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September 13, 2009

Big night for Broyles

By Clay Horning

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Oh, how Oklahoma State could have used Ryan Broyles Saturday afternoon. Instead, the Norman High product was putting on a show in front of 84,749 in his hometown.

Picking the Sooners over the Cowboys at the last minute during the recruiting process, Broyles has made an impact ever since getting on the field as a redshirt freshman last season.

This is the season's he's supposed to star, however, and Saturday night's 64-0 victory over Idaho State was a pretty good start.

"Ryan seemed to make all of the big plays," Sooner coach Bob Stoops said.

He sure seemed to when OU was building its lead, scoring three first-half touchdowns on seven catches for 155 yards, 126 of them in the first quarter.

"We wanted to try to get him some touches," Sooner offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said, "and he made some plays."

And that would have been enough. Because with 12:57 left to play in the first half, Broyles had already turned in a full day through the air, catching the last of his TD grabs, just getting a foot down in the far deep right corner of the end zone.

"I knew I had my foot down," he said. "I didn't know if it was in bounds or not, so they had to replay it. I was just glad it was a touchdown. The throw was on the money."

But it was only a part of his night.

Broyles didn't find the end zone on any of his returns, but still he electrified with three punt returns for 50 yards, including one for 22. He finished the game with 227 all-purpose yards.

"Ryan has stepped up and really made some explosive plays and he is capable of doing that," Stoops said. "Hopefully, he'll continue doing that."

Against BYU, Broyles finished with four catches, but for only 26 yards. Of course, with the offensive line's struggles, nobody had much of a day on the Sooner offense.

Saturday was more like it for a talent that tied OU's record for most catches by a freshman a year ago (46) and set the freshman mark for most yards (687). Indeed, it was a new career best, bettering his seven-catch 141-yard performance against Cincinnati last season.

He did it all in a half.

"We're not trying to force it," Wilson said.

Quarterback Landry Jones, filling in for Sam Bradford, just kept finding the open man.

"Landry is a great player," Broyles said. "We all had confidence in him and he has confidence in himself. Whatever was called, we had confidence in what he could do."

Saturday, it helped having the old NHS product to throw it to.

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