(I hope I'm not going against protocol by starting a thread this early in my posting career)
The wife is a huge (not literally) OU fan, so 9/5 will be an interesting day in our household. In watching the OU/Nebraska game earlier today and the OU/OSU game now (and most of their games over the past several seasons), this game could be scary - shocking revelation, I know.
Here's my assessment of OU as a BYU fan who has seen quite a bit of them.
They have some areas where they are inexperienced: OL, WR and DB
The areas in which they have a lot of talented experience: QB, RB, TE, DL
QB - Sam Bradford, Landry Jones, Drew Allen
Strength: Bradford is smart, accurate, heady, athletic, has not been injury prone and has a more than decent arm
Weakness: Experienced depth. Should Bradford go down, it would likely be Jones (RsFr) coming in, though Allen (Fr) could beat him out during fall ball. Jones was a highly touted QB out of New Mexico. Whoever is #2, they will have no D1 experience.
RB - DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown, Jermie Calhoun, Matt Clapp (FB)
Strengths: Speed, elusiveness. Murray is a burner and Brown isn't far behind in the speed department. They are both play makers and can catch the ball out of the back field. Clapp is an effective lead blocker when they go 2 back.
Weaknesses: Lack of a power running game & health. Murray & Brown can and will put their heads down to get the tough yards and Clapp is a very good lead blocker but they don't have a consistent power runner. Brown has been dinged before & Murray hasn't played a complete season since he's been at OU.
WR - Ryan Broyles, Adron Tennell, Brandon Caleb, Mossis Madu
Strengths: Broyles is a speedy, shifty guy while Tennell is a tall possesion type receiver.
Weakness: Experienced depth.
Player that will surprise: Mossis Madu. Madu has been OU's #3 RB and will likely move to receiver this fall. After watching him at RB, I'm fairly confident that he would have been the best RB in the MWC last season - though most of his play came in garbage time. He will likely play a lot out of the slot.
TE - Jermaine Gresham, Brody Eldridge
Strengths: Speed, size and strenght. Gresham has size, speed, strength, athleticism, good hands and has proved to be an effective blocker. Eldridge is the blocking oriented TE and has spent time at FB as well.
Weakness: Not seeing one here.
OL - Trent Williams, Brian Simmons, Ben Habern, Stephen Good, Cory Brandon
Strength: Williams is the only returning regular starter from last season. He played RT last year and will be moving to LT this year.
Weakness: Experience. All of the Oline has some game time under their belt but not together as a unit. They go Sr-Sr-Fr-So-Jr from left to right. Likely starting a Fr at center, with 3 games experience under his belt last year before a season ending injury.
Note: I would personally go 1s v 1s in practice to get these guys together quickly - OU will have one of the better DLs in the nation this season.
DL - Auston English, DeMarcus Granger, Gerald McCoy, Jeremy Beal
Strengths: Size, speed, strength, athleticism, experience - they're scary good. Granger & McCoy would likely have been high draft picks had they entered the draft, even with Granger's injury last season. English is a pass rushing specialist and has a nose for the QB. Beal was all Big12 1st team.
Weakness: Health. English suffered from a hairline fracture in his lower leg that kept him out of several games last season. Granger got injured in the UW game by a possible cheap shot (youtube it & see for yourself) & missed a few games and then had season ending back surgery prior to NC game.
LB - Keenan Clayton, Ryan Reynolds, Travis Lewis
Strengths: Starters are good. They have good speed in the LB unit. Lewis was the Big12 defensive newcomer/freshman of the year last season. Reynolds is likely the key to the sucess of their entire defense.
Weakness: Health. When Reynolds went down in the Texas game last season, OU's defense went with him. They didn't have any experienced depth behind him at MLB. Austin Box, a converted Safety, came in after the Texas game & did a serviceable job learning the MLB spot until he got injured in the OSU game.
DB - Dominique Franks, Sam Proctor, Quinton Carter, Brian Jackson
Strength: Size. Projected starting Safeties & Corners are all 6' or above. The only returning regular starter is Franks.
Weaknesses: Experience and experienced depth. The entire 2 deep will be fast & athletic but the question will be if they are assignment sound.
What I would do if I were the Cougar coaches: Use the power run game to try to take the OU DL's legs away from them. Put doubt in their mind so they just can't pin their ears back & come after Max, use the screen game effectively. Don't rely on the dink & dunk game - a lot of scores against OU last season were homeruns. Try to take advantage of and confuse the inexperienced DBs. Concentrate on the return game, OU was succeptible in kick returns last year. Use that to get positive field position. Hope that the Oline can come together quickly.
On the defensive side of things, try to confuse the Fr Center. Show different looks, blitz from different areas/angles, go back to the 3-3-5 philosophy (not alignment). Try to shut down the run game & make them one dimentional. Pray.
What I would do if I were the Sooner coaches: Try to jump on BYU early. After watching TCU film & what Kerley did to BYU, get Murray reps in fall ball at Wildcat and put him there 10-12 reps against BYU - both to utilize his speed and to keep Bradford healthy with the inexperienced Oline.
Rely on my front 4 to get pressure on Hall & stop the run against BYU's inexperienced Oline to cover up the inexperienced DBs. Selectively blitz to try to knock Hall out of the game. Try to string runs out & use speed to stop Harvey - don't let him get north/south. Bracket Pitta and dare the other BYU WRs to beat me.
If all goes well for BYU, it could be a tight game either way - if BYU doesn't play sharp on both sides of the ball, it won't be pretty.
