By John Shinn
Quarterbacks were the center of attention Saturday at Owen Field. Most of the 7,000 in attendance were glued to every move of Joey Halzle, Sam Bradford and Keith Nichol.
Which one will end up as Oklahoma’s starting quarterback is the question everyone is dying to know. There are no answers yet. But the Sooners have reason to believe they can handle a slow start at the quarterback position.
OU’s defense was dominant Saturday.
Outside of Jacob Gutierrez’s 52-yard touchdown run against second-team players, real estate was hard to come by and big offensive plays were nearly non-existent.
“I heard some hitting,” defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “You could hear pads snapping out there.”
It’s been a few seasons since that was the case. The last two seasons the Sooners finished with good defenses.
But it’s been three seasons since they started the year that way.
The obvious reason has been a lack of experience. In 2005, the secondary featured mostly freshmen and sophomores. Last season it was the defensive tackles that were playing with a learning curve.
But those groups aren’t going through anything new any longer. DeMarcus Granger, Gerald McCoy, Cory Bennett and Steven Coleman were very solid Saturday.
The offseason shuffling in the secondary looks like an improvement. Reggie Smith is at cornerback after two seasons as a safety. D.J. Wolfe and Lendy Holmes have moved from cornerback to safety.
But they, along with safety Nic Harris and cornerback Marcus Walker, have hit their prime. It showed Saturday.
“I think there’s so much more stability in the secondary,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “I see that being a big factor today.”
Receivers couldn’t get deep, receivers couldn’t take short passes and make them long gains because of solid tackling.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said there were some limitations in the first scrimmage. There was no blocking below the waist and he was trying to get the quarterbacks as many passing attempts as he could.
He admitted there was another reason for the struggles moving the ball.
“Credit it to the defense,” he said. “The secondary, in my view today, there were a lot of great tackles by corners and safeties for 1- and 2-yard gains and sometimes negatives gains.”
The defensive questions left from last spring are at linebacker and defensive end. The Sooners lost two starting linebackers and three at defensive end.
Another chink was exposed when weakside linebacker Ryan Reynolds had to undergo offseason knee surgery. But Reynolds looked solid Saturday, logging six tackles.
The defensive ends pulled down four of the five sacks with three going to Alan Davis and another credited to John Williams.
The Sooners only had 26 sacks last season and only 141⁄2 went to defensive linemen.
Getting more pressure on the quarterback with the front four is a big emphasis this season. Stoops likes what he’s seen thus far.
“I think it has a chance to be really good,” he said. “I’m not saying it is. It has a long way to go. But it has a chance to be better than we had last year.”
And Saturday’s stingy performance showed the Sooners have the potential for a dominant year defensively.
Of course, there’s still the matter of seeing what happens when going against teams in different uniforms. That won’t come until Sept. 1 when North Texas comes to Owen Field.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
