By John Shinn
There’s a lot of sports adages that preach the importance of the finish over the start. But Oklahoma isn’t interested in hearing any of them.
The Sooners learned the hard way just how important the beginning can be, to a season, and even a game.
Almost exactly a year ago, TCU came into Owen Field a decided underdog, but didn’t play like one. The Horned Frogs took advantage of three Sooner fumbles and a lackluster offensive performance to claim a stunning victory.
OU hasn’t forgotten.
“The first couple of series just kind of shook us up a little bit, but I don’t know if I saw it coming,” said Adrian Peterson, who was held 63 rushing yards. “Even though things happened the way they happened, I don’t think we should have lost that game.”
No. 10 OU opens the 2006 season against another underdog at 6 p.m. tonight when unranked Alabama-Birmingham comes to Owen Field. The Sooners are bound and determined not to have a repeat season-opening performance.
A lot of that burden will fall upon quarterback Paul Thompson. After beating out Rhett Bomar in a preseason duel for the job last season, he struggled against the Horned Frogs and lost the job.
He knows things might have gone differently with a better performance. He also knows a strong showing tonight will quiet the doubters.
“That’s big. That’s real big,” he said. “I think that any team wants to come out, wants to start the season off real strong. It definitely brings confidence and it helps the team get motivated and get rolling on throughout the next couple of games. It’s definitely big.
“It’s not just the first win. You want to start the first drive, the first quarter, you want to start those off strong as well. That momentum and that energy can build and carry throughout a game and a season.”
The Sooners didn’t do that last season.
They played sloppy early, losing three of their first five games. They didn’t really start to get cleaned up until OU exited the Cotton Bowl after a 45-12 thrashing at the hands of Texas.
Of course, that team had several first-year starters. Most of them are back with a better understanding of what’s required.
“Experience makes us better this year,” linebacker Zach Latimer said. “There were a lot of first-time guys out there, including myself. It’s about communicating with each other and talking to each other, telling what you see and help the next guys recognize the formations and process it. Once you keep seeing it, it starts to come to you and becomes second nature.”
The experience should pay off and many believe it already has.
Players say offseason workouts were more intense because of the experience of last season. Each player knew a lackluster workout in June could result in sloppy play in September.
Coaches say preseason practices were better. Players came to the practice with better focus.
Those traits were missing in September of 2005.
The Sooners saw the cracks in the foundation last year and believe they’ve been repaired.
But no one will know for sure until tonight. It has to happen on the field.
“You have to get it out there on the field and play with some discipline, some toughness and some effort,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “That’s really what we’re looking for. I want to see our guys come out and play in a disciplined way and in a physical way, and play with great effort and play smart. That’s what we have to do.
“I felt, especially early on a year ago, we did not do that. Hopefully, we’re a little more schooled in how (to) play fundamentally to start the season. If we do, we’ve got a chance, hopefully, to have a good year.”
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
