Tulsa World: OU Notebook

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OU Notebook

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 9/11/2008 2:11 AM
Last Modified: 9/11/2008 4:00 PM

Gresham honored: Jermaine Gresham was named John Mackey Tight End of the Week by the Nassau County (Fla.) Sports Commission after catching seven passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns in OU's 52-26 victory over Cincinnati.

"Obviously Jermaine is a big target so it is kind of easy to find him," said quarterback Sam Bradford. "But I think that's part of maybe the plan, to get him a couple more touches per game, but I think also it's part that he just got open last game."

Locker room: Defensive coordinator Brent Venables said he's been told Washington quarterback Jