Inside the Huddle

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INSIDE THE HUDDLETHIS WEEK

NO. 16 Oklahomavs.

West Virginia

GAMEDAYEarning their stripesOU is ‘striping the stadium’ this weekend P6

COLUMNOU’s option attackHow the Sooner’s new-look offense piled up more than 300 yards rushing against ULM P11

FEATUREPushing the pileOU’s improved defensive line P13 THE KNIGHTMAN COMETH

Ready or not, the Sooners’ redshirt-freshman quarterback has been thrust into the limelight P8

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-001.indd 2 9/3/13 5:44 PM

2 • � ursday, September 5, 2013 INSIDE THE HUDDLE

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CONTRIBUTORS

Dillon PhillipsInside the Huddle editor

twitter: @DillonPhillips_

Julia NelsonSports editor

twitter: @Juliaaahhh

Joe MussattoAssistant sports editor

twitter: @Joe_Mussatto

Zach SepanikSports reporter


Sam HoffmanSports columnist


Kyle MargerumThe Oklahoma Daily editor

Kearsten HowlandAdvertising manager

COLUMN

Take Sooners defensive domination of Louisiana-Monroe with a grain of salt

Oklahoma enters Saturday’s game after a stifling de-fensive performance in its

season opener against Sun Belt foe Louisiana-Monroe.

Against the Warhawks, the Sooners had their first shutout since blanking Iowa State, 52-0, on Oct. 16, 2010 in Norman. They held the Warhawks — who averaged 433 yards and 38 points per game last season — under 200 yards of total offense, limiting them to just 38 yards rushing despite playing only six players in the box for the ma-jority of the game.

OU’s front seven looked much im-proved, especially the defensive line, which sacked ULM senior quarter-back Kolton Browning twice and pes-tered him all night.

But like most season openers, the Sooners’ performance in their shutout of ULM needs to be taken with a grain of salt. While last year’s ULM squad beat Arkansas and took Auburn and Baylor down to the wire, it lost three of its last five games — all against non-BCS schools —by an average score of 43-20.

OU also had its fair share of strug-gles offensively. Despite rushing for more than 300 yards, the Sooners barely eclipsed 100 yards passing with redshirt-freshman quarterback Trevor Knight going 11-for-28 and for just 86 yards. He looked anxious in the pock-et early and tentative at times, but

improved as the game went along, toss-ing three touchdown passes.

Knight also was effec-tive running the football — he ran for 103 yards on 13 carries — and with a game under his belt, he should be more comfort-able when dropping back to pass. If the Sooners expect to move the ball against the Mountaineers, who probably will load the box and dare Knight to beat them with his arm, then he’ll have to be.

As much flak as West Virginia is catch-ing for sleepwalking through a sleepy win against William & Mary, it’s a better football team than people are giving it credit. And if the Sooners come into Saturday’s game resting on their laurels, things could get pretty interesting.

Althought the Mountaineers strug-gled to move the ball against the Tribe last weekend, junior quarterback Paul Millard efficiently operated West Virginia’s offense. Millard complet-ed 76 percent of his passes and had the offense clicking in a system that’s proven it’s tough stop — OU allowed a school-record 778 yards against West Virginia a year ago.

Now, if Louisiana-Monore is an indi-cator of what’s to come from this new OU defense, which prominently features a 3-3-5 package to defend the spread, it’s unlikely the Sooners will suffer a colos-sal defensive meltdown like it did a year ago in Morgantown.

But expect the Mountaineers to put up more of a fight than the Warhawks. After all, it’s the start of Big 12 ball.

Dillon Phillips is a professional writing senior and Inside the Huddle editor at The Daily. You can follow him on Twitter at @DillonPhillips_

Dillon [email protected]

INSIDE THE HUDDLE EDITOR

WHAT’S NEXTSooners kick off conference playOU kicks off its Big 12 schedule against West Virginia at 6 p.m. Saturday at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. This will be the earliest the Sooners have begun conference play under coach Bob Stoops, as they host the Mountaineers in week two of the 2013 season.Here’s the remainder of OU’s 2013 conference schedule:

Oct. 5 vs No. 24 TCU

Oct. 12 vs. No. 15 Texas

Oct. 19 at Kansas

Oct. 26 vs. Texas Tech

Nov. 7 at No. 23 Baylor

Nov. 16 vs. Iowa State

Nov. 23 at Kansas State

Dec. 7 at No. 13 OSU

TREVOR KNIGHT

Are you on Twitter? Stay connected with The Oklahoma Daily

@OUDaily, @OUDailyStudent@OUDailyArts, @OUDailySports@OUDailyOpinion, @OUDailyGov

