DeMarco Murray admits it now, but he wouldn’t seven weeks ago. The sophomore running back was badgered by questions of whether the offseason knee surgery he suffered was hampering him.
He was adamant it wasn’t. But his seven carries for 6 yards against Texas couldn’t hide the truth.
“I just didn’t have it in me. Something wasn’t right. I wasn’t normal,” he said. “I didn’t have that pep in my step.”
Normal for Murray is being a pretty explosive running back. Normal was the 6 yards per carry he averaged as a freshman. Through the first six games in this season, Murray was averaging less than 5 and the difference was noticeable to everyone.
He was still having his days, rushing for over 100 yards against Tennessee-Chattanooga and Washington, but he was running more like a power back than the quick-cutting speedster he had been.
Coaches kept telling him it would take time to get that burst back. He wasn’t going to find the groove right away.
Apparently it took about 11 months to get it back. Since the Texas game, Murray has found his.
In the six games since that rough afternoon in the Cotton Bowl, Murray’s rushed for 603 yards and averaged 6.48 yards per carry. He’s back to being that explosive runner who thrilled Sooner fans last season.
Everyone has a theory about when the “old” Murray returned. Running backs coach Cale Gundy pointed to the Kansas State game when Murray rushed for 142 yards on 20 carries.
“He made a couple of runs out there, stuck his foot in the ground and made people miss,” Gundy said. “And it kind of looked like the old DeMarco again.”
Others point to the Texas A&M; game when Murray picked up 123 yards on just seven carries and looked like he was playing the game at a different speed than everyone else.
He added another 125-yard performance against Texas Tech and picked up 73 on 18 carries last week against Oklahoma State. The Bedlam effort included a 20-yard touchdown run to get OU on the board midway through the first quarter and ignited a slumping offense.
“I think it’s pretty much obvious to everyone that he’s finally, in the last several weeks, hit his stride again,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “And it’s just natural, coming off a major surgery to feel those cuts and finally get confidence that I can make that cut, that I can put my foot in the ground and change direction at full speed. I think he’s still picking up speed. I don’t think all your bursts come back at once and he’s still coming back. He’s closer and closer to what he was a year ago before he got injured.”
The one-year anniversary of that knee injury passed Nov. 17.
Last Saturday was his first appearance in Bedlam and he’ll get his first crack at the Big 12 championship game Saturday night when the Sooners face Missouri at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
The “old” Murray was kept off those stages last season, but the “old” Murray is back.
“The last couple weeks I’ve been feeling great,” Murray said. “I feel like my old self.”
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
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