Wait: you're saying Oklahoma plays someone other than Texas?
Published: 7/28/2011 4:32 PM
Last Modified: 7/29/2011 2:33 PM
Travis Lewis chases down Utah State's Diondre Borel last season. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World file
Oklahoma linebacker Travis Lewis has been watching film this summer.
Holy Toledo, warm-up the teletype.
Oh wait, Lewis has been watching film on Texas? In July?
Heavens to Murgatroyd, stop the presses.
Lewis was asked Tuesday at Big 12 media day what he’s gotten better at this offseason than he was previously.
Watching film, he said.
“I’m noticing new things, new wrinkles,” he said. “Texas has changed their offensive coordinator. The guy from Boise State came down. So familiarizing yourself with that offense is huge. Already starting on Tulsa. They’re a team that does a lot, a bunch of skill players back.”
The event being in Dallas, and the room being filled with writers from south of the Red River, a half-dozen or so pairs of eyes in the group around Lewis started to light up when he said Texas, and glazed over a bit when he mentioned Tulsa—OU’s opening opponent.
Wow, Travis, it seems kinda early to be studying up on the Longhorns. Care to elaborate?
“They do a lot of stuff,” he said, remarking that the Longhorns’ new offensive coordinator, Bryan Harsin, did indeed call plays previously under the Boise Big Top. “They jump, trade, shift, motion every single play. It’s just another headache we need to worry about, but we won’t need to worry about that until Week 5.”
Wow, Travis, no matter how you say it, it still seems kinda early to be game planning for the ‘Horns. Paranoid much?
“No, it’s more of just familiarizing yourself with them,” he said. “It’s easy when a team has the same offensive coordinator, but when you know a team has switched an offensive coordinator — if Texas didn’t switch, then I’ve played ‘em for four years, so it’s nothing new.
“Just to familiarize yourself. It’s not that we’re game-planning them or anything like that. I’ve watched just as much Tulsa film as that. But for me, as a competitor, I just want to familiarize myself with it because it’s totally new to me. I know I play the best because of my anticipation, knowing what’s coming. . . . It’s just an advantage that I want.”
Lewis acknowledged he has watched “quite a bit” of tape on Harsin’s time with the Broncos.
“That offense, it wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t move, jump, shift all the time all over the place. I just want to — I’ve watched a couple games this year, but I just want to go over it and see what the meat and potatoes of it are,” he said.
But Lewis then gave a number to quantify his summer cinema, andyou could almost hear the handful of Texas writers sigh in disappointment.
“Right now, 70 percent of my film goes to Tulsa,” he said. “Because I know if you don’t win the first one, the second doesn’t matter. They’ve got a bunch of skill players, their quarterback loves to run and throw the ball, G.J. Kinne, he’s a great athlete and he’s a guy that’s been in that system for a lot of years. So just going over that team right now, basically.”
And for the record, Lewis spoke repeatedly about some supposed trash talk coming out of Tallahassee, Fla. (OU plays at Florida State in Game 2). He later ticked off, in order and by name, Tulsa, FSU, Missouri (Game 3) and Ball State (Game 4) — and stopped there.
Hmm, seems he’s not droning on endlessly about Texas. Go ahead and get those presses rolling again.
— John E. Hoover
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