Are you on Twitter? Stay connected with The Oklahoma Daily

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-002.indd 2 9/3/13 5:45 PM

INSIDE THE HUDDLE Thursday, September 5, 2013 • 3

OU depth chart

the Sooners’ starters against West Virginia71 tyrus thompson

72 Derek Farniok

74 adam Shead

77 Dionte Savage

64 Gabe Ikard

56 Ty Darlington

68 Bronson Irwin

54 Nila Kasitati

79 daryl Williams

72 Derek Farniok

82 Brannon Green

89 Connor Knight

88 Taylor McNamara

11 Lacoltan Bester

6 Dannon Cavil

8 Jalen Saunders

17 Trey Metoyer

3 Sterling Shepard

12 Derrick Woods

85 K.J. Young

9 trevor Knight

10 Blake Bell

1 Kendal Thompson

33 trey Millard

48 Aaron Ripkowski

24 Brennan clay or

26 damien Williams

Lt

LG

c

rG

rt

te

Wr

Wr

Wr

QB

FB

rB

Jr.

So.

Jr.

Jr.

Sr.

So.

Sr.

So.

Jr.

So.

Sr.

R-Fr.

R-Fr.

Sr.

Fr.

Sr.

So.

So.

R-Fr.

Fr.

r-Fr.

Jr.

So.

Sr.

Jr.

Sr.

Sr.

85 Geneo Grissom

99 Chaz Nelson

98 chuka Ndulue

95 Quincy Russell

80 Jordan phillips

93 Jordan Wade

91 charles tapper

40 P.L. Lindley

7 corey Nelson

25 Aaron Franklin

20 Frank Shannon

19 Eric Striker

9 Gabe Lynn

24 Trey Franks or

4 Hatari Byrd

10 Quentin hayes

18 Ahmad Thomas

2 Julian Wilson

23 Kass Everett

14 aaron colvin

27 Dakota Austin

22 cortez Johnson

15 Zack Sanchez

de

dt

dt

de

OLB

MLB

FS

SS

NIcKeL

LcB

rcB

Jr.

Sr.

Jr.

Jr.

So.

R-Fr.

So.

So.

Sr.

Jr.

So.

So

Sr.

Jr.

Fr.

Jr.

Fr.

Jr.

Sr.

Sr.

Fr.

So.

R-Fr.

deFeNSeOFFeNSe

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4 • Thursday, September 5, 2013 inside the huddle

WVU’s depth chartOffense

67 Quinton spain

79 Nick Kindler

78 Marquis Lucas

76 Pat Eger

65 Tyler Orlosky

69 Tony Matteo

64 Mark Glowinski

73 Russell Haughton-James

62 Curtis feigt

77 Marcell Lazard

85 Ivan McCartney

12 Ronal Carswell

6 Daikiel shorts

82 Devonte Mathis

19 K.J. Myers

11 Kevin White

14 Paul Millard

9 Clint Trickett

3 Charles sims

4 Wendell Smallwood

88 Cody Clay

42 Garrett Hope

LT

LG

C

RG

RT

WR

WR

WR

QB

RB

fB

Jr.

Sr.

so.

Sr.

R-fr.

R-Fr.

Jr.

So.

sr.

Fr.

sr.

So.

fr.

R-Fr.

so.

Jr.

Jr.

Jr.

sr.

Fr.

sr.

So.

Defense45 eric Kinsey

20 Dontrill Hyman

98 Will Clarke

97 Noble Nwachukwu

90 shaq Rowell

95 Christian Brown

32 Brandon Golson

17 Dozie Ezemma

31 Isaiah Bruce

51 Marvin Gross

33 Jared Barber

47 Doug Rigg

35 nick Kwiatkoski

53 Tyler Anderson

26 Travis Bell

22 Avery Williams

34 Ishmael Banks

7 Daryl Worley

8 Karl Joseph

9 K.J. Dillon

25 Darwin Cook

41 Ricky Rumph

De

DT

nT

LB

LB

LB

LB

CB

CB

fs

BAn

so.

Jr.

sr.

R-Fr.

sr.

So.

Jr.

Sr.

sr.

Fr.

Jr.

So.

so.

Sr.

Jr.

So.

Jr.

Fr.

so.

So.

sr.

So.

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-004.indd 2 9/3/13 5:48 PM

playmakers and various schematic designs.

While the cliché saying of “a win is a win” could take place in this case, WVU didn’t want to struggle against an FCS opponent in the home opener. Granted, the Tribe has beaten teams like Virginia in the past.

