We tried. We really tried. We failed.Three weeks into preseason practice we have no idea who the next quarterback will be at Oklahoma and a real good idea this Sooner offense, particularly with J.D. Runnels and Adrian Peterson sitting out contact, is sick and tired of having to face this Sooner defense.
Indeed, Wednesday’s scrimmage at Owen Field, the alleged last scrimmage of the preseason until OU coach Bob Stoops announced moments after its conclusion they might do it again the next Wednesday — you know, maybe 50 or 60 plays; might even let the fans come back — told us next to nothing about the state of Sooner football.
If you were standing in the northeast corner of the field, about the only thing you could be sure about was the existence of a middle-aged man with gray hair and a gray mustache, wearing a gray OU T-shirt, who loves Kejuan Jones “with all my heart.”
Only he wasn’t too sure about Kejuan’s first name.
“I love you Keyshawn,” he said. “I love all you all.”
Really. That’s as good as it got.
The offensive line allowed a ton of sacks. Then again, all it took was a phantom touch of the men in blue, Paul Thompson and Rhett Bomar, to get a play blown dead.
Bomar scored a touchdown … on a broken play. Thompson closed the scrimmage with a touchdown pass to Quentin Chaney … in a goal-line drill.
It’s not like anybody was going up and down the field.
Frankly, I think everybody expected a little more.
In fact, off the field, the atmosphere was quite game-like.
They hired enough referees to have spares. A few hundred fans were watching from their luxury suites or the stadium club. A P.A. announcer called out the plays. The scoreboard was on. Even the digital screens between the decks on both sides were flashing commercials. SoonerVision wasn’t just up and running, but showing replays … of one boring scrimmage.
Fans, the die hards, curled rosters in their hands like it was The Daily Racing Form. And come to think of it, everything happening cleared things up about as well most past performance charts, which is to say not at all.
When it was over, I had a brainstorm.
I would ask offensive coordinator Chuck Long a question with such expert wording, he was bound to break news. I was trying to get him to say what I’ve come to believe, that the real shocker would be naming anybody starting quarterback before the UCLA game.
Would you be surprised if you didn’t play both quarterbacks to begin the season?
“You have to leave that door open,” Long said.
Well, that’s definitive. Almost as definitive as what Stoops had to say a few minutes earlier about his quarterbacks.
“You know,” he said, “they’re learning and growing.”
Who isn’t?
Well, unless they’re trying to learn something new about Sooner football.
This was sort of interesting.
Stoops explained how it was difficult for either quarterback to do very much, considering each was leading an offense without two great players, Runnels and Peterson, against a defense that couldn’t be more familiar with its playbook. And then a few minutes later, Long explained it was all by design, so they could really look at the quarterbacks.
“This was a scrimmage on purpose to throw it,” Long said.
By the end, other than the true believers with the racing forms, it was more like a baseball game. Most everybody was looking and talking to each other and not so much following the action down on the field. What little action there was.
The dog days of summer?
Could be. A team can hit a wall.
So too, apparently, can one of the folks covering it.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