The wife is a huge (not literally) OU fan, so 9/5 will be an interesting day in our household. In watching the OU/Nebraska game earlier today and the OU/OSU game now (and most of their games over the past several seasons), this game could be scary - shocking revelation, I know.
Here's my assessment of OU as a BYU fan who has seen quite a bit of them.
They have some areas where they are inexperienced: OL, WR and DB
The areas in which they have a lot of talented experience: QB, RB, TE, DL
QB - Sam Bradford, Landry Jones, Drew Allen
Strength: Bradford is smart, accurate, heady, athletic, has not been injury prone and has a more than decent arm
Weakness: Experienced depth. Should Bradford go down, it would likely be Jones (RsFr) coming in, though Allen (Fr) could beat him out during fall ball. Jones was a highly touted QB out of New Mexico. Whoever is #2, they will have no D1 experience.
RB - DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown, Jermie Calhoun, Matt Clapp (FB)
Strengths: Speed, elusiveness. Murray is a burner and Brown isn't far behind in the speed department. They are both play makers and can catch the ball out of the back field. Clapp is an effective lead blocker when they go 2 back.
Weaknesses: Lack of a power running game & health. Murray & Brown can and will put their heads down to get the tough yards and Clapp is a very good lead blocker but they don't have a consistent power runner. Brown has been dinged before & Murray hasn't played a complete season since he's been at OU.
WR - Ryan Broyles, Adron Tennell, Brandon Caleb, Mossis Madu
Strengths: Broyles is a speedy, shifty guy while Tennell is a tall possesion type receiver.
Weakness: Experienced depth.
Player that will surprise: Mossis Madu. Madu has been OU's #3 RB and will likely move to receiver this fall. After watching him at RB, I'm fairly confident that he would have been the best RB in the MWC last season - though most of his play came in garbage time. He will likely play a lot out of the slot.
TE - Jermaine Gresham, Brody Eldridge
Strengths: Speed, size and strenght. Gresham has size, speed, strength, athleticism, good hands and has proved to be an effective blocker. Eldridge is the blocking oriented TE and has spent time at FB as well.
Weakness: Not seeing one here.
OL - Trent Williams, Brian Simmons, Ben Habern, Stephen Good, Cory Brandon
Strength: Williams is the only returning regular starter from last season. He played RT last year and will be moving to LT this year.
Weakness: Experience. All of the Oline has some game time under their belt but not together as a unit. They go Sr-Sr-Fr-So-Jr from left to right. Likely starting a Fr at center, with 3 games experience under his belt last year before a season ending injury.
Note: I would personally go 1s v 1s in practice to get these guys together quickly - OU will have one of the better DLs in the nation this season.
DL - Auston English, DeMarcus Granger, Gerald McCoy, Jeremy Beal
Strengths: Size, speed, strength, athleticism, experience - they're scary good. Granger & McCoy would likely have been high draft picks had they entered the draft, even with Granger's injury last season. English is a pass rushing specialist and has a nose for the QB. Beal was all Big12 1st team.
Weakness: Health. English suffered from a hairline fracture in his lower leg that kept him out of several games last season. Granger got injured in the UW game by a possible cheap shot (youtube it & see for yourself) & missed a few games and then had season ending back surgery prior to NC game.
LB - Keenan Clayton, Ryan Reynolds, Travis Lewis
Strengths: Starters are good. They have good speed in the LB unit. Lewis was the Big12 defensive newcomer/freshman of the year last season. Reynolds is likely the key to the sucess of their entire defense.
Weakness: Health. When Reynolds went down in the Texas game last season, OU's defense went with him. They didn't have any experienced depth behind him at MLB. Austin Box, a converted Safety, came in after the Texas game & did a serviceable job learning the MLB spot until he got injured in the OSU game.
DB - Dominique Franks, Sam Proctor, Quinton Carter, Brian Jackson
Strength: Size. Projected starting Safeties & Corners are all 6' or above. The only returning regular starter is Franks.
Weaknesses: Experience and experienced depth. The entire 2 deep will be fast & athletic but the question will be if they are assignment sound.
What I would do if I were the Cougar coaches: Use the power run game to try to take the OU DL's legs away from them. Put doubt in their mind so they just can't pin their ears back & come after Max, use the screen game effectively. Don't rely on the dink & dunk game - a lot of scores against OU last season were homeruns. Try to take advantage of and confuse the inexperienced DBs. Concentrate on the return game, OU was succeptible in kick returns last year. Use that to get positive field position. Hope that the Oline can come together quickly.
On the defensive side of things, try to confuse the Fr Center. Show different looks, blitz from different areas/angles, go back to the 3-3-5 philosophy (not alignment). Try to shut down the run game & make them one dimentional. Pray.
What I would do if I were the Sooner coaches: Try to jump on BYU early. After watching TCU film & what Kerley did to BYU, get Murray reps in fall ball at Wildcat and put him there 10-12 reps against BYU - both to utilize his speed and to keep Bradford healthy with the inexperienced Oline.
Rely on my front 4 to get pressure on Hall & stop the run against BYU's inexperienced Oline to cover up the inexperienced DBs. Selectively blitz to try to knock Hall out of the game. Try to string runs out & use speed to stop Harvey - don't let him get north/south. Bracket Pitta and dare the other BYU WRs to beat me.
If all goes well for BYU, it could be a tight game either way - if BYU doesn't play sharp on both sides of the ball, it won't be pretty.
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