WVU will need to come out firing against OU. Consistency will be the main theme in this game. The Mountaineers will have nothing to lose, to some extent, but they will need to play a much better game to get past a ranked opponent in OU.

In terms of expectations, it’s all or nothing like every week. As we’ve all seen this past weekend, anything can happen in college football.

Amit Batra is a print journalism senior at West Virginia and sports editor at The Daily Athenaeum

inside the huddle Thursday, September 5, 2013 • 5

West Virginia wary after weathering William & Mary

guest column

Last weekend when West Virginia bare-ly got by an FCS

opponent that went 2-9 last season, concern struck all over the WVU community.

On Saturday, the Mountaineers beat the Tribe of William and Mary, 24-17, after trailing, 17-7, at halftime. Now, West Virginia has to travel to Norman to play the No. 16 team in the country.

While West Virginia’s junior starting quarter-back, Paul Millard, looked fairly solid, it wasn’t the performance coach Dana Holgorsen had in mind. And now with an early conference test, Holgorsen doesn’t know where to start in terms of concerns.

“Where do you want me to start?” he said following the William & Mary game. “We’re going to a place that is incredibly, incredibly hard to play. They’re very well coached; they have lots of good players. We’re very inexperienced. I got tons of concerns. We’ll watch the tape and try to get better at a few of them.”

And this concern strikes all from the West Virginia

Amit [email protected]

guest columnistKeY oPPonentPaul millardYear: Junior

Position: Quarterback

Statistics: Millard went 19-of-25 for 237 yards and a touchdown against William and Mary.

standpoint. Let’s not for-get to take notice that the Sooners looked fairly sharp in their first game against Louisiana-Monroe.

Redshirt freshman Trevor Knight rushed for 103 yards on 13 carries and threw three touchdown passes, including two to senior wide receiver Jalen Saunders, and Oklahoma was able to cruise to a 34-0 victory. While some of Knight’s passes weren’t perfection, he looked strong in his debut.

OU coach Bob Stoops had his team ready on all three sides of the ball. Defensively, you couldn’t have asked for more as an Oklahoma fan.

“Defensively, it’s one of the better games we’ve had in a long, long time,” Stoops said following the game. “All the assignments, the communication, was maybe as sharp as we’ve had.”

More concern for West Virginia and its offense going into this game. WVU can’t fall behind early or it could be a very long night for the Mountaineers. At the end of the day, it will be all about consistency.

West Virginia put to-gether a very strong open-ing drive against William & Mary, but failed to do that for the rest of the first half. In fact, WVU only had a single yard of total of-fense in the second quar-ter. The Tribe controlled the pace due to some key

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-005.indd 2 9/3/13 5:52 PM


column

Show your spirit and stripe the stadiumThe Stripe

the Stadium

effort is back this year.

After a success-ful campaign last season at the Notre Dame game, the athletic depart-ment is market-ing the event for the Sooners’ contest against West Virginia on Saturday.

Many were worried that the striped effect would not work in the stadium. It required too much co-ordination for too many people — it just wasn’t realistic. However, through social media and other efforts, the striped effect was realized and the at-mosphere in the stadium was deafening.

In part, it was probably because College Game Day was there and it was the first matchup be-tween the Sooners and Fighting Irish in Norman since 1957. But regardless, striping the stadium added an element to the stadium that many had never witnessed.

Saturday, the athletic department wants to cre-ate a similar atmosphere. West Virginia will roll into town. Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops said the team wants to make up for the 778 yards it gave up in Morgantown last year.

Fans should want to do their part, too. The best way to help a team is by being a good

fan — cheering, being loud, giving support. Striping the stadium falls into that area. Fans sitting in an even-numbered section

should wear crimson, and fans sitting in an odd-numbered section should wear white. The entire student section should wear crimson.

The team wants revenge on West Virginia. Fans are going to be at the game anyway, they might as well support their team as best they can. Creating a hostile environment for the opposing team is the best way to do that.

The defense posted a shutout against ULM last week and wants to keep the momentum going. So help them out, be there, get loud and stripe the stadium.

Julia Nelson, [email protected]

Julia [email protected]

SportS editor

photo provided by ou athletics communications

photo provided by ou athletics communications

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-006.indd 2 9/3/13 5:53 PM


ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-007.indd 2 9/3/13 6:46 PM

with 86 yards passing and three touchdowns, com-pleting 11 of 28 passes.

