play of three likely starting
linebackers on the white squad: Travis Lewis, Ronnell
Lewis and Jason Ibiloye. The Sooners are deep at LB, which
will be refreshing. Those three likely starters all played
on the white team (which obviously had a talent advantage).
Another guy to watch was true freshman Kenny Stills, who showed
good hands catching a wet ball, including a 30-yard touchdown
pass from Jones. Redshirt freshman Marshall Musil had a
nice long run; but, understand the star players Demarco Murray
and Mossis Madu were held out of this game to save against
injury.
The offensive line had some break downs -- giving the officials
chance to test out their whistles to signal "touch football"
sacks of the do-not-touch quarterbacks.
Interestingly, Josh Heupel called the plays for the white that
scored 23 points. Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson
called plays for the red team that scored no points. Hmmmm.
Well, I'm sure having Jones made most of the difference.
Let's just hope Landry doesn't get hurt like the last guy (uh,
what was his name? Sam, something?), otherwise backup QB Drew
Allen (who threw a few good balls) is starting and the season
results are worse than last year's. -- Mike
Nice column by SPD's Bryan Burwell about the
formative years of NFL-bound Sam Bradford.
WHILE WE WERE AWAY . . .
Students take to Owen Field for a little SnowBall on January 29.
- Photo by Mike
Our All-Decade Soonerguys Team
The best of the 2000s (as voted on by
Hunter, Alex & Mike)
Comments by Hunter.
QB: Josh Heupel.
"That's right. He didn't win a Heisman, but he won a
National Championship. Josh was like a coach on the field.
Amazing."
RBs: Adrian Peterson and Quentin
Griffin.
"These were top sirloin running backs."
WR: Mark Clayton. Ryan Broyles.
"Mark gave us the YACs (yards after catch) enough to
get Jason White the Heisman. Broyles? Duh, he's a Norman
High guy. He can run just as fast backwards. Malcolm
Kelly, Andre Woolfolk, Antwone Savage and Curtis Fagan are close
honorable mentions."
TE: Jermaine Gresham.
"Tough choice here. Trent Smith was good too."
OL: Jammal Brown. Vince Carter.
Davin Joseph. Phil Loadholt.
Jon Cooper.
"Big ol' boys"
DL: Tommie Harris. Dusty Dvoracek.
Gerald McCoy. Dan Cody.
"These guys were animals. Harris was a Bear.
Dusty a Wild Horse. Dan a Giraffe. And McCoy was a
Buffalo. Larry Birdine would be the next pick after these four."
On
a late fourth quarter drive, when
the Sooners needed to keep possession away from Stanford’s high
power running game, Landry Jones took another step forward in
his development as Oklahoma’s quarterback.
Jones was scrambling from the tenacious
Stanford blitz and saw in front of him Demarco Murray. He
flipped a simple Utah pass and Murray ran for a much needed
first down. It was an impromptu and heady play that signaled a
transition from Jones as quarterback in training, to Jones as
quarterback in charge.
Sooners ran the clock and capped a
came-from-behind 31-27 win.
Jones threw for 416 yards. Most came after an
early interception. The set back did not set Jones back --
another sign that the redshirt freshman isn’t a freshman
anymore. Many came on successful third down conversions,
uncharacteristic this season.
But, in keeping with this year’s script,
penalties slowed the Sooners down. Injuries took out DT
Adrian Taylor. Special credit goes to the Gerald McCoy led
Sooner defense, who kept Heisman runner up Toby Gerhart in check
(holding Stanford to only one of 12 third down conversions) and
managed to force enough Stanford punts to give Oklahoma the
offensive opportunities to win.
Norman High grad Ryan Broyles 156 yards and
three touchdowns. Two words describe him: "A star." In my mind
he has now achieved the lofty status of one Mark Clayton.
And as I stood in my living room (I don’t sit
to watch these games) watching the closing seconds wind down I
remembered all those people who implored me to stay away from
this bowl site because of my apparent jinx on Oklahoma’s bowl
record.
Maybe you were right. (I obviously
underestimated my influence).
-- Mike
P.S. Linebacker Ronnell Lewis is a stud.
Nail biter bowl win sets up next year
for Landry
That
was a nail biter at the end. It was a good win. I'm sure
Coach Stoops was relieved to finally win a bowl game. This game
showed us that Landry Jones is going to be hot stuff next year.
