John Shinn
MIAMI — Who is staying and who is going? Those are the biggest questions surrounding Oklahoma following Thursday night’s 24-14 loss to Florida in the BCS national championship game.
Underclassmen (all those who are three years removed from high school) have until this coming Thursday to declare themselves eligible for the NFL draft. The Sooners had many who filed paperwork to have themselves evaluated by the league’s draft advisory board.
None were willing to say following the game if they had made their decisions.
The most obvious was quarterback Sam Braford. Many have projected the redshirt sophomore to be a high first-round pick if he comes out.
But he’s been mum on the subject, saying only that he would decide when he came back to Norman.
Tight end Jermaine Gresham said the draft board projected him as a first-round pick. But he still hasn’t decided what he’ll do.
“I have to speak to my family. My coaches and family will play a big role in my decision,” he said Thursday night. “I’ll do whatever my coaches tell me to do. Me and coach Stoops will sit down and talk about it.”
Others who have to contemplate their immediate futures in the coming days are offensive lineman Trent Williams and defensive tackle Gerald McCoy. Neither have said they’re leaning one way or the other.
Running back DeMarco Murray told the Tulsa World earlier this week that he still hadn’t made up his mind. It’s highly doubtful Murray, who is still on crutches following a knee surgery performed four weeks ago, would try to jump into the draft without being 100 percent healthy.
Pick up the pace
Florida didn’t seem to have much of a problem adjusting to the pace of OU’s offense Thursday night, but the ACC officiating crew definitely did. There were several stoppages in the first quarter that were not the result of penalty or injury.
“I thought they had clock issues, they waved off a flag,” Stoops said. “It interrupted play quite a bit.”
The first quarter took well over an hour to play.
Ready for more
Stoops didn’t back away from a question about OU’s struggles in bowl games. The loss was the Sooners’ fifth straight in BCS bowl games.
“In the end, I’ll be glad to try it again next year,” he said. “If that’s the biggest burden I have to bear in my life, I’ll be a pretty lucky guy. We’ll do our best to be trying again next year, we’ll keep going after them, if it’s all the same to everybody else.”
Changes
on defense
The Sooners used a lot of five-man fronts Thursday night, which was a wrinkle they hadn’t used this season. They moved either Jeremy Beal or Auston English to a standup linebacker and shifted McCoy out to defensive end.
It gave Florida fits in the first three quarter.
“It was good for us, a lot of it was,” Stoops said. “I thought how we handled the run game in the first half was great, the pressure we got was excellent, really up through three quarters.”
The Sooners allowed a season-high 249 rushing yards. Florida running back Percy Harvin accounted for 122 of it.
Just about all of his yards came on two plays — runs of 52 and 45 yards.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