“You want to see a better stat line,” co-offensive co-ordinator Josh Heupel said. “You want to complete more than we did, obvious-ly, and there’s a lot of things

Sooners’ in the first 100-yard rushing performance by a quarterback since Jason White did it against Kansas in 2001.

“I’m sure he will settle down and get smoother with some of his throws,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “We see him make these throws over and over daily. Some of the ones he missed, we know he is ca-pable of making. We expect him to continue to improve in that part.”

People seem to forget Saturday was Knight’s first game of live football in two years. He spent all of last season on scout team in a blue target jersey.

“It was really exciting to get out there,” Knight said. “The last game I got hit in was during high school, so it’s been a long time. To get out there and get hit around a little bit felt good.”

While Knight may not be able to stack up against past Sooner greats — at least not at this point in his career — that’s not neces-sarily any fault of his own.

He’s in pretty good company.

Dillon Phillips is a professional writing senior and Inside the Huddle editor at The Daily

8 • � ursday, September 5, 2013 INSIDE THE HUDDLE � ursday, September 5, 2013 • 9

COVER STORY

IN GOODCOMPANYWhen it comes to quarterbacks, the Sooners have a storied history, and Knight’s Stoops-era predecessors have set the bar obscenely high for freshman signalcallers.

COMPANYIt’s a bit ridiculous

how good OU has been at quarterback

for the last five years.Seriously.Between the two of

them, Sam Bradford and Landry Jones hold every single passing record in OU history.

Yards, completions, at-tempts, touchdowns, com-pletion percentage, passing efficiency, wins — they own it all.

Every. Single. Record.It’s even more impres-

sive when you consider the credentials of Stoops’ quarterbacks prior to Jones and Bradford. From 1999 to 2006, OU quarterbacks won five Big 12 titles, won a pair BCS bowl games, captured a national championship, claimed a Heisman Trophy and missed winning anoth-er Heisman by 76 votes, the slimmest margin ever at the time.

When you factor in Jones’s and Bradford’s accomplishments, those numbers inflate to eight Big 12 crowns, three BCS bowl wins and two Heisman tro-phies. Not too shabby for a program that’s known his-torically as a running back’s school.

So whenever Knight is mentioned in the same vein as the likes of Josh Heupel, Jason White, Bradford and

Knight stands on the shoulders of giants


INSIDE THE HUDDLE EDITOR

EVIN MORRISON/THE DAILY

OU redshirt-freshman quarterback Trevor Knight rolls out of the pocket during the Sooners’ 34-0 victory against Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday at Oklahoma-Memorial Stadium. In his first start at OU, Knight went 11-for-28 for 86 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.

Jones, it’s a bit of an un-derstatement to say the kid from San Antonio has some big shoes to fill.

Not every quarterback can pull a Sammy B and go 21-of-23 for 363 yards and three touchdowns in his debut.

Not every quarterback can pull a Landry, either, and throw a school-record six touchdown passes in just his second start.

So Knight shouldn’t be judged to those standards. At least not just yet.

To his credit, when measuring Knight’s first start against other red-shirt-freshmen quarter-backs, he held his own despite what many consid-ered a subpar performance in which he fell victim to butterflies and happy feet.

“He really didn’t put that many balls in bad spots,” senior center Gabe Ikard said. “He didn’t throw it at a high percentage like we expect from him or like we’ve seen from him, but that will improve as he gets more comfortable.”

Senior receiver Jalen Saunders also had his young QB’s back.

“It’s his first ever college football game, so it’s ex-pected,” Saunders said. “I felt like he did a great job, better than I expected.”

Knight finished the game

103 Yards rushing

7.3 Yards per carry

86 Yards passing

3 Touchdowns

Source: SoonerSports.com

BY THE NUMBERS Knight against ULM

“He is a great leader ... he’s a great

teammate. He’s a bright kid, so he’s got respect. No

question.”BOB STOOPS, OU COACH

2007 Sam Bradford (R-Fr.)

2009 Landry Jones (R-Fr.)

COMP. ATT. YARDS TD-INT

237 341 3,121 36-8

26-143,198449261

• Beat out freshman quarterback Keith Nicol and junior quarterback Joey Halzle for the starting spot• Led OU to an 11-2 regular season record, a Big 12 title and a Fiesta Bowl berth

• Temporarily took over when Bradford injured his shoulder against BYU and became the starter for good after Bradford went down against Texas• Led OU to an 8-5 record, including a 31-27 Sun Bowl win against Jim Harbaugh, Andrew Luck and Stanford

that go with that.” But it’s not like OU’s

offense struggled. The Sooners racked up 34 points and 429 yards of total offense under Knight’s direction. He even rushed for 103 of OU’s 305 yards on the ground, leading the

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-008,009.indd All Pages 9/3/13 6:48 PM

in April, Thompson had a strong performance, com-pleting 11 of 17 passes for 151 yards and a touchdown.

