Tulsa World: OU O-line gets fresh start

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OU O-line gets fresh start
Unit learning from Fiesta Bowl errors.

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 8/9/2008 2:06 AM
Last Modified: 8/9/2008 2:47 AM

Unit learning from Fiesta Bowl errors.

NORMAN — Oklahoma's offensive line was a consensus preseason choice for college football's best unit.

And yet, it wasn't pretty the last time this group took the field. West Virginia's smallish defensive front repeatedly cut holes in the Sooner line in a 48-28 Fiesta Bowl blowout. Untimely penalties, uncharacteristic sacks and virtually no running lanes shut down what had been an almost unstoppable Oklahoma offense.

"We take 100 percent responsibility," said center Jon Cooper.

The proclamation by various preseason magazines that OU's front five is the best in the nation isn't unfounded. The Sooners have five seniors Branndon Braxton, Cooper, Phil Loadholt, Duke Robinson and Brandon Walker all returning starters. There are 131 career starts between the first five and the top two backups (Simmons and Trent Williams, a co-starter with Braxton). The average height and weight of those seven is 6-foot-5, 309 pounds.

This group guided an offense last season that averaged more than 42 points and almost 450 yards per game.

In 14 games in 2007, quarterback Sam Bradford was sacked just 14 times. The team averaged 6.4 yards per play last year, tied for fourth-most in school history and the program's highest per-play average in 20 years.

Which college football team carries into 2008 better credentials than that?

"There's expectations," said offensive line coach James Patton. "We'll find out how good we

are. I think everybody wants to be great starting the season, and it's good to be recognized. But it doesn't matter where we start, it's where we finish."

Where the Sooners finished last year was a desert dumpster.

Size didn't matter in the Fiesta Bowl. OU was far bigger up front than West Virginia's 3-3-5 alignment, but the Mountaineers played harder and routinely broke through.

"Maybe it was, 'Oh, we're way bigger than these guys', or, 'We're going to smash these guys,' " said Braxton, a three-year starter who alternates at tackle and guard. "That could have been in the back of a few guys' heads."

It wasn't just effort, either. Of OU's 13 penalties in the Fiesta Bowl (for 113 yards), five were violations by offensive linemen.

"That just shows our focus level and just how undisciplined at times we were," said Walker.

Patton doesn't want to dwell on the Fiesta flop, but says it's a learning tool.

"It was an embarrassment for us to come out and lose the way we did," Braxton said.

OU began practice on Monday and holds its first scrimmage on Saturday. Erasing the bad memories and fulfilling the hype starts now.

"The magazines and all that, that's all good," Braxton said. "But that's nothing we thrive on, like, 'Oh look, we're No. 1' and we walk around with our chests poked out. Nothing like that."

Said Walker, "We've got to play more as a team, focus, have more discipline and just play together, communicate. If we do that, the sky's the limit for the goals we can achieve."

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

Sooner line

T/G Branndon Braxton
6-6, 304
Senior, Youngstown, Ohio
18 career starts

C Jon Cooper
6-2, 290
Senior, Fort Collins, Colo.
29 career starts

LT Phil Loadholt
6-8, 337
Senior, Fountain, Colo.
14 career starts

LG Duke Robinson
6-5, 335
Senior, Atlanta
27 career starts

G Brian Simmons
6-4, 304
Junior, Raleigh, N.C.
2 career starts

RG Brandon Walker
6-3, 284
Senior, Detroit
28 career starts

RT Trent Williams
6-5, 308
Junior, Longview, Texas
13 career starts

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

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