By John Shinn
Oklahoma rolled through Tulsa Friday night, but didn’t leave Chapman Stadium unscathed. The Sooners suffered their first major injury of the season in the 62-21 victory.
Senior defensive end John Williams tore his left Achilles tendon in third quarter and will miss the rest of the season.
“It is sad, I really feel bad for John,” OU coach Bob Stoops said Sunday. “He’s worked hard and started off great here and was really playing well. You just hate to see that happen to him.”
This is the second time Williams has had a season cut short by an injury. In 2005, he suffered a torn ACL in the season opener.
Williams redshirted his first season in 2003 and this was to be his final year of eligibility. OU is expected to apply for a sixth season for him.
“That’s a possibility,” Stoops said.
Williams had been rotating with Auston English and Alonzo Dotson at the two defensive end spots. With Williams out, Alan Davis and Jeremy Beal will see more playing time.
“They’re both going to have to step up,” defensive coordinator Brent Venables said.
English and Dotson might also have to play more snaps, too.
“You ask your ’backers and your DBs to play 100 snaps a game with special teams and all the mental stress they have, let alone all the physical stress, too,” Venables added. “They’ve got to make all the plays. So those guys are no different. What we ask of them is a lot. Guys just have to suck it up and roll. We’ve got guys that are capable of doing it.”
The only other injury the Sooners are dealing is to running back Chris Brown. He was helped off the field after a vicious hit by Tulsa’s John Destin early in the fourth quarter. Brown lay motionless on the field for a couple minutes before getting up.
Stoops said he didn’t think Brown was knocked out on the play, but admitted the sophomore was dazed.
His status for Saturday’s game at Colorado hasn’t been determined.
“I’m sure (OU’s medical staff) will evaluate him through the week,” Stoops said.
Back to No. 3
The Sooners returned to No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 released Sunday. They dropped to No. 4 last week, and were passed by Florida after the Gators’ convincing win over Tennessee. Florida, however, struggled Saturday in a 30-24 victory over unranked Mississippi and returned to No. 4.
The Sooners, who have won every games by at least 38 points, are No. 3 in the first Harris Interactive poll, but remained No. 4 in the USA Today coaches poll.
The Harris and coaches polls are both used in the BCS formula.
Stoops had little reaction to shifting polls Sunday.
“It means we’ve played well to this point,” he said. “You have to keep getting better through the year.”
Toughest opponent
Four straight huge wins begs the question when OU will face some real competition. Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson reiterated Sunday that the biggest competition the Sooners will face all season is complacency.
“The one thing that can stop us is us, if we start taking things for granted in our preparation,” he said. “Staying healthy and taking care of ourselves each week with our rest and coming out each week and continuing to practice as we go through the year at high level.”
Bring the noise
Quarterback Sam Bradford played well in his first road game, throwing for 244 yards and three touchdowns. But playing at Tulsa wasn’t exactly a hostile environment. The crowd at Chapman Stadium was about a 50-50 split between OU and Tulsa fans.
It will be different Saturday at Colorado.
“We’ll try to do some things with a silent count,” Wilson said. “The crowd noise will definitely be more significant this week. It looked like they had a great crowd, watching the Miami of Ohio tape. Coming off that big win, they’ll have a lot of people.”
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
