Four Sooners To Play in Shrine Game

[Jay C. Upchurch]

NORMAN — Four Oklahoma players have been selected to play in the 83rd Annual East-West Shrine Game. The four are Joe Jon Finley, Garrett Hartley, Allen Patrick and Marcus Walker.

The game will be played Jan. 19, at Robertson Stadium on the University
of Houston campus. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m., and the contest will
be carried live by ESPN.

The Sooner players are on the West roster, which will be coached by Mike
White.

Finley, a tight end, wrapped up his career with 62 receptions for 775
yards and 10 touchdowns. The Arlington, Texas, product played in 51 OU
games with 29 starting assignments.

In 2007, Finley hauled in 23 passes for 290 yards and four touchdowns.

Hartley finished as one of the most prolific kickers in Sooner history.
he finished with 310 points, the sixth-best scoring total in school
history. The Southlake, Texas, native made 47-of-58 field goals during
his career and 169-of-176 extra points.

In 2007, Hartley was good on 13-of-15 field goal attempts. Over the
final two years of his career, he made 32-of-35.

Patrick was Oklahoma's starting running back in 13 games during the 2007
season. He finished with a team-high 1,009 yards to mark the fourth
straight season that the Sooners produced a 1,000-yard rusher.

For his career, Patrick, from Conway, SC, carried 367 times for 1,906
yards, an average of 5.2 yards per attempt.

Walker, a cornerback from Waco, Texas, was a mainstay in the OU
secondary. He played in 39 games with 29 starts. He finished with
three career interceptions and 101 tackles.

In 2007, he started all 14 games and finished with 47 tackles and two
pass break-ups.

OU SID Report

[sooner518]

With Hartley's big leg, I wonder if he'll get a shot with an NFL team. Save for some weird PAT troubles at the start of the year, he had a pretty solid season.

[Hotel Bravo]

I thought it was mentioned on here, that earlier in the year he had some sort of groin injury that prevented him from kicking the ball as well as he normally does.

[tomtom]

thanks for the info. i will mark calender.

[effay]

Too bad for Marcus that he played in a zone scheme. He would have been a stud if he had the last 5 years as a man corner.

[Crucifax Autumn]

Awesome...one more hance to see our guys in action.

[Curly Bill]

With Hartley's big leg, I wonder if he'll get a shot with an NFL team. Save for some weird PAT troubles at the start of the year, he had a pretty solid season.

I don't think there's any doubt that he'll get a shot, and I think there's a good chance that he sticks if he goes to the right team.

[snp]

Some updates on the players from NFLDraftscout.com

Marcus Walker:



01/16/08 - East-West Shrine Wednesday Practice: Walker is clearly the best-looking corner in drills because of his athleticism. However, his lack of discipline on tape and poor hands on the practice field this week make it difficult to pick him early.

01/15/08 - East-West Shrine Monday Practice: Rough day for Walker. Must have dropped four or five interceptions in drills when it was just him and the ball. During 11-on-11, he slipped trying to plant and gave up a big play. He is one of the more fluid corners coming out of the break, however, and can drive hard to the ball.

Allen Patrick:



01/15/08 - East-West Shrine Monday Practice: No one in the country runs harder than Patrick, even in practice. You can hear him from the sideline giving the effort as he churns his legs. Since the teams weren't in pads, defenders were just to grab and let go…but I don't think it would have mattered if the pads were on. He was going to get every yard, anyway.

Joe John Finley:



01/15/08 - East-West Shrine Monday Practice: Had one of the better practices of the day. Ran some outstanding routes today, chopping his legs and getting out quicker than expected. Also had a couple of excellent catches with arms extended. One came with DB Derrick Doggett draped on him (legally) and with the sideline coming into play. On another, he left DB David Roach in his dust, faking inside and heading outside to make the grab.
01/15/08 - East-West Shrine Tuesday Practice: Again one of the top players on the field. Consistently caught the ball with extended arms, using his size to beat the jam and get separation. Also dominated his defensive end on the edge.

From Rivals:


Joe Jon Finley has been the biggest standout on offense. He's really uses his hands to get open and has a nice frame to fight off linebackers. Finley has been the favorite target for West quarterbacks all week.

Joe Jon Finley is staking his claim to being the best tight end on either roster. He has shown soft hands, good awareness, and is very good on the sideline.




East-West Shrine Monday Practice Report
By Chad Reuter
SportsXchange/NFLDraftScout.com Analyst

January 14, 2008 - The first day of East-West practices was not a disappointment. The players worked hard on the practice fields in the shadows of Houston's Reliant Stadium, but also had fun. The coaches really tried to emphasize that apparent dichotomy through their actions and words. East coach Dick Vermeil was smiling and ever-positive; several times he could be heard saying "outstanding job, offense" or the like. He also told Virginia Tech WR Justin Harper something he's not likely to hear in his first pro minicamp: "you don't have to work that hard…I want you fresh".

