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September 28, 2005

Horning: The time to get how much better?

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Column by Clay Horning, Sports Editor

Today’s question concerning Oklahoma football is pretty simple. Basically, how much difference can two weeks make? Maybe it’s a question that begs another question, like how much does it need to make?

Here’s one side:

Not much, the Sooners are close.

Maybe, but let’s face it. Through three games, they’ve looked a million miles away.

Are the seven fumbles (the official stats counted six, yet were wrong) and three turnovers in Pasadena just a small adjustment waiting to be made? So many of them have come from the same source, fixing the problem might be a snap.

Perhaps, but there’s more.

There’s the penalties, which have come at the most inopportune times.

There’s line play, which may have afforded Rhett Bomar the chance to start justifying some of the hype, yet still hasn’t sprung Adrian Peterson but for a half. That and co-offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson isn’t still tinkering with his combinations because it’s fun.

There’s defense, which had really been pretty good until UCLA went up and down the field in the fourth quarter. But good or not, Bobby Jack Wright’s still messing with his cornerbacks, defensive end won’t be a picnic for a very long time and Dusty Dvoracek’s just one guy.

And yet …

“If you’re playing smarter, if you take care of the ball,” Sooner coach Bob Stoops said, “ if you’re not having mental errors and you’re performing better …”

Maybe it can all happen so fast.

Eliminate turnovers. Eliminate penalties. Eliminate mental busts.

Nothing’s incorrectable. It’s the same stuff coaches have been harping on for generations. Maybe everything can change just like that.

“I feel like we can turn the switch on now,” freshman receiver Juaquin Iglesias said Tuesday, “because it’s just the little things that we haven’t done. If we correct those, then that switch can be turned on at any moment.”

But here’s the other side:

The little things add up. They’re not close at all.

Want a third side?

It doesn’t matter. Close or not, everything will be explained Saturday.

Given more than a week to prepare, Bob Stoops has worked wonders in the past. Not every time, maybe not so much lately, but sometimes. And everybody seems to think something more than a simple week of practice took place last week.

“I’ve said before that there’s a certain way to play,” Stoops said. “And it’s one thing to play hard and it’s another thing to truly, truly compete in a frenzy and in a great way. We’re doing our best to teach it and I think our players are doing their best to understand it.”

By one count, at least behind closed doors, this team has looked something like everybody thought it might look.

“We don’t feel we’re that far off,” Wilson said. “Will we just click and be worldbeaters and just be the most wide open, fantastic offense of all time Saturday? I don’t know about that.

“But I think we’re moving in a fast way and in a good fashion. It would be nice to take that from the (practice) field over there to (Owen) field over there. It would be nice to get it to transfer in a game situation.”

That’s about all that matters.

Kansas State has appeared imminently average for two weeks. Then, after a week off, the Wildcats popped North Texas 54-7. That is, they got well. They finally played the game OU’s been trying to play.

Now it’s the Sooners’ turn to get well. If they don’t, where do they go from 1-3?

Close? Not close? Who cares.

How much difference does two weeks make? As long as it’s enough to win Saturday.

Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com

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