The Norman Transcript

OU Sports

Discussion

September 2, 2007

OU Football Notepad—What a night for OU's offense

John Shinn

Oklahoma’s 79-10 rout brought back memories of routs of the past. Statistically, the performance was right up there with any in school history.

The Sooners’ 482 first-half yards were the third most in the program’s history.

They piled up 507 against Missouri in a single half 1986 and 486 in a single half against Colorado in 1980. The 1980 game against the Buffaloes is still the highest-scoring game in school history. The Sooners won 82-42.

Sam Bradford’s 350 passing yards set a school record for yards in a half. Quarterbacks coach Josh Heupel had the previous record with 313 against Baylor in 2000.

Quarterback rotation

Oklahoma used all three quarterbacks Saturday night. Bradford showed why he won the quarterback competition going 21-for-23 for 363 yards with three touchdown passes.

But the second half belonged to Joey Halzle and Keith Nichol.

Halzle was the first off the bench, taking over in the second series of the third quarter. He was 3-for-4 for 35 yards. Nichol came on for the second possession of the fourth quarter.

They’ll take the ball

OU won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kick. It was the first sign that moving the kickoff point back 5 yards to the 30-yard line will change the way coaches approach the opening kick.

In previous years, the Sooners had always deferred to the second half when winning the flip unless the wind was gusting heavily. The wind was light Saturday night.

The rule didn’t affect OU much. The longest return the Sooners gave up was 22 yards. Several times, the Mean Green was pinned inside the 20.

“We just have guys that can run and really cover well,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “Then (kicker) Garrett (Hartley) kicked the ball really well. He gives our guys time to get down there.”

Wholly Mossis

Former Norman High standout Mossis Madu saw his first collegiate action against North Texas. The redshirt freshman had a huge night with nine carries for 87 yards, including a 55-yard run. He also had three catches for 24 yards.

Madu was one of three running backs to get at least nine carries.

“We’re really that deep in the backfield. We’re all really good players,” Madu said. “Whoever is out there, we all have faith that they will make plays.”

Big games at Owen Field are nothing new to Madu. The last time he played there he led the Tigers to a victory over Norman North in 2005.

Patrick scratched

Allen Patrick went through team warm-ups with his left ankle heavily taped. The senior running back’s status has been questionable ever since suffering the injury three weeks ago. He remained on the sideline throughout the game.

Stoops said the decision to leave Patrick on the bench wasn’t made until after the game began.

“He could have played if we needed him to,” Stoops said. “He was ready to play and practiced pretty much the whole practice Thursday. He was ready to play and will be ready to play next week.”

With Patrick back and sophomore running back Chris Brown done serving a one-game suspension, the Sooners will have five running backs at their disposal against Miami.

Text Only
OU Sports
The Business Marquee
Facebook