Tulsa World: Notebook

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Notebook

By JOHN E. HOOVER, World sports writer
Published: 9/4/2008 2:12 AM
Last Modified: 9/4/2008 3:21 AM

Cincinnati kid: Fans who think the Sooners are in for a non-conference walk-through like they were last season — 79-10 over North Texas, 51-13 over Miami, 56-3 over Utah State and 62-21 over Tulsa — would be wise to look a little closer at Cincinnati. Bob Stoops certainly has.

"I think their quarterback, (Dustin) Grutza — they have all their receivers back, and he's started a couple of years (2005-06 he passed for 3,431 yards, 20 TDs and 24 interceptions). It's not like he's a first-time starter. He has excellent experience as well running the offense and he's played well. Last week I think he had three or four touchdown passes and he really played well for them.

"It's a big challenge. They've probably got one of the best, if not the best, punter in the country from a year ago. They tied for the (national) lead in takeaways a year ago and I can go on and on. We recognize it as a major challenge in this season. We're just focusing on having a great week of practice and being ready to play on Saturday."

Getting serious: OU's coaches respect the Bearcats, and the Sooner players are buying in.

"I think our practice (Monday) there was a lot of intensity," said quarterback Sam Bradford. "It went a little longer than usual. We know this is a big game. I think it's something we've talked about all summer. We've known they're coming in here, we've known they've had us marked on their calendars for quite a while now, so we know this is a very big game for them and it's also a big game for us."

Points taken: Oklahoma lost a shutout on the scoreboard against Tennessee-Chattanooga early in the third quarter when new deep snapper James Winchester's punt snap sailed over Mike Knall's head, and Knall chased it down and knocked it out of the end zone for a two-point safety. Winchester — son of former OU punter Mike Winchester and a Sooner walk-on — was one of two snappers Oklahoma used.

"Ben (Hampton) was excellent on all the PATs," Stoops said. "James was a little excited on his first one. The rest were perfect. I asked him what happened. He said, 'I don't know, coach, it felt perfect.' I said, 'It sure wasn't.' You want to be excited, but you have to control it and just execute. The guy's been fabulous for three weeks, so hopefully that was just a one-time deal."

Sims update: Junior college transfer David Sims, a safety from Butte (Calif) College, still has not finished his academic work and has been unable to enroll at Oklahoma.

OU expects to know his status by the weekend, OU spokesman Kenny Mossman said.

Tickets remain: A limited number of tickets is expected to be available on Thursday morning for OU's Saturday game against Cincinnati. Tickets are $62 each and can be purchased by phone at 800-456-GoOU or online at tulsaworld.com/ousports. Kickoff is 2:30 p.m. By JOHN E. HOOVER, World sports writer

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