Once he gets that off season spring practice under his belt, he
will continue to improve. -- Alex
Ouch!
Did
you see that injury to Adrian Taylor? That was an awful
break of his leg. The other players were freakin' out and
everything. It's too bad for him. But, the win was good! --
Hunter
+ Ryan Broyles set Sooners bowl
records with 13 catches and three receiving touchdowns. His 156
receiving yards were the second-most in Sooners bowl history.
+ Heisman runner-up Toby Gerhart was
held to just 53 yards and no TDs in the second half.
MERRYCHRISTMASfrom our Soonerguys family
Hunter's
2009 Soonerguys Awards
We don't need no Heisman, Maxwell, whatever...we
have our own awards. As announced at the official
Hunter's Soonerguys AwardsBanquet (see me in my
tux?...sweet....) -- Hunter
Jerk of the Year - USC's Pete Carroll, for whining about
Stanford running up the score, only to do worse himself against
UCLA when the Trojans threw a TD pass after taking a
knee at the end of the game.
Purple Heart Award - Oklahoma. That is self-explanatory.
Norman Regional announced it is moving to campus.
Surprise player of the year - Stanford's Toby Gerhart.
Re-defines the meaning of slow white guy.
Biggest beat down - Stanford's 55-21 win over USC Trojans.
Nice.
Best involuntary resignation - Bobby Bowden. Dadgummit.
Best
Adventures of Soonerguy: "Searching for the answer"
episode.
[See video
here]
Best 19th Century coach still coaching - Joe Paterno. He's old
enough to be my great-great grandfather.
Best play - Ryan Broyles' 87-yard punt return for touchdown
against OSU. Representin' Norman High well.
Biggest surprise win - Iowa State's 9-7 win over Nebraska at
Lincoln.
Biggest surprise loss - Oklahoma's 10-3 loss to Nebraska two
weeks later.
Jabba
the Hut award -- Mark Mangino and Charlie Weis (tied).
They have free time now to do a Star Wars re-make.
Worst PDA (public display of affection for you old people) -
Kirk Herbstreit's man crush for Tim Tebow.
Best anointed one - Tim Tebow. Duhhhhhh.
Best crying girl scene - Tim Tebow. Thank you.
Weirdest play of the year - The Florida State lineman who never
moved during the entire play. What was that about?
[See video]
Best coaches press conference - Mike Leach's "fat little
girlfriends".
[See video]
Worst clock management or game decision - Les Miles, deciding to
spike the ball instead of kicking a game-winning field goal in
the last seconds of LSU's loss to Mississippi. Once an Aggie....
Best
Soonerguys.com pic - Elliott doing the 'horns down sign while
driving a go-kart in Dallas. Nice job, dude.
(Click on pic to see larger)
Most delusional fans - Notre Dame, for several reasons. One,
their team sucks but they won't accept it. Two, they
thought they could hire Bob Stoops. Come on. Really?
Best Soonerguys video - Bedlam. "Four quarters of
relentless energy!" Love it.
[See video]
The Soonerguys Alex, Hunter and Mike flashin' for the
paparazzi...
Photos by Gerald and Ken
Soonerguys.TV:
See the latest Adventures of Soonerguy Don't miss this regular
season finale: After a rough couple of weeks Soonerguy
emerges from his isolation to find a pretender questioning his
status as a super hero in "Truth, Justice..."
Join us through the season as we watch, talk, write and video
everything Sooners as our favorite team vies for their 43rd
conference and eighth national championship. Just scroll down
this page. Also, see our
new companion site,
Soonerguys.TV.
See the most
comprehensive collection of Oklahoma football
viral presentations on the web. Not just our
own productions, but those of other diehard
Sooners! Coming in September.
[HERE]
Nebraska.
What does it take for an average team to lose to
a below average team? Eight turnovers. And
that's why the Huskers shocked Huskerville by
losing to Iowa State 9-7 in Lincoln. Yuck.
Penn
State players who said the non-conference team
they'd most like to play is the USC Trojans.
Now, if athletic directors would only listen and
throw away their Division II opponent list.
Instead, the Nittany Lions play Akron, Syracuse
and Temple.
Beano
Cook and Lou Holtz -- the dinosaurs of college
sports media -- showed how many rings they have
by predicting Notre Dame will play Florida in
the BCS Championship this year. Someone please
tell them it's 2009. They think Ara
Parseghian is still at South Bend.