"Pooh, can you see the ball?" Sumlin asked Adron Tennell.

"Not really," Tennell replied.

Paul Thompson threw a lot harder than Tennell's high school quarterbacks, sure, but there was something wrong with a receiver putting up his hands and hoping the ball landed in them.

The next day, Tennell came to two-a-days wearing contact lenses. The next throw from Thompson?

"I was like, 'Man, this is what a football looks like coming at you?' " Tennell said.

With focused vision complementing the rest of his high school All-American skills, Tennell was able to play in 12 games as a freshman last year. He only caught two passes, but the second was a big one, a 15-yarder during OU's 99-yard Big 12 championship-clinching drive against Nebraska Dec. 2.

Building off that late-season surge, as well as the nearly 20 pounds he has added since, Tennell has been the Sooners' leading receiver in scrimmages the past two Saturdays, totaling eight catches, 130 yards and two touchdowns.

"They ask me which guy on the team people aren't talking about will make plays this year. Pooh is the first name I say every time," said Malcolm Kelly, OU's All-America candidate at wide receiver. "He's tall. He can run. He can jump. He'll be making plays for a long time."

Kelly bestowed the praise Saturday night, maybe five minutes after Tennell had beaten Marcus Walker, Reggie Smith and D.J. Wolfe -- three quarters of the Sooners' starting secondary -- for three receptions, 84 yards and a pair of scores.

The performance got Bob Stoops' attention as well.

"Adron is a guy who's capable of making those kinds of plays," the Sooner coach said. "He's just got to keep coming on."

There's the rub. Tennell shows a lot of flash for a sophomore with two career catches. And Sumlin wants a deep rotation that will allow several receivers a chance to sparkle this fall.

But you earn your Saturday playing time at practice the other six days.

"Some days Pooh will come out and make a great play, and then the next play he'll drop a ball," OU starting wideout Juaquin Iglesias said. "He has the talent. You can just tell. It's just him doing it all the time."

"You play for a little while and you figure you've got the hang of it. You think it starts to get easy. But it's really not that easy," said Manuel Johnson, who joins Iglesias and Kelly on the Sooners' first line. "You've got to focus in, lock down and start over every day."

Tennell showed a maturity progression when he shook off his five-catch scrimmage Aug. 11 and said: "Some of the routes I was short on and messed the quarterback up. Some I wasn't in the right spot. I have a whole bunch to fix up."

He set about doing just that at practice the following week, then reported back to Owen Field on Saturday night for his second scrimmage star turn.

Said a hopeful Sumlin: "I think it'll be real interesting to see in the next couple months where Adron goes."

Guerin Emig 581-8355
guerin.emig@tulsaworld.com

FOOTBALL COUNTDOWN

12 days until the Sooners open against North Texas

When:
6 p.m. Sept. 1

Where:
Norman

TV:
FSN-27