Then there's all the NFL scouts and administrators walking the outside of the field, watching players and socializing with their colleagues. Players' agents and some media members also dot the scene. It's not quite the same as the Senior Bowl, but with the limited number of all-star games held this year…it's as close as it's been for a while.

Seeing teammates like Oklahoma CB Marcus Walker and RB Allen Patrick and Iowa State WR Todd Blythe and Alvin Bowen square off was interesting. Most teams practice ones against twos, so these guys don't always get to scrimmage. For example, Walker tried to strip Patrick as he bounced outside and the back yelled "Uh-oh! Uh-oh!" as he blew past him. Blythe and Bowen also tangled once in 11-on-11's, but "Ace" got there too late to keep Blythe from making the catch.

[OU-HSV]

This is about to kick off. I'll be watching

[OU-HSV]

They already messed up and called AP "Patrick Allen"

[OU-HSV]

Oh crap, first drive of the game and AP already got injured. Twisted his knee up underneath 3 defenders

[Breadburner]

Damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.....Lets all hope AP is going to be ok......Looks like he hurt his knee on a reception.......Rolled on after he was tackled.....

[tulsaoilerfan]

Yeah, that didn't look good; i saw Marcus Walker out there looking at him and he kinda tossed his helmet in what appeared to be frustration

[OU-HSV]

Looked nasty. That sucks

[OU-HSV]

Sam Keller is rather unimpressive. He's thrown to Finley twice now that I've seen and he's poorly underthrown both of them. And Keller just fumbled it to the East squad. I've never been impressed by Keller.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Me neither...Luckily for him Nebraska was in desperate need for a below average quarterback

[OU-HSV]

Me neither...Luckily for him Nebraska was in desperate need for a below average quarterback
ha, true, and they had that in him for sure.
So sounds like AP "tweaked" his MCL. Also I noticed Finley left injured, maybe just cramps or something.

[kelloggOUballa]

I remember our fans wanted Keller

[Breadburner]

Finley was limping to.....hope he's ok.....

[OU-HSV]

I remember our fans wanted Keller
Those fans didn't include me

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Those fans didn't include me

Him or the Flynn kid from LSU that was being rumored to be leaving a couple of years ago.

What was funny was that when Keller did play decent, his coach took all the credit

[OU-HSV]

yep.
For those of you not watching this game, they just had a pretty nice interview on the sidelines with Sumlin. He said he thinks AP and Finley will both have excellent careers in the NFL

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I currently am being held hostage by a 3 year old that wants to watch spongebob but its about over..then on to the game

[Desert Sapper]

Marcus Walker INT! Yeah, baby.

[OU-HSV]

I currently am being held hostage by a 3 year old that wants to watch spongebob but its about over..then on to the game
Oh I know, I had to pull my son away from "Cars" so I could watch the game.
They just interviewed AD. He's on the sidelines to watch AP and the others play in the game. That's pretty damn cool of him to fly in from Minnesota to watch his former teammates play.

[Desert Sapper]

Garrett Hartley missed the FG.

[OU-HSV]

That sucks, but at least Walker got that int. Some of those reviews posted on here of him during the week talked about how many ints. he's dropped throughout the week at practice.
Hartley has had such a rough year it seems.

[Desert Sapper]

That sucks, but at least Walker got that int. Some of those reviews posted on here of him during the week talked about how many ints. he's dropped throughout the week at practice

Yeah, Mr. Negativity was giving him the typical smackdown treatment. 'Nobody' matches up to the DBs we had in the Mike Stoops days. :rolleyes:

Marcus has done great things for us (Pick 6 against Boise in the '07 Fiesta). I hope he makes a ton of money, especially since he used up all his eligibility.

[Desert Sapper]

Beautiful kick by Hartley. Makes up for that shank on the first one.

[OU-HSV]

Yeah I wish Walker the best.
Hell, I thought Hartley shanked that kick too. Looked close to me.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

The practices are the important part so I hope everybody finished strong

[tulsaoilerfan]

I remember our fans wanted Keller
I never did; the guy was a cancer at ASU and a below average QB

[tulsaoilerfan]

I got a kick out of the John Blake comment during the game; they were talking about coaches that got fired because they couldn't beat their rivals; mentioned Cooper, Gibbs, etc, then the guy said John Blake got fired because he couldn't beat anybody.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

That isn't fair, he consistently beat Baylor and North Texas

[Crucifax Autumn]

Speaking of consistency, he consistently ****ed me off!