Five-Star Sooner

BY JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Monday, December 15, 2008
12/15/08 at 3:59 PM

LISTEN TO BRADFORD Listen to Sam Bradford’s press conference after he won the Heisman. It includes comments about his foe in the Jan. 8 national championship game, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.

NEW YORK — College football fans who follow recruiting closely may have learned something on Saturday night: Don't believe the hype.

Since 2002, recruiting Web site Rivals.com — considered by many the best source for reliable recruiting information — has ranked 79 high school pro-style quarterbacks as four- or five-star prospects.

Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, who gained football immortality Saturday when he won the 74th Heisman Trophy, was but a three-star prospect when he signed with the Sooners in 2006.

"You mean that three-star quarterback we signed that there wasn't a whole bunch of people recruiting?" OU coach Bob Stoops said with a hearty laugh. "So much for those guys that give out the stars, huh? Aw, just teasing."

Stoops shouldn't cast too many stones. He signed four of those mega-star prospects — Noah Allen, Tommy Grady, Rhett Bomar and Keith Nichol — and not one made it more than two seasons in Norman. The list of blue-chippers reads like a 10-year-old minor league baseball roster: For every one that made it big, there are two or three who came close, and three or four who never did.

Many prospects, however, do make it. Florida's Tim Tebow, a dual-threat QB, was the No. 1 overall prospect in 2006 and already has a national championship and a Heisman. And Bradford is hardly rare as a three-star who cleared the fences. In 2005, Texas' Colt McCoy got just three stars from Rivals, but on Saturday sat second only to Bradford.

Bradford originally was signed as an insurance policy to Bomar, but instead paid off like a lottery ticket.

"I'll tell you, Chuck Long deserves some credit there as our quarterbacks coach at the time," Stoops said. "He had Sam in camp for a couple of years and worked with him and really got to know him. Chuck, I love his demeanor, which you see is so evident now (in Bradford) with how poised and confident he is, and the arm he has. Chuck really saw all of that in camp. I remember I liked him in camp, and Chuck and I were talking, and he said, 'Hey Bob, I really want to go,' and I said, 'Let's go. Let's offer him.' "

Long's cool, even personality and analytical temperament struck a chord with the Bradford family, and when Long left for San Diego State, Josh Heupel stepped in at OU and continued that same even-keel approach.

Long in 1985 was a Heisman runner-up at Iowa. Heupel in 2000 was a Heisman runner-up at OU. Put them together and out comes Bradford, a Heisman winner in 2008.

"That's really neat," Stoops said. "Josh was a great competitor for us as a young guy; Sam was at that age of being very influential and watching him, and Josh was a great role model. And Josh was a great teacher in working with him."

Heupel and the rest of the OU staff will attend Monday's 74th annual Heisman Memorial Trophy Dinner, where Bradford will be honored and welcomed by the rest of the most elite fraternity in football.

Early Sunday morning, Bradford began life as "Heisman Trophy Winner Sam Bradford." He and a friend were at the Apple Store in Times Square until well past 2 a.m., but just hours later, he and his family and new trophy were riding through Manhattan in a black Chevy Suburban giving in-studio television interviews to "Fox and Friends" and CBS College Sports' "One 2 One." Later, Bradford visited with New York sports talk radio host Mike Francesa. Sleep, it seemed, was somewhere down the list of priorities.

"Oh," Bradford's mom, Martha, said over another cup of coffee, "this is exhausting."

Following an afternoon nap, Bradford attended a Heisman dance and dinner party Sunday night.

In a city where movie stars, Spider-Man and half-naked singing cowboys get only a cursory glance on the street, Bradford is the talk of the town, drawing small crowds of curious visitors — many native New Yorkers — whenever he stops.

He even accommodated Fox morning co-host Dave Briggs, a former Tulsa resident, with an over-the-top perky on-camera performance outside the News Corporation Building on Sixth Avenue, but never seemed comfortable doing it. It doesn't appear the fame of a Heisman Trophy will change Bradford, even if he tries.

"Hopefully," he told CBS's Adam Zucker at Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex, "it won't change me too much."

If it does, Stoops said, it won't happen for a while.

"He is so together as a person and as a young guy in his humility and his respect for everyone else that he'll keep his perspective on it," Stoops said. "It changes your life later on, I think. As he has so much more to do, he'll wait for it to be life-changing, I guess."

John E. Hoover 581-8384
john.hoover@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

After winning the 2008 Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford stands with the original Heisman Trophy that was used until 1963. Andrew Stanfill/Associated Press

OU assistant coach Josh Heupel talks to Jimmy Stevens during this season's Washington game. Heupel, as well as former OU assistant Chuck Long, were instrumental in the development of Sam Bradford. TOM GILBERT/Tulsa World