Bradford's story could be one for the ages

Commentary

By Clay Horning

Sam Bradford is not Opie Taylor. He’s got dark hair. He looks nothing like a young Ron Howard. Besides, Major Applewhite was Opie Taylor, so Bradford’s stuck being just plain Sam.

And that works, too, because every time Oklahoma’s redshirt freshman quarterback opens his mouth, you kind of expect him to start with, “Ah, shucks …”

“They were unreal,” he said of his offensive line last week against Miami. “I hardly got touched out there.”

Just crazy modest.

Like it wasn’t him.

Like it hasn’t been him, not really, completing 40-of-48 passes and throwing eight touchdowns without an interception.

He’s taken only one sack, which says more about his line than him and it sure is easier to be on the money when you’re not under pressure. But somebody still has to lay the ball in there and it’s not like Bradford hasn’t taken a couple of hits just after letting fly with another on-target toss.

So, basically, it’s him.

No quarterback in the history of the college game has ever been as good statistically after two games than Bradford.

I don’t know what the formula is for collegiate quarterback rating but Bradford leads everybody at 237.7 while Florida’s Tim Tebow’s at 228.2. So the Sooner’s 11.5 points clear of the field while Louisville’s Brian Brohm and Rutgers’ Mike Teel are both within 31⁄2 points of Tebow.

Still, it’s only two games.

OU could cover the stratospheric spread today even if Bradford comes back down to mere mortality. And then again, just maybe, it’s happening again.

When Jason White came out of two reconstructive knee surgeries to be the nation’s best quarterback for two years running, it was hard to imagine a better story. Bradford’s tale may be handicapped by his perpetual able-body, but he’s got four seasons rather than two and, just like White, absolutely nobody saw it coming.

Not like this.

Bob Stoops can say nothing surprises him, but if he saw any of this coming just why on earth was there a quarterback competition taking place in late August?

While it’s true nobody really knows the kind of season he’ll finish with or the kind of career he’ll put together, it’s not like we don’t have any clues.

“He’s very smart and he processes pretty quick,” began Sooner offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, before launching into the story of Bradford’s last touchdown pass against Miami, the one that went to Dane Zaslaw, because the play was designed to go to Malcolm Kelly.

“He goes to the check down, which is exactly what he’s supposed to do,” Wilson said, “and we didn’t even really practice that look … They guessed it and played high coverage. So here’s Sam, this young guy, saying, ‘I’ve got to take what they give me,’ and he makes a nice little throw … It’s really neat that he’s got the intelligence to process that so quickly because most young guys don’t.”

So he’s got something. Some intangible. Something nobody could have seen working at the collegiate level so well, so fast.

Look at it this way:

Rhett Bomar was the No. 1 high school quarterback in the nation according to everybody coming out of Grand Prairie, Texas, in 2004. Bradford, coming out of Putnam City North in 2006, was No. 17 by everybody. He was the No. 6 guy in the state at any position and there are years the Sooners have no interest in the No. 6 guy in the state.

But who would you rather have now?

Who would even go back in time and teach Bomar some sense?

Nobody in the Sooner Nation in their right mind, that’s who.

It’s worked out too well.

Zaslaw doesn’t know what it is about his quarterback, just that it’s something.

“He looks like he was born to do it and it’s a great thing to have him out on the field leading us right now,” he said. “He’s making plays like he’s a fifth-year senior. It’s awesome to watch a kid that young making those kind of plays, breaking records.”

More awesome may be contemplating what’s yet to come.

No, nobody thought he’d be this good.

But does anybody see him getting worse?

That doesn’t happen too often around here.

Clay Horning

366-3526

cfhorning@normantranscript.com