Do we have the depth and the X factor?

Attrition is a hugs part of the game as is evident from 2000 and last season. 2000 we had a solid team that never got injured and we rolled. Last season we had one of the best teams in the universe and we hobbled through the season.



Huge factors that we'll need to win out.

1. Special Teams - can we flip the field, make FGs and get wicked P and KO returns?

2. Can we be in the +20 range in TO's?

3. Do we have the depth this year (most importantly in the O and D lines)?

 

I have to disagree with the "greatest teams in the universe" statement. It was a total rebuilding year for the offense. Even had we not had the injuries, it is doubtful we would have been one of Stoops top 4 squads.

1. Special teams were pretty good last year and should be the same this year. Great punter and coverage and Broyles as returner - doesn't get better than that. FGs a question again, but I don't think we need to be great. If we can just get consistency from about 42 yards and in, we should be okay.

2. D should force a fair amount; just need LJ to be more careful with the ball and RBs that hang on.

3. I feel much better this year about depth, but I prefer the 2000 season lack of injuries method

 

Hence we didn't have one of the best teams in the universe.

 

before Gresham's injury, we were looking pretty awesome

 

He is emphasizing the importance of staying healthy throughout the course of a season. "Greatest team in the universe" was an obvious stretch, but it definately wasn't going to be a total rebuilding year for the offense.

Needless to say, it didn't end up that way because the offense's (and the team's) two best players were out the entire season; thus, JWTK citing the importance of key players staying healthy.

 

For some reason, that moniker "Greatest Team in the Universe" sounds familiar.

 

The offensive line was crap, even before injuries. You're not going to win championships with a crappy OL.

Even then we win several more games with an even average field goal kicker.

 

I agree - we were undefeated at that time

 

A total rebuilding year? We had Demarco Murray, Chris Brown, Jermaine Gresham, Matt Clapp, Jermie Calhoun, Moses Madu, Brody Eldridge, Ryan Broyles, Trent Williams and some kid named Sam Bradford. The line was being rebuilt and attrition got 'em right before the season. Eldridge ended up at center and even he broke his finger. We had a damned strong offense even with the suspect line and I am a huge believer in the offensive lines being the key to winning.

Even with our goofy offense last season we had good stats:
BYU 265 yds
Idaho St 564
Tulsa 529
Miami 341
Baylor 586
Texas 311
Kansas 337
KSU 458
Neb 325
aTm 640
TT 310
Ok St 367
Stanford 477

We had 8 starters lost for the year throughout the season and 10 different versions of an offensive line. No Bradford or Gresham.

We lose to:
BYU 13-14
Miami 20-21
texas 13-16
Nebraska 3-10
tt 13-41

Bradford, Gresham and a few other folks stay healthy and we win at BYU, Miami, texas, and Nebraska. We are then proclaimed greatest college football team ever. We then get hammered by TT, and still go to the Big XII championship and drill Nebraska. Then we go to the BCS championship game that no one thinks that we should be in and lose to 'Bama by some embarrassing score.

See? You know I am right.

 

Could be - still not one of Stoops best. The O-line was not good and it wasn't just due to injury. There was lots of shuffling early because players were not performing as expected.

But I addressed your 3 points and we should be as good or better in all 3. But we were only 8-5 last season, so that's not enough - where are more wins going to come from?

4) O-line has to play better from the get go. Stoops has been happy with them so far and he was very unhappy with this last year at this time. Good sign.

5) LJ makes the 1st->2nd year starter jump. Most QBs improve the most between the 1st and 2nd year of starting, but it's not a given. LJ seems like the type that will (hard worker, says the right things).

6) WR must be better as a group. Lots of good signs on this one - Miller's late season surge, Caleb coming in healthy and Still's spring teaser. Would be nice if we could get more production from the TE position.

7) X-factor (you didn't number it, but maybe most important). Will this team come together and be that special group? Will we finally have that offense that drives relentlessly late in a tight game to take the lead with time expiring? Or maybe the defense that gets that turnover or 4th down stop when the other guys' offense is trying to do it to us? *This* is what I've been wanting for many seasons now.

 

Funny that you mention the improvement of QB's between their frosh and soph years. Most people talk about a sophomore slump. But I agree with you. I think with an improved and healthy line, Landry will kick ***.

The O line was getting their asses chewed and prior to the season were supposedly responding. Having 2 O line guys down in the first game AND having your 3rd string center (that normally plays TE and now has to snap for the shotgun) break a finger couldn't help.

The WRs last year were pretty bad about dropping decent passes. I kept hearing people bitch about LJ keeping the balls down and he should have, but the WRs, well they stunk it up.

I am still not sure how good a bunch of guy you need before you consider them "one of the best". I was being a little tongue in cheek there, but I am not sure why you are belaboring the point. A mere 16 pts is the diff between 8-5 and 12-1. Bradford or Gresham alone could be 16 pts in a season. Our offense had ridiculous potential in the skill positions and the line was fairly green. Narrowly losing the games with a decimated AND green line and without our superstars puts us in a rebuilding year? That's crazy talk. Crazy. You're crazy.

As for that X factor, I (unlike the rest of the population) generally think of that as something tangible and not mystical... like TO+-. Remember the miracle interception that Torrance Marchall made in the aTm game? That's an intangible will of the gods, but I am pretty sure that we were +19 in TOs that year, so it really was tangible and fairly typical of that D. Fun as hell to watch too. That's what I meant anyway.

