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Remembering another OU quarterback's first start
Published: 9/13/2009 6:37 PM
Last Modified: 9/13/2009 6:37 PM




In no way am I declaring new Oklahoma starting quarterback Landry Jones to be the second coming of Troy Aikman.
But Jones did something Aikman was unable to do: Win his first game as a starter at the University of Oklahoma.
An injury to first-string quarterback Danny Bradley forced Aikman to make his first start as a freshman against Kansas in 1984.
It wasn't pretty. Aikman threw 14 times and completed more passes to Jayhawks (three) than Sooners (two). Aikman finished with eight passing yards and 13 rushing yards on a day when OU's total offense figure was 163 yards. And, of course, Kansas won the game.
Because people tend to overreact to whatever happened in the most recent game, you can bet there were plenty of people out there who figured the Aikman kid was never going to amount to anything, never mind that he later quarterbacked the Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl victories.
In a letter to the Oklahoman sports editor the week after Aikman's debut, Bill Smith of Guymon roasted the OU coaching staff for throwing Aikman to the wolves and suggested that Kyle Irvin should have replaced Aikman.
Moral of this story? First impressions can be as phony as Monopoly money.
Aikman surely would have won his debut if he had the luxury of facing Idaho State, one of the most victory-impaired programs in what used to be called Division I-AA.
Jones had a big game at Idaho State's expense and, barring a super-speedy return by Sam Bradford, will make his first start against an FBS opponent when Tulsa visits Norman this Saturday.







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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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