By John Shinn
Quarterback Sam Bradford is averaging 323 passing yards and four touchdowns a game. The averages put the sophomore well ahead of last season’s pace in terms of yards and touchdown passes.
Stoops said some of it might have to do with Bradford being more mature physically, but the quarterback said he’s also progressed mentally.
“I feel my emotions during the game are a lot more together when things aren’t going right, or maybe when we’ve had a couple of incompletions or a couple of plays that haven’t gone the way that we planned,” he said. “I feel like I’m in a lot more control and more calm. I don’t get rattled as much as I did last year. I feel like that’s something that I have improved on since last year.”
Getting well
Stoops said the medical reports for injured defensive tackle DeMarcus Granger have been positive since he suffered a foot injury in the Washington game. Granger will miss the Baylor game, but he could be back on the field pretty soon.
“There’s good speculation that he could possibly practice on Monday. So, we’ll see,” Stoops said.
The coach also believes defensive end Frank Alexander, who suffered an arm injury in a stabbing following OU’s season opener, is also expected to return to practice next week.
Not looking ahead
The Sooners face Texas Oct. 11 in what should be one the biggest Red River Rivalry games ever. Both teams are currently ranked in the top 5. And if both teams can win Saturday, it will mark the first time since 2004 both teams have come into Dallas undefeated.
“That’s never been an issue here. It’s simple, because we have to go to Baylor,” Stoops said. “You guys may or may not be going, fans may or may not be going, but we’re going. I think you can look at our track record, weeks before that game and the weeks after that game over the last ten years, and you can answer your question. We’ll be focused on Baylor and Baylor alone.”
The Sooners are 8-1 in the game before Texas under Stoops. They’ve won the last eight. The only loss was at Notre Dame in 1999.
Road questions
The Baylor game will be OU’s first in the conference and its second on the road. OU squashed some of the questions about its road play with an impressive victory at Washington. But the questions will still be around until the Sooners prove they can play their best in any of the Big 12 Conference’s stadiums.
“It’s the same mindset. We’re going on the road, we know that’s an area that we’ve talked about being better at for the past year now,” Bradford said. “We got our first opportunity to do that at Washington. I feel like we played well, but we’ve got to continue that and go down to Waco and take care of business.”
Most believe OU will. It is a 27-point favorite, is a perfect 17-0 all time against the Bears and have won the last four at Baylor’s Floyd Casey Stadium by an average score of 44-6.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
