John Shinn
The clock was winding down when Oklahoma center Jon Cooper caught a glimpse of the scoreboard. Even he was a little stunned when he saw the numbers up there.
“Wow, it’s 51-13.” he said.
He wasn’t the only one awed by what transpired at Owen Field Saturday.
Sure, the fifth-ranked Sooners opened the season by obliterating North Texas by 69 points. But it was no patsy, no non-conference tune-up, no scheduled win standing across the field Saturday.
It was Miami being obliterated.
“We figured if we played the best of our ability, the rest would take care of itself,” Sooner safety Nic Harris said.
The Sooners’ best appears to be at a level few teams can comprehend.
Quarterback Sam Bradford backed up his stellar season-opening debut with a stunning encore. He threw five touchdown passes as part of 205-yard day.
“Coming in, we knew that if we ran the offense the way we are capable of, we were going to move the ball,” Bradford said. “Each day we’re all becoming more comfortable in the system.”
Comfort is a word rarely used after a game against Miami. The Hurricanes have a 25-year history of hounding and harassing quarterbacks into nightmarish games.
The Sooners experienced three of those in the 1980s. They went 33-3 from 1985-87 with all three losses coming to the Hurricanes. Two of those losses cost OU national championships.
But those wishbone offenses didn’t feature a quarterback like Bradford or receivers the caliber OU possessed Saturday.
Malcolm Kelly caught four passes with three going for touchdowns to spur the rout.
“We just executed the game plan,” Kelly said.
Miami (1-1) didn’t.
Starting quarterback Kirby Freeman was 3-for-9 for 17 yards. Backup Kyle Wright was a little better, hitting 7 of 14 attempts for 65 yards.
But neither could muster much against a Sooner defense that dominated throughout.
The Hurricanes’ two-headed rushing tandem of Javarris James and Graig Cooper, who combined for 215 yards in a 31-3 victory over Marshall last week, were held to just 54 yards.
“Today wasn’t a very good day for the University of Miami,” Hurricanes coach Randy Shannon said. “The guys have to understand that when you come up to an opponent like the University of Oklahoma, they are a very great team and have a lot of talent just like we have a lot of talent.”
But there did appear to be a talent gap at Owen Field.
The Sooners exposed it early.
Bradford hit Kelly for a pair of first-quarter touchdown passes to give OU a 14-3 first-quarter lead.
The defense kicked in seven more points early in the second quarter. Reggie Smith returned a James fumble 61 yards for a touchdown to put OU up 21-3.
But the rout had to wait.
Wright led an 18-play, 52-yard scoring drive that was extended by a fake field goal and two pass interference penalties. Wright finished it with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Hill to pull Miami within 21-10 before the half.
Francesco Zampogna added his second field goal in the third quarter to make it 21-13. But that was it for the Miami offense. The group finished with 139 total yards and seven first downs.
OU’s defensive performance will go down as one the best over the last four years.
“We’re tough, I don’t know about anybody else and I don’t know if we have the best defense in the country, but we definitely have one of the hardest working defenses in the country,” linebacker Ryan Reynolds said. “Just in the way we prepare for the game and it shows when we play.”
Bradford hit Jermaine Gresham, who caught a game-high eight passes for 55 yards, for a 6-yard score and Garrett Hartley hit a 30-yard field goal to push OU’s lead to 31-13.
The Sooner quarterback capped his afternoon with a 30-yard touchdown toss to Kelly and a 9-yard TD pass to fullback Dane Zaslaw.
Joey Halzle added a 61-yard touchdown pass to Adron Tennell to complete the romp and leave the capacity crowd at Owen Field shaking their heads.
Beating Miami was expected. But bludgeoning the Hurricanes was what caused jaws to drop.
“We just wanted to come out and have a good game,” Harris said. “And we had a spectacular game in front of the nation.”
Saturday figured to be the day OU stated whether it was for real or not.
OU 51, Miami 13 made it loud and clear.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
