Let me apologize in advance. Because after watching Oklahoma scrimmage itself Saturday night at Owen Field, I have no real insight into this team.
Certainly no more than I had a few days ago, when my insight du jour remained the Sooners having a chance to win every game, even with Paul Thompson at quarterback, even as the prospect became a little less likely.
For now, Sooner Nation, the only real choice you have is to take this team on faith. Faith in its tradition, faith in its players, faith in Sooner Magic and faith in Bob Stoops, even if he appears bent on replacing all the paranoia that left the conference when Bill Snyder decided to hang up the whistle.
“We have more to come and more to do and there’s no sense in broadcasting it to everybody,” Stoops said after the scrimmage on the topic of his choice to close preseason practice to fans and media, the first time he’s done so since coming to Norman from Gainesville.
On the subject of taking it on faith, I suppose it’s up to us media types to take Stoops at his word and not think his decision to muzzle the camera’s eye and his players’ mouths had nothing to do with the last bad press Rhett Bomar ever had anything to do with.
On that, let’s just say faith has limits.
On the Sooners, let’s say who the heck knows.
At first glance, it appears OU might indeed have been working on nothing but new stuff since closing the curtain. Because, running stuff that couldn’t possibly be new, just completing a pass proved a near impossible task unless Lendy Holmes, now a cornerback, was the guy making the catch.
So if Paul Thompson, Chapter 1, was TCU last season and Chapter 2 was 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. Saturday night, all signs pointed toward not wanting to finish the book. But if Chapter 3 was 7:15 to 8 p.m., the season might just turn into a page-turner.
Thompson finished 15 of 26 through the air for 133 yards, including a pair of touchdowns and one interception, and he did it by rescuing his scrimmage completing 11 of his last 13 tosses.
Not that numbers mean anything this time of year, but it has to be nice to see the guy everybody wants to root for and every Sooner wants to play for do something well after getting the rug pulled out from under him last season.
The next time anybody hears Bob Stoops wear out his starting quarterback will be the first time, and yet the praise sounded genuine after the up and down dress rehearsal.
“Paul (Thompson) managed the huddle well and had good snap control all day,” Stoops said. “He still has some brushing up to do, but he really got in a rhythm as we went along.”
Even offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, who may have a problem in the honesty department only in that he can be brutally so, was complimentary a few days after telling everybody the offense was “soft.”
“We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re off to a real good start,” he said.
All of this following a scrimmage in which many of the biggest cheers, from a crowd officially estimated at 12,000, but appeared much bigger, were saved for special teams.
Because after seeing incompletion after incompletion, it’s a wonder how quickly your fans will appreciate a booming punt.
“I was really pleased with the kicking game,” Stoops said.
And don’t you know the Sooner Nation breathes easier knowing that.
So, you know, just take it on faith, and be comfortable in the knowledge that the last time a crowd went crazy over a Sooner scrimmage, it was the ’98 spring game, the year John Blake and Joe Dickinson went back to the bone.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
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JERRY LAIZURE
Discussion
You have to take these Sooners on faith
Column by Sports Editor Clay Horning
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