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July 27, 2006

OU looking for toughness

John Shinn

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Oklahoma arrived at Big 12 Media Days last, but was clearly the hot topic Wednesday.

It was no surprise considering the Sooners are the clear-cut favorites to win the conference title.

OU coach Bob Stoops had no problem with being the team to beat, but there was something else on his mind.

“I feel like we have a solid football team, but we have a lot to prove,” he said. “A year ago we were an 8-4 football team. We’ve got a lot of guys back from that team. But hopefully we can be a more disciplined and tougher team this season than we were a year ago.”

Discipline and toughness seem to be very important words to OU.

The Sooners were lacking both when the 2005 season started, and that was the biggest reason they were out of Big 12 and national title contention halfway through.

That’s why the Sooners say there’s a sense of urgency with preseason practice set to start in less than two weeks.

“Winning is like a job,” linebacker Rufus Alexander said. “You have to work to do it. Nothing is a given.”

OU learned the lesson last season.

By the end of the year, it was playing at a championship level and capped the season with a victory over Oregon in the Holiday Bowl.

Every team wants to improve as the season goes along. The teams that don’t, rarely accomplish much.

But Stoops said the bar has to be higher in September.

“Hopefully we don’t have to start the year that way to finish that way,” he said. “You know, the bottom line is we need to be better earlier. And we need to be, as I said, a more disciplined and tougher football team to start the season. We’ve got to be better through the year, and we played that way as we got toward the end of the year.”

Does that mean there will be drastic changes to what the Sooners have usually done in August?

Not really.

To the players, it’s matter of starting with a sense of urgency. They know what is expected from them this season and they know what they expect from themselves.

Alexander said he expects to see a more business-like approach to this season.

Running back Adrian Peterson said there will be a difference when the Sooners hit the practice field for the first time.

“It will be more intense,” he said. “It was intense last year, but it will be even more this year. I’ll make sure of that.”

Peterson and Alexander know there’s a lot riding on their shoulders. Peterson is the conference’s preseason offensive player of the year and Alexander claimed the defensive award.

But getting the Sooners on track early is where their focus is at the present time.

“Last year we had some guys that expected to win because they had the Oklahoma jersey and they had seen it happen time after time in the past,” Alexander said. “It’s not the case. You have to go out and prepare to win every week against every team. If we prepare right for every game, we should win every game.”

Confidence has never been something the Sooners lack. But they’re sending out a different aura as the 2006 season nears.

They expect more from themselves and they know what it takes to reach that level.

They won’t settle for anything less.

“It’s our job as coaches to demand that,” Stoops said. “It’s the players’ job to accept it and respond to it and to play that way so we have an opportunity to compete for a championship.”

Most believe they will.

John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com

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