So you're still going to see a lot of Blake Bell plowing into the end zone with the football in his hands this season.
My man Eric Bailey reported as much in today's World.But will we see Bell throw the ball into the end zone this year? If Drew Allen was the official backup to Landry Jones as 2011 came to a close, and Bob Stoops said as much before leaving Arizona last New Year's Eve, could Bell be Jones' backup heading to UTEP?
Bell isn't making a run at Jones anytime soon, but Allen is well within reach, especially if Bell continues to perform as he did at OU's scrimmage last Saturday.
"Blake had a really good Saturday, he did, and he continues to improve," Bob Stoops said in confirming the word on the street (and the Net).
The door cracked, I thought I would at least take a shot. "Sooo is he your number two?" I asked.
"Don't have that yet."
Ah.
Someone else among us roving reporters went the same route with Josh Heupel a little later in the interview session. Here's how that went down…
Q: How was Bell's scrimmage?
"He was efficient, made plays, took care of the football and he needs to continue to operate in a more efficient way with his communication and some of the small details, but he handled himself in a real positive way."
Q: Expect to make a decision on your backup soon?
"Yeah. We'll probably make a decision and we'll see how it plays out over the next couple of days here."
Q: Sooo a decision in two-a-days then?
"No, I'm just saying the next couple of days, which means a week, two weeks or three weeks. That's a very, very vague answer."
Gee, really?
There are three ways to look at this, honestly.
You could believe Allen hasn't lost his grip on the backup job, that word of Bell's ascension is just a plot to throw the world off OU's scent.
You could believe coaches really don't know what they would do if the opener was tomorrow and Jones happened to turn an ankle in the first quarter.
Or you could believe coaches are withholding a public declaration to keep Allen invested and battling.
The poor guy could have (should have?) transferred out by now. He is a fourth-year junior and no closer to starting than he was when he arrived behind Jones and Sam Bradford, assuming Jones and Bell are now both ahead of him. He might have even seen the writing on the wall last October, when Bell was chosen to run the touchdown machine package (recall Eric's passage about Allen being the Belldozer's backup... ouch).
That has to eventually weigh on a guy.
Yet here Allen remains, loyal to the program that signed him, the team's resident "good solider." A player like that deserves every courtesy and consideration, comments to media included, wouldn't you say?
