Big 12 preview: Oklahoma
NORMAN, Okla. -- For the first time in many years, the Oklahoma Sooners are looking for an identity. There are more questions than answers, and the program that has been the benchmark in football during the 17-year history of the Big 12 Conference is not the favorite heading into the 2013 season.
Not to downplay how important the questions are, but they only involve the offense, the defense and the special teams. Oh, and there are a few questions involving the coaches as well. About the only thing not in question is the passion of the fans who want the Sooners to return to familiar territory -- the top of the conference standings.
Will Oklahoma have primarily a passing offense or one focused on the run? Can the defense rebound from a crumbling conclusion to last year? Can the Sooners start quickly enough to be part of the national championship picture, especially with a road contest at Notre Dame on Sept. 28? And finally, can Bob Stoops' seat really be getting warm after winning seven Big 12 championships since 2000?
To try and put expectations in perspective, this team is ranked No. 16 in the Associated Press preseason poll despite all those questions.
Let's start with the offense. With record-breaking passers Sam Bradford and Landry Jones no longer under center, the Sooners' biggest question is at quarterback. They return a total of 16 pass attempts from last season, all in the person of Blake Bell.
Stoops announced said last Friday he will name the starting quarterback this week. The choice will be between Bell and Trevor Knight. Kendal Thompson was in the battle until he broke his foot the first day of practice.
Bell played in all 13 games last season as Jones' backup, almost always in short-yardage situations. He ran it 60 times for 201 yards and 11 touchdowns, but he completed just nine of his 16 passes for 107 yards and no touchdowns.
At running back, however, experience is the operative word. The Sooners return ball carriers who scored 29 of the 30 rushing touchdowns last year, including 11 each by Bell and Damien Williams. Williams led the Sooners with 906 rushing yards. Oklahoma lost its top two receivers, in terms of yards and catches. But there's plenty of depth, including Jaz Reynolds who was suspended for the 2012 season after catching 41 balls for 715 yards. At 6-foot-2, 198 pounds, he provides a big target no matter who is throwing the ball.
The defense was not up to OU's normal standards in Mike Stoops' return to Norman. The collapse was epitomized by allowing Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M to amass 633 total yards (9.6 yards per play). The Sooners had a total of just 24 tackles for loss (less than 2.0 per game). This has to change. Three of the top four linebackers (in tackles) return, which is good because Chuka Ndulue is the only returning lineman with more than 10 tackles. And while the Sooners' official color is Crimson, a better color for the secondary is green. Only four defensive backs on the roster played at all last year.
On special teams Oklahoma returns two solid kick returners -- Brennan Clay and Roy Finch -- who helped the Sooners rank seventh nationally. Jalen Saunders will hope to duplicate his 17.6 yard/return average on the punt-return squad. But the Sooners need to replace punter Tress Way, who averaged 44.2 yards per punt and kick-off specialist Patrick O'Hara.
The Sooners are not picked to win the Big 12 for the first time since the conference went to a round-robin schedule in 2011 (they were also picked to win the south in 2010). Cross-state rival Oklahoma State holds the top spot in most polls.
SPOTLIGHT ON SEPTEMBER: One of the nation's most anticipated games will be a rematch between Oklahoma and Notre Dame. The 2012 version pitted two teams in the top 10. In Manti T'eo's coming-out party, the fifth-ranked Irish throttled No. 8 Oklahoma 30-13 in Norman and ended any Oklahoma thoughts of playing for a national title. This year's game is in South Bend. T'eo is gone, but the mystique is not.
KEYS TO SUCCESS: If Stoops and co-offensive coordinator Josh Heupel can find a working passing game to go with the powerful running attack, the Sooners ought to be okay. With most of the rushing attack back, the key will be finding the right quarterback to run the offense. Blake Bell is the only one with experience, but one would guess that he would have thrown more than 16 passes during the season if he had a good arm. Defensively, rebuilding the line and the secondary around an experienced linebacker corps will go a long way in determining if the Sooners will contend for another conference title. Consistently highly rated recruiting classes give OU fans optimism that these are realistic goals.
AREAS OF CONCERN: No matter how good the recruits are, no one knows how good the team will be until those recruits get game experience. Inexperience at the quarterback spot can be extremely daunting. If Blake Bell can't throw downfield, and if neither of the other QBs with starting aspirations can get on the field, the Sooners become one dimensional. It won't matter how talented the running game is if the defenses know it's coming. Defensively, their ego is wounded with the fall-off at the end of last season.
--Team correspondents for The Sports Xchange contributed material for this story.