“The kid can play,” Ikard said. “He’s got a lot of tal-ent — very similar skills to Trevor and Blake when it comes to running the ball and throwing the ball.”

If he can resemble sim-ilar play once he returns, Thompson just might show the coaching staff he de-serves to be back in the mix for the starting quarterback role.

“He’ll have to demon-strate in practice first how well he’s healed and then w e’ l l s e e,” Sto ops said. “We’ll see how many oppor-tunities he can get, but like I said, we’re really excited about Kendal so we’ll just see where it goes.”

Zach [email protected]

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10 • � ursday, September 5, 2013 INSIDE THE HUDDLE

PLAYER PROFILEKendal Thompson

Year: Sophomore

Position: Quarterback

Statistics:Thompson went 11-for-17 for 1515 yards and a touchdown during OU’s Red-White spring game.

Thompson recovering from fractured foot

INJURY UPDATE

ZACH SEPANIKSports Reporter

After a season-opening 34-0 win over the University of Louisiana-Monroe, sev-eral areas in question sur-rounding the OU football team were answered in a big way.

Starting quarterback, redshirt freshman Trevor Knight, was a little shaky throwing the ball, com-pleting only 11 of 28 pass-es. However, Knight was a force on the ground, as he led OU’s rushing attack with 103 yards. Junior quar-terback Blake Bell even saw some action for the majority of the fourth quarter.

As the game went on, the offense flashed signs of fluidity, while the defense looked stellar right from the get-go.

“It feels great; it’s a confi-dence booster,” senior cor-nerback Aaron Colvin said. “But at the same time, one win or one loss doesn’t de-fine you as a team or a de-fense. We are encouraged by the win but we have to continue moving forward.”

With a lot of speculation laid to rest following the win, there still remains a few shadows of doubt, primarily that which deals with soph-omore quarterback Kendal Thompson.

Thompson suffered a fractured right foot on the

first day of practice in early August. Throughout the off-season, he was involved in a three-way quarterback bat-tle with Knight and Bell, but it was short lived.

“He was in the mix [for the starting quarterback job],” redshirt senior center Gabe Ikard said. “It’s really un-fortunate that he got hurt, but he should be back here pretty soon. I have no idea how that will be handled.”

Shortly after the injury, Thompson underwent a surgical procedure to repair the fracture. It sidelined him for the rest of the pre-season and will continue to keep him in street clothes for the foreseeable future, as there is no timetable for his return.

“Kendal is in great shape. He’s progressing real ly well,” OU head coach Bob Stoops said. “He hasn’t had any setbacks. That’s posi-tive. We really were excited about Kendal’s progress and how he has come along.”

During OU’s spring game

Injured QB looks to compete upon his return

“Kendal is in great shape. He’s progressing really well. He hasn’t had

any setbacks ... We’re really excited

about Kendal’s progress and how

he has come along.”BOB STOOPS, OU COACH

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-010.indd 2 9/3/13 5:56 PM

The 2013 Sooners looked like a dif-ferent team in

the season opener against Louisiana-Monroe. Get used to it.

The most important reason OU looked differ-ent was because of red-shirt-freshman quarterback Trevor Knight.

Knight, unlike Landry Jones, uses his feet to hurt defenses. I know: it’s only the first game, but don’t ex-pect the style of offense to change against upcoming opponents this season.

Knight was a sight for sore eyes because of his ability to scramble. Knight led the Sooners with 103 yards rushing on 13 at-tempts, the first time an OU quarterback has rushed for over 100 yards since Jason White did it in 2001 against Kansas.

Overall, it was not just Knight that was different on offense; it was the entire running game. As a team, the Sooners had 305 yards on the ground compared to a year ago when their aver-age was 160 yards per game.

Senior running backs Damien Williams, Brennan Clay and Roy Finch chipped in with 66, 43 and 42 yards, respectively.

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column

Knight’s legs lend themselves to Sooners’ new-look offense

Sam [email protected]

sports columnist

Expect the same kind of production on Saturday against West Virginia. The Mountaineers struggled to find their way against FCS opponent William and Mary.

William and Mary posted 172 yards rushing against West Virginia. OU will ex-ploit West Virginia’s run de-fense just as it exploited the Warhawk’s defense.

