Waiting for his chance

Scott Moore

• Former NHS back Madu is sometimes the forgotten man in OU’s crowded backfield

On a muggy Friday morning, the Oklahoma football players first had to pose for pictures. Individual shots, then group shots. Then came even more pictures.

After that, each player wandered back to meet the media and to sign some autographs for a select few fans prior to heading out to the OU rugby field for the official Meet the Sooners Day.

Running back Mossis Madu was one of the last to report back to Owen Field. Maybe he wasn’t expecting to have to face the media. In OU’s stable of running backs, Madu might be the least well-known to people outside of Norman.

The Sooners’ latest depth chart, posted July 9, doesn’t even list Madu. Senior Alan Patrick is first, followed by sophomore Chris Brown and redshirt freshman DeMarco Murray.

Even though Madu was highly regarded out of Norman High in 2006, does he feel like the forgotten man?

“Sometimes, but I’m cool with it,” Madu said. “I just have to go out and do my thing.”

He’s getting his chance now as the Sooners begin fall workouts, but he’s slightly behind the others.

Patrick rushed for 761 yards and scored four touchdowns last year while filling in for injured starter Adrian Peterson. Brown received extensive duty when Patrick was injured, rushing for 343 yards and scoring six times. The Sooners also have senior Jacob Gutierrez, who’s rushed for 946 yards and scored four TDs in his career as a back-up.

Then there’s Murray. Like Madu, he redshirted last year, but had a break-out spring, culminating with a 107-yard, one touchdown performance on just four carries in the Red/White game. Because of his Joe Washington-like moves, Murray has been the buzz of the Sooner faithful.

All this happened while Madu nursed an ankle sprain.

Fans may be eyeing Murray, Patrick and Brown, but coaches are still high on Madu, who rushed for 1,513 yards and scored 25 touchdowns as a senior at NHS. He runs a 4.48 40-yard dash and was ranked as high as 14th among the nation’s running backs coming out of high school.

“(Running backs) Coach (Cale) Gundy has told me that he knows I’m a player,” Madu said. “He’s already told me not to worry, that he’s going to get me into the game.”

When speaking of the running backs, coach Bob Stoops praised Murray, but also said Madu had a place as well.

“The three that played last year, I don’t need to talk about,” Stoops said. “DeMarco Murray, probably out of all our offensive players, is the biggest big-play threat we have.

“Mossis Madu is a good player … Mossis does a lot of things well and shouldn’t be discounted because he is going to be a factor, too.”

How the Sooners are going to get snaps for all those backs is anybody’s guess. Not wanting to waste the talent on hand, the coaches seem confident it can be done.

“I don’t know how they’re going to do it,” Madu said. “It’s going to be hard to divide all the snaps.”

Brown, Patrick, Murray and Madu are all around 6-foot, 190 pounds.

Brown and Patrick are more straight ahead runners with speed, while Murray and Madu are more shifty and elusive.

And there seems to be no rivalries — no hoping someone gets hurt so another can get more playing time.

“We’re real close. It’s a tight-knit group,” Madu said. “That’s what’s cool about it, we all root for each other.”

It’s a crowded position and snaps might be hard to come by.

Having learned the offense while redshirting last season and then missing the spring, Madu is anxious to get the ball in his hands and show what he can do this fall.

“I guess I just have to prove myself to everybody outside that doesn’t really know me or saw me in the spring,” Madu said. “I just have to do my thing and show them.”

Scott Moore

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sports@normantranscript.com