Sun Bowl

I’ve been very critical of Landry Jones play and future prospects all year, but he was very good in this game. In fact, though Nate will disagree, Jones was OU’s best player in this game. It was the most accurate he was all year. He was calm and there were fewer forced throws than in other games this year. Broyles had a monster game, but wouldn’t have without a dozen very good throws.

DeJuan Miller continued to demonstrate that he’s an emerging talent on this offense and will be a big player for us next year. I always like big receivers and this guy looks like he has something.

Ronnell Lewis is the next great Oklahoma linebacker. He was a freaking killer on kick coverage and very solid on defense. An All American before he’s through.

The defense played a solid game, save for a couple busted coverages in the second quarter. Trips Right disputes me but I think Gerhart is the real deal and an NFL gamer. Not that he is flashy, and, yes, Trips, he doesn’t have wiggle, but many, many times he took contact at two yards but gained five or six yards. Power back. As for wiggle, I see it in the mirror when I’m on the treadmill. It’s over-rated. Or is that jiggle??

The zebra’s had a bad game. Yes, the chop block on Stanford in the second quarter was a bad call. The punt muff/kick catch interference was an atrocious call, and the result of politicking from the Stanford sideline. The 3rd and 8 replay in which Broyles was ruled out of bounds was conclusively wrong. But here’s another angle on zebra’s in bowl games. The desire/need to have officials from neutral conferences is for very obvious reasons, but it does bring in other problems. That Big 10 crew yesterday struggled with the tempo of a no huddle team. Twice during the game, when OU’s offense raised up to look to the sideline for the play adjustment, they called false starts. Every single no huddle team runs that the same way. But nobody in the Big 10 runs no huddle. That isn’t a false start. The B10 crew just wasn’t used to seeing it. Reminded me of the BCS game last year. There weren’t bad calls per se, but that ACC crew struggled with the tempo. Don’t you remember all the unnecessary stoppages in the first quarter while OU was making a strong early push. It affected momentum.

We MUST find a kicker.

It wasn’t a “huge win” or a “great win,” but it was a meaningful and good win. This season was a real struggle (more on that later) but at the end of the day it was a win against a ranked team. It gives the program positive mojo heading into the spring and certainly built some level of confidence in Jones. I expected a 3-7 point game and that’s what we got. But, what we also got was a come from behind win against a ranked team by a group that hadn’t shown much mental toughness all year.

The Season

I’m just glad it’s over.

Man, this was a tough year. I just don’t know that I’ve ever known of a team that experienced more catastrophic injuries in one season. Injuries do happen during the course of a season, but usually there are more of the 1-2 game, pulled muscle, twisted ankle kind of naggers that drive you crazy but don’t cost you your season. This team didn’t just lose eight starters for the season, it lost most of its best players. And those injuries did cost us our season. I guess it could have been worse in the W-L column but this was not a fun season to watch and the games were a drag.

Landry Jones is a work in progress and may or may not be the QB of the future. He had games that he just looked awful. Against Stanford he was terrific. Two concerns: he’s just not that accurate, especially from the pocket. He does seem to throw better and more accurately on the run. I think the highest upside with this kid is Nate Hybl territory. For a program that’s experienced two Heisman QB’s in six years, he won’t get to that level. So, Drew Allen and Blake Bell deserve a good, long look. The competition will be good for them. Remember, three years ago, Bradford didn’t win the starting job until two weeks before the season.

We should be signing some junior college offensive lineman. God bless Eric Mensik for being a trooper the last two games, but you must understand that we started a 260 pound back up tight end at right tackle the last two games. That’s bad. The only proven quantity we had on the line is gone. This will remain the single biggest question about this program going into 2011, especially with September games against AFA, at Cincinnati and Florida State.

None of the tight ends we have will contribute even a fraction of what Gresham did. This is a problem. Should the coaching staff consider adding 20 pounds to Dejuan Miller and make him a combo tight end?

We will miss Chris Brown. I always liked Chris Brown. NateHeupel and I had a debate before the season over Brown/Murray, a la the ‘90s era Emmitt/Barry debates. Maybe it’s why I like Gerhart, but give me the guy who can get you three yards you MUST have 30 times in a season over the guy that can give you 80 yards 2-3 times a season. I’m an old soul I guess.

To the defense….

This defense has its soul back. We’ll miss McCoy certainly, but we have lots of good defensive lineman. Assuming Taylor recovers from his nasty broken leg, we go into next year with a solid rotation upfront.

See above comment on Ronnell Lewis. Add him to Travis Lewis and Austin Box and we are in very good shape at linebacker.

Franks is coming back and Nelson and Hurst have shown enough that the secondary will be fine.

Total, total, another top 20 defense or better next year.

THE GLASS IS HALF EMPTY VIEW….

Jones isn’t a tier 1 QB and Allen doesn’t emerge.
Murray isn’t a 25 carry guy.
Some of the injuries linger and those guys don’t re-establish their pre-injury abilities.
This team was so bad on the road, and completely quit in the Tech game, that there are serious mental makeup questions about this group that will not be resolved in one off season.
The offensive line just doesn’t have requisite talent to improve as much as is needed in eight months.

THE GLASS IS HALF FULL VIEW…

After a miserably challenging season this team finished well, with consecutive wins over ranked teams.
The Sun Bowl win was a come from behind win over a ranked team and the defense completely shut down an offense featuring the near-Heisman trophy winner in the second half.
Jones possibly “figured it out” in the Sun Bowl. It was arguably the best bowl performance by an OU QB since Hybl’s Rose Bowl opus in 2002 (1/1/2003).
In all of the injury problems, a lot of guys got to play and got good experience.
We go into the Spring with momentum.
We have a top five recruiting class coming in. (the four major services have us ranked #1, #2, #4 and #8, respectively)
Texas will certainly not be as good next year, simply because McCoy has single-handedly carried their offense for three years and will be gone.

I’m going to choose the half full option, just because I’m such a damned positive guy. September is scary, though, with a road trip to Cincy and Seminole and Zoomie visits to Norman. Certainly we should beat AFA, but they’re better than you think and tough to defend. FSU will be back QUICKLY and road games against two time defending BCS-AQ conference champions are tough. Texas is Texas. A&M is clearly improving and usually fights us to the death in College Station. Columbia isn’t easy. But, Tech will slide significantly. It’s ugly there and will be for a while. OSU will take a major step back. They never were what some members of the press thought and still-in-all they’re losing their best players.

So, all in all, it was a very difficult year and no fun at all. But, I don’t think there are any major structural problems in the program. There are challenges for sure but not that this staff and program can overcome.