OSU Notebook: Holgorsen's nicknames
BY BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
9/15/10 at 6:07 AM
During the spring, OSU offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen pinned the nickname "Johnny Drama" on first-year freshman quarterback Johnny Deaton of Sand Springs. More recently, Holgorsen came up with nicknames for Cowboy wide receivers Josh Cooper and Colton Chelf.
Holgorsen refers to Cooper as "Seth Rogen," saying Cooper's resemblance to the comedic actor is "uncanny." Holgorsen's nickname for Chelf, a senior walk-on from Enid, is "Evil Elf."
"He's just a mean little dude," Holgorsen said of Chelf. "He's sneaky. Elves are fleet-footed, little sneaky guys. He's a fleet-footed, little sneaky guy. He's a mean kid. He'll try to lull you to sleep and then he'll rip your heart out."
Breakout performance: Against Troy last week, Cooper had the best performance of his career. The junior from Mustang scored on a 66-yard punt return, had eight catches for 114 yards and ran for 16 yards on a reverse.
"He's a lot like the Amendola kid (Danny Amendola) that I coached at Texas Tech. Same build," Holgorsen said. "The speed is the same. The shake is the same. Danny is doing it for the St. Louis Rams right now. If you're doing it in the NFL, you're doing it pretty good. Cooper has a long way to go to equal that kind of a career, but (the Troy game) at least was a start in terms of getting the ball in his hands and doing something with it."
Holgorsen vs. TU: For the third consecutive season, Holgorsen is matched with the University of Tulsa defense. At Houston in 2008, his offense rolled for 641 yards and the Cougars smashed the visiting Golden Hurricane 70-30. That TU team was ranked No. 25 in the country.
Last year at TU's Chapman Stadium, Houston had 695 total yards in a 46-45 victory over TU. With three seconds left, the Cougars got a 51-yard field goal from a kicker (Matt Hogan) who had never before converted from longer than 34 yards. In that game, Holgorsen's offense squeezed off 100 plays.
"I guess we didn't three-and-out very much. If you play smart and don't commit turnovers, you stay on the field and you get more plays," Holgorsen said on Monday. "I hadn't thought much about it since, but then you pull the tape out and watch from beginning to end ... it was a fun game. It was an emotional game."