If OU can continue to control the time of posses-sion as it did last Saturday, it will not make a differ-ence if Knight throws at all. The Sooners will give the Mountaineers a heavy dose of the ground game early in the matchup, and if West Virginia cannot stop the onslaught then expect an-other easy win.

The initial success of the Sooners’ running game will help Knight grow as a passer as well. The more success OU has running the ball means the more pres-sure that will be taken off of Knight on crucial third down plays.

Another critical change

that will take place early this season will be the run-to-pass ratio. OU ran the ball 50 times against ULM and threw the ball 33 times. So instead of a pass-first mentality, look for the pat-ented bubble screen OU loved to run on first-and-10 turn into a handoff to the running back between the tackles.

The depth the Sooners have at the running back position gives them more reason to be a run-first team this season. Williams will get the majority of carries, but Clay is a great third-down back that the coaching staff seems to trust in important situations.

The passing days for the Sooners may not be over yet, but as of now, the Sooners will be a different teams compared to years past.

Sam Hoffman is a journalism junior and sports columnist for The Daily

305 The Sooners ran for 305

yards against Louisiana-Monroe.

13 Trevor Knight carried the ball

13 times in his first start.

9 Nine different Sooners carried the

ball against ULM.

7.9 Knight averaged a team-high of

nearly eight yards per carry.

6.1 As a team, the Sooners

averaged 6.1 yards per carry, almost two yards higher than their average last season.

Source: SoonerSports.com

BY tHE numBErs ou’s rush offense

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ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-012.indd 2 9/3/13 5:56 PM

Joe MussattoAssistant Sports Editor

Th e b ig g e st q u e st i o n heading into this season for the Oklahoma defense: How would a young and inexpe-rienced defensive line play?

Last Saturday, there was no question about it.

“The guys in the front line, I thought Jordan Phillips, Charles Tapper and Geneo Grissom were very disrup-tive in everything that they did,” coach Bob Stoops sa i d at Mo n day ’s p re ss conference.

In the Sooners new-look 3-3-5 defense, the coach named all three starters up front as key playmakers of the game. Sophomores Phillips and Tapper and Grissom — a junior — an-chored the defensive line against Louisiana Monroe.

“It allows for more speed on the field,” Stoops said in regards to the three-man front. “It fits their personnel.”

Whereas OU struggled to pressure quarterbacks a year ago, even out of the three-man set, the defensive line was able to hurry quarter-back Kolton Browning into a number of mistakes last Saturday.

The most noticeable dif-ference between this de-fensive front : speed. The Sooners are fast and physical — a good recipe for a good defensive line. And their teammates have noticed the change as well.

“For the first week, they were coming out there fir-ing off the ball. It was good to see that because you know


feature

fresh faces reinvigorate Ou’s defenisve lineDespite youth, the Sooners d-line looks better in ’13

they’re all young, it was ex-citing,” senior safety Gabe Lynn said of the defensive line.

“They were being phys-ical. There was one thing I wanted my d-line to go into this game thinking: they had to be physical,” senior linebacker and defensive captain Corey Nelson said. “We had to win at the line of scrimmage, and that was one thing I did see. They were being physical and fly-ing to the ball as well.”

Much of the credit is be-cause of new defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery. In his first year at Oklahoma, Montgomery has instilled a more physical style of play at the position. As defensive

coordinator Mike Stoops said, the Sooners no longer react, they attack.

The most impressive performance on the line in week one belonged to Tapper. The Baltimore na-tive didn’t start playing football until late in his high school career, and it’s fair to say the defensive end is making up for lost time.

“Charles is a really good

player,” Bob Stoops said. “He’s along the lines of some of the guys we’ve had here and hopefully he’ll keep playing that way.”

Stoops has coached a handful of spectacular ends, and for as young as Tapper is, the compliment is amplified.

In addition to the three starters, junior Quinc y Russell saw playing time in the interior. The junior col-lege transfer was a highly anticipated recruit for an Oklahoma defense short on lineman.

However, Russell was a late arrival for the Sooners, having just show ed up i n No r ma n l e s s t ha n a month ago. The defensive

tackle saw limited time last Saturday, but figures to step into the rotation moving forward.

“Every day is a new day for him right now,” Mike Stoops said of Russell. “But he’s starting to comprehend things and he’s starting to put things together. He’ll just get better each day.”

And for a defensive line that already exceeded ex-pectations in the first game, more good news for the position comes this week against West Virginia.

Junior defensive tackles Chuka Ndulue and Torrea Peterson didn’t play in week one, but both will be avail-able on Saturday for the Sooners, and both figure to

make an impact. “We should make a lot

more plays with Chuka coming back and Torrea,” Tapper said after shutting out the Warhawks.