There is also that X factor that is less predictable too. I watched guys like AD, Ontei Jones (really!), Q, Antonio Perkins, Demond Parker, and even Renaldo Works pull absolute magic out of their hats for the team. I don't know where that X factor comes from. At one time or another I was not impressed with each of them and they proceeded to drastically change my opinion. I remember thinking that Q should be benched. Oops.

Our line should be better and our skill positions are not all proven yet, but things look great. QB should be decent. RBs... wow. We have some great RBs. WRs. They have wheels and hands. This looks like a great group.

 

BTW, I oppose playoffs and your signature quote by Corrine Brown just kills me. It's like getting a character endorsement from a child molester (which happened to one of our gubernatorial candidates here in AZ once).

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinions. I have an admitted bias that a great team is great in the trenches - that wasn't us last year. How good would we have been had Sam and Gresh played? If you have a time machine and go back and replay the season, then have at it. I'm only interested in the coming season and it looks pretty promising to me. We still have questions to answer, but so do all the other elite teams of recent years. Should be interesting.

 

My bad, I thought your posting about the past teams suggested some interest in them. My time machine is on the fritz (American made), but given that Gresham and Bradford went as high as they did in the draft, I am thinking that some people might think that they are good at scoring points.

But honestly, I am all about the line. I know it doesn't sound like it, but I am. (That's what I played) I usually bring up Troy Aikman in that argument. When he had a wicked line, he was a wicked QB. When he didn't he was really average.

I have never seen a team get injured as OU did last year. It really sucked and I felt bad for those guys. It was actually hard for me to watch football and I am a total OU football nerd, complete with a license plate that reads OU NO 1.

That's what makes me wonder about our depth, especially on the O line. Can we handle injuries? I hope so.

I hope to hell our Special Teams picks it up this year. Last year our punting sucked. Our kick offs and coverage sucked. Our FG team sucked. Hard to say it out loud. Broyles is great, but Franks is gone. Back in 2000 we were crazy good at punting and returns. The stats must have been staggering. I should look that up.

...and Corrine Brown is completely out of her mind. How does someone so poorly spoken get elected and make policy for this country? Eccchh.

 

I'm thinking you're having '08 flashbacks because we were rock solid in most special teams areas, with the exceptions being KO returns, & FG's (obviously).

OU's national ranks:

Punting- Way (a freshman AA, BTW) was # 3 in the nation (#5 in net avg) @ just under 46 yards a pop.

Punt return D- OU was #2 in the nation w/ 17 returns against them for 30 total yards

KO return D- #27 (20.16 yds per return)

KO returns- #83 (20.82 avg.)

Punt returns- #3 nationally @ 16.26 a pop.

 

I am interested in past teams, but was just trying to stay on the topic you started about depth and X factor for the coming season. Clearly, last years team is relevant when discussing returning players as well as who we lost. That team won 7 games (okay, throw in Idaho State as a "win"). The biggest win came against Stanford sporting a poor defense and missing their starting QB. The second biggest win was against a spiraling poke squad - that's not a very impressive resume to build on. On top of that, we lost 2 players to the 1st round of the NFL draft (I'm only counting McCoy and Williams here since Sam/Gresh didn't play). From that spin, one has to dig pretty hard to be optimistic. Yet I am based on talent, expected improvements and yes, question marks on other teams.

As someone else noted, I thought we were very good on ST except for longer FGs. Our punting differential gained us 15+ thanks to Way's leg and Broyles elusiveness. Stevens was 11-13 on short FGs, but no luck shuffling kickers trying to get more range.

 

Before Bradford's injury the O-line looked lak krap.

 

Wow. I stand corrected. I didn't get the sense that we were flipping the field like I have seen us do in the past. I felt like we were always starting from our 20 instead of our 40. This year I will try not to get drunk and cry the whole season.

 

There's just no words to describe how much Gresham and Bradford changed the face of CFB being out. Any WR who can spell his own name will tell you they'd rather have the SS and SLB trying to cover a force at TE than cheating up on the guys out wide. Great receiving TEs change an offense... period. The other guy was only one of the greatest QBs to ever throw a football, so yeah... 60ppg wasn't going to happen early-on, but it's clear skill position struggles hurt us more.

 

No one would argue that losing 2 of the best players in CFB diminished last years team and that includes me. Even horn lurkers admit that we were about as unlucky as a team can be on the injury front. But predicting how good we might have been is unknowable. Our opponents would have changed what they did on the field in reaction to what we did. They would have had different preparations anticipating different starters. Saying we would have prevailed in the 4 close loses is just that - saying. I'd bet money we would have won some set of them, but I wouldn't bet anything we win all of them. We did have good, experienced RBs the whole season, but could not run effectively and that would have been a problem, but who knows how much.

The original topic is discussing the upcoming season based on who we have coming back and I know for sure we won't have Sam or Gresh this time . I added what I think are valid points in our favor and was hoping others would add more or point out areas of weakness. I see us being more predictable than last year, but sort of a 'tweener year. Not rebuilding, but not totally rebuilt. 10 wins and in the hunt for the conference depending on "it" or "X-factor" on how many more wins. '11 looks like a year to make a title run if all this conference foo doesn't mess us up.