Remember when Bob Stoops called out his offensive line going into spring drills last year?
Well, he hasn’t done it since and Tuesday offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson offered one of the quotes of the day when he offered, “We’ve got two fifth-year guys and two fourth-year guys starting. You know, that’s not bad for our rookie offensive line.”
And then there’s the linebackers. Tom Wort’s not available, neither is Mike Balogun and Ryan Reynolds is coming off ACL surgery and who knows if he can play a whole game?
Not Stoops.
“That’s going to be a feel thing,” he said.
Only he didn’t seem very concerned and perhaps he shouldn’t be. Travis Lewis and Keenan Clayton are back, in optimal health and, anyway, Austin Box is available.
The point, of course, is this team appears just about issue free heading into Saturday night’s season-opener against BYU at Cowboys Stadium.
Perhaps anybody might have guessed. Because when you stop and think about it, the biggest thing facing this team the last couple of weeks may have been the unresolved eligibility or lack of eligibility of a linebacker who made 13 tackles last season.
Somebody asked Stoops if it was “critical” the defense begin the season playing very well because who knows how long it’s going to take for that offensive line to pull things together.
“Well sure,” Stoops said. “With the quality of teams that you’re playing all that, the defense needs to step up and play well.”
But when a coach goes to a cliché like that — “step up” — its hard to believe he’s thinks anything is all that critical and isn’t that the case when it comes to the 2009 Sooners.
The offensive line remains the only real issue. Everything else is a curiosity.
But if Stoops and Wilson went into Tuesday trying to convince people Brody Eldridge’s move from fullback and tight end to center wasn’t an emergency switch, along the lines of the one day Nic Harris played in Reynolds’ middle linebacker spot last season, but in fact a simple case of OU identifying the best center on the roster, well, they pulled it off.
Wilson actually compared Eldridge favorably to last year’s center, Jon Cooper.
Stoops might even have given it away the day before when, speaking of Eldridge, who’s always been one his favorite players, he said “This allows him to be on the field even more. That’s our thinking.”
Because by that logic, they could have moved Eldridge to corner, made him the deep snapper and slid him into the linebacker rotation, too. Heck, by that logic, Mossis Madu shouldn’t have been moved to receiver, but anywhere the Sooners were thin.
But to say it, it must make perfect sense to the guy saying it. Eldridge is playing center because he’s the best center.
Case closed.
Why worry?
Something will happen Saturday.
The Cougars will hit a big pass, or DeMarco Murray won’t look completely right or Sam Bradford might complete only 65 percent of his throws. When it comes to Sooner football, just roll out the ball and there’s something to kick around.
Just not much Tuesday.
“There’s a lot of really good seniors on this team,” Wilson said. “There’s a lot of really good leadership on this team.”
It doesn’t get much better than a coach seeking out intangibles to praise.
This team is really, really good.
Everybody knows it.
The season can’t arrive fast enough.
The Sooner Nation may be anxious, but it need not worry.
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
Right now Sooners have nothing to worry about
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