Clay Horning
E very year we come to the Red/White and every year we leave knowing very little more than we did on the way into Owen Field.
Only maybe not this time.
This time we learned some things.
We learned the lords of Oklahoma football are capable of coming up with a scoring system more complicated than that golf tournament they used to play at Castle Pines and less complicated than, say, calculus.
We learned, on the ESPN broadcast, the phrase “Oklahoma is on the scoreboard,” means absolutely nothing at the annual spring game.
We learned the best offense, at the Red/White, can be a turnover-prone offense, because a turnover deep in your own territory may be worth three points to the defense, but a quick six to the offense going the other way.
We learned Allen Patrick may be a returning starter, but he may have to stand in line behind DeMarco Murray, who looked better running the ball at any Red/White affair since John Blake brought back the bone and put first teamers against fourth teamers the spring before he was axed.
And we learned Sam Bradford will be the starting quarterback.
No, that’s not official.
“That position has to be earned,” Bob Stoops said.
And it’s hard for a true freshman, a redshirt freshman and a guy who’s barely seen a Division I field from inside the lines to earn anything in April.
But everybody can see what’s going on.
Bradford’s strong arm had already been established, as had the idea the 6-foot-5, 197-pound prospect out of Putnam City North was just that, a legitimate prospect and not some young Turk all-stater destined for NAIA until the Sooners found themselves saddled with a scholarship they could use or burn.
“When we feel a guy has earned it,” Stoops said, “we’ll say so.”
So expect Bradford to earn it about a week before opening day. And call Saturday the day it became clear.
“To me, it’s a long way from being settled,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said. “You saw today a lot of good from all of them, and we just need to keep battling.”
He’s telling the truth.
August is a long way away.
It’s not settled. Only clear.
Here’s how it became clear to me.
Second-and-5 at his own 44 and Halzle drops back to pass and pump fakes. My press box eyes immediately scan the field. Somebody’s supposed to be open after that pump fake. Well somebody was open and it was tight end Joe Jon Finley, who had beaten early coverage and not yet encountered safeties.
But Halzle held the ball.
He finally threw it, just not to Finley or anybody else.
Next play, third-and-5 from the 44, Halzle tried to hit Brody Eldridge underneath only to have Lewis Baker step in front and pick it off.
So, the way things worked at the Red/White, the offense turned around to head the other way. This time it was Bradford behind center.
First play, first-and-10 from the 47, he found Jermaine Gresham for a 13-yard gain. Not long after, he hit Carter Whitson, a sophomore from Shawnee, for a touchdown.
It was like night and day.
One appeared unsure. The other confident.
Halzle looked like a right-handed Josh Heupel without the 300 football IQ and the uncanny knack for making all the right plays. Bradford looked like a major college quarterback.
Wilson says such evidence can’t possibly make the case just yet.
No matter how good anybody might have been this day, he said, “To us, he’s not earned it yet.”
Even assuming Wilson’s “he” to be universal and not Bradford — and that’s just giving Wilson the benefit of the doubt — it fails to cloud Bradford’s ascendancy.
Because nobody’s going to earn anything in Stoops’ or Wilson’s eyes, not really, until he’s produced in the fall. But somebody’s going to have to take the first snap.
And that guy’s Bradford.
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com