M a y b e s t y m i e i n g Louisiana-Monroe to just 38 yards on the ground wasn’t enough.

The revamped line has set its expectations high, but after what they showed to be capable of last week, why not?

Just how dominant can they be?

That’s the new question.

Joe Mussatto [email protected]

Evin morrison/thE daily

OU’s defensive line — from left to right: junior defensive end Geneo Grissom (85), sophomore defensive end Charles Tapper (91) and sophomore defensive tackle Jordan Phillips (80) — swarms Louisiana-Monroe senior quarterback Kolton Browning during the Sooners’ 34-0 blanking of the Warhawks on Saturday at Oklahoma-Memorial Stadium in Norman.

“I wanted the d-line to go into this game thinking they had to

be physical.”COrEy NELSON,

OU SENiOr LiNEBACKEr

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-013.indd 2 9/3/13 5:59 PM


ap college football

Big 12 struggles on opening weekendSTEPHEN HAWKINS AP Sports Writer

The Big 12 is 0-2 against the Missouri Valley Conference, and it took a late touchdown by West Virginia to avoid another opening-weekend loss to an FCS team.

“That’s the story of the opening week of the season, is who gets beat by some-body they shouldn’t,” Texas coach Mack Brown said Monday. “There’s always a couple, and this year there were a lot more than that.”

Nationwide, there were eight FCS teams that beat FBS opponents. That was twice as many such upsets as the opening week of 2012.

But that’s not supposed to happen to a league like the Big 12, which going into this season was 103-3 against non-FBS teams. The con-ference in its 18th season al-most matched that loss total in one weekend.

“It will grab your atten-tion. Luckily, we were able to get tested and be able to overcome that,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, whose team es-caped with a 24-17 win over William & Mary. “At the end of the year, it really doesn’t matter what the score was. It’s about getting the wins.”

Defending co-Big 12 champion Kansas State failed to do that against two-time defending FCS champi-on North Dakota State, then Iowa State lost to Northern Iowa. (Baylor beat Wofford 69-3 in its FCS matchup).

The only other FBS leagues with two losses to lower-tier teams were the American Athletic Conference (former Big

East) and Sun Belt. The Sun Belt losers were South Alabama, in its first season as a full-fledged FBS team, and Georgia State, a team still making that transition.

Not exactly the compa-ny the Big 12 wants to be in when the goal is break the SEC’s string of seven consecutive national championships.

“It’s all about the final product and how we finish the year, not how we start the year,” Holgorsen said. “ There’s going to be a lot of positive things happen in the Big 12, there’s going to be a lot of great games to be played, and at the end of the year, we’ll see how we stack up.”

Big 12 teams have three more games against FCS teams this week, includ-ing Kansas playing South Dakota in its season opener. Texas Tech plays coach Kliff Kingsbury’s home debut against Stephen F. Austin, and TCU hosts Southeastern Louisiana.

West Virginia goes to Oklahoma for the first game this season that counts in the Big 12 standings. The Sooners and Texas don’t play any FCS opponents this year.

“There’s always talk in the first week or the second week about who’s the best conference,” Brown said. “’I think you need to look at the end of the season at the body of work.”

Kansas had an early prac-tice Saturday before coach Charlie Weis spent the rest of the day watching games, even paying $10 to watch the online broadcast of South Dakota’s win over UC Davis. The Jayhawks also had a

team meeting Sunday. The first words from Weis to his players were the same both days after all the FCS upsets.

“It was a great teaching tool,” Weis said during the Big 12 coaches’ weekly con-ference call. “The first words being uttered, did you pay attention, did you see what just happened. This isn’t any big surprise here fellas. This is what can happen. I think that game (Kansas State) glaringly got our

players’ attention.”Every loss by Big 12 teams

last season was against an opponent that went to a bowl game. The league was 8-0 against FCS teams, winning those games by an average margin of 44 points. (That was still 38 if not counting Oklahoma State’s 84-0 win over Savannah State).

Kansas State, after losing its first opener since coach Bill Snyder’s debut with

the Wildcats in 1989, plays Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.

Asked how he was doing, Snyder responded, “Well, I’ve had better days.”

Still, Snyder said the message to his team is un-changed in that the goal is to get better every day.

“We’ve got a lot of im-provement to make,” he said. “I think that’s pretty obvious.”

Iowa State has to wait an

extra week before another game, with an open date before playing in-state rival Iowa on Sept. 14.

“We were distraught, I’ll put it that way,” Cyclones coach Paul Rhoads said, describing his team’s mode after the loss.

