http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/ext...1_Oklaho632526
NORMAN — On Aug. 6, on a steamy morning inside his football stadium, Mossis Madu was one of the first Oklahoma Sooners to make a BCS decree.
"We haven't won a BCS game, or a bowl game, in a looonng time," Madu said at OU's media day. "We're trying to prove we don't have the hype for no reason. We're a good team. Every year we're out there to win a national championship.
"Come bowl game, it's all we hear about. 'We're 0-for-our-last-whatever in BCS games.' Or, 'OU can't do nothing.' It feels like everyone's against us.
"But it's cool being the underdog, because you go out and prove otherwise."
It's fitting, then, that five months later, the sophomore running back might have a lot to do with changing those perceptions in the BCS National Championship on Jan. 8.
With DeMarco Murray sidelined after hamstring surgery, Madu and junior Chris Brown are expected to form the Sooners' 1-2 punch in the backfield against Florida.They excelled in that role at the Big 12 Championship Dec. 6, combining for 236 yards and six touchdowns after Murray went down on the opening kickoff.
Brown is a proven commodity, having rushed for a team-leading 1,110 yards and 20 scores this season, and 3,064 yards and 33 TDs in his three years in Norman. Madu is more of a wild card, in several ways.
"He's similar to DeMarco in that he's a shifty guy," Brown said. "He can catch the ball well out of the slot or out of the backfield."
So sure are Madu's hands that Stoops said the preseason plan was to get him on the field more in the slot. But Murray, tight end Jermaine Gresham and wide receiver Ryan Broyles were so dynamic in that position that it was tough for Madu to do more than make cameo tailback/setback appearances.
He rushed for 349 yards and three touchdowns doing so, before exploding for a career-high 114 yards and three scores in the Murray-less Big 12 Championship.
"I wasn't expecting to have a day like that. I wasn't expecting to get more than three (snaps) the whole day, to tell you the truth," Madu said. "I was all smiles, I'm not gonna lie."
Is he capable of an encore against the Gators?
"Actually, I think he's capable of more," declared center Jon Cooper. "We see it from him every day. That was kind of his first chance. Wait till he gets into a rhythm. He'll do even better."
It appears the Sooners are ready to give Madu that chance.
Asked Monday night if OU's plan is to have him split the BCS Championship workload down the middle with Brown, Madu replied: "That's what it's looking like right now."
It is an opportunity three years in coming for Madu, who redshirted as a freshman and played behind Brown, Murray and Allen Patrick in 2007.
It is an opportunity he was willing to wait for even when he signed out of Norman High School in February of '06, when the Sooner backfield included Adrian Peterson.
"I could have gone to UCLA and played early or TCU and played early," Madu said. "But I decided I wanted to win games. I wanted to come here and be around great things."
Thus his willingness to show a little attitude at media day last August. Come Jan. 8, he can show a lot more than that.
"I feel fortunate to have had quality players step up and really answer the call in those situations," Stoops said, recounting the loss of runners like Adrian Peterson and Allen Patrick, and now Murray, over the last several years.
"What are you gonna do? Guys get hurt, no one's gonna feel bad for you. You play the next guy."
Finally, Madu is that guy for the Sooners.
"I knew my time would come. It was about patience," he said. "And it's come."
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