Oh, and guess which FCS team is on Iowa State’s schedule next season. North Dakota State.

chris neal/the associated press

North Dakota State’s quarterback Brock Jensen lets out a scream as his teammates rejoice with him after scoring with 28 seconds left in the fourth quarter, putting the Bison ahead 23-21, during an NCAA college football game in Manhattan, Kan., Friday, Aug. 30, 2013. North Dakota State upset Kansas State 24-21.

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-014.indd 2 9/3/13 6:00 PM


ap college football

Walsh, not chelf, will start for pokes

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — J.W. Walsh was picked to start at quarterback for Oklahoma State on Saturday against Texas-San Antonio.

Clint Chelf started the Cowboys’ opener against Mississippi State, but as ex-pected Walsh also played in the 21-3 victory.

C o a c h M i k e G u n d y named Walsh the No. 1 quarterback on Monday.

“I think he just brought a spark to our team,” Gundy said. “I felt like there was a lift when he came in, for whatever reason.”

Th e s o p h o m o re f ro m Denton, Texas, was 18 of 27 passes for 135 yards, and rushed for 125 yards and a touchdown.

“When we started click-ing with all the zone read stuff and the up-tempo stuff, that’s what we stuck with,” said Walsh, whose previous best rushing performance was 73 yards. “A lot of it was just designs on read plays that we had just put in, that we had worked on all offsea-son, and for the first time to

richard carson/the associated press

Oklahoma State sophomore quarterback J.W. Walsh points to the stands after scoring a touchdown against Mississippi State during the first half of the Cowboys’, 21-3, win on Saturday at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Walsh threw for 135 yards and ran for 125 more.

run it and be that success-ful with it, that was good to see.”

Gundy said he is unlikely to take Walsh out at all now.

“We started to see results from what J.W. was giving us,” Gundy said. “And at that point when you’re playing a team that has the capabili-ty of beating us, we need to stay with what we thought

gave us the best chance to win the game. J.W. is our quarterback now. Clint could play. I’m not sure we have a time frame for that, I’m not sure we ever will. We’re comfortable with the way that J.W. played and we think that he gives us the best opportunity for success.”

As well as Walsh was

running the offense, the team’s leading receiver, Josh Stewart, gained just 39 yards on four receptions. OSU’s only completed pass over 20 yards was Walsh’s throw to Stewart for 21 late in the first half.

“In most cases, on de-fense, safeties have to help on quarterback run and if safeties help in quarterback

run, it gives you a chance to throw it downfield,” Gundy said. “There’s a number of areas as an offense that we need to improve on, and that’s one of them.”

Walsh said knowing he’s going to be the starter all week will not alter his men-tal approach as he gets ready to face UTSA, which won at New Mexico 21-13 in

its opener Saturday.“There’s not going to be

much of a change, because any time I’m preparing for a game, you have to prepare like you’re the starter,” said Walsh, who is currently the Big 12’s leading rusher. “No matter where you are on the depth chart, you have to prepare like you’re one play away and that you could be in the game at any moment, so that when you do get your opportunities, you can go in and play.”

As a quarterback with the ball in his hands a lot, Walsh has had to adjust his mind-set when he runs to preserve his health.

“For a long time, I’ve had family members and friends tell me, ‘When you run the ball, get out of bounds, get down,’ but I kind of just ig-nored it for the most part, because that’s just how I ran the ball,” said Walsh, who scored seven rushing touch-downs while earning Big 12 Freshman of the year honors last year. “But now, especial-ly after getting hurt last year, I realize I have to play much smarter and take care of my body when I’m running the football.”

Sophomore beats out incumbent QB

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-015.indd 2 9/3/13 6:00 PM

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16 • Thursday, September 5, 2013 InsIde the huddle

The Daily’s Sports Desk 2013 Pick ’em Challenge

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inside the huddle editor

WEEK TWO

SEASON RECORD 3-2 4-1 5-0 4-1 5-0

No. 12 Florida at Miami (Fla.)

No. 6 South Carolinaat No. 11 Georgia

No. 14 Notre Dame atNo. 17 Michigan

No. 15 Texas atBrigham Young

West Virginia atNo. 16 Oklahoma

Florida

Michigan

Georgia

Oklahoma

Texas

Florida Florida

GeorgiaGeorgia

Michigan

TexasTexas

Notre Dame

OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma OklahomaOklahoma

Florida

Michigan

South Carolina

Texas

Miami

Michigan

South Carolina

Texas

ITH-oud-2013-9-5-a-016.indd 2 9/3/13 6:01 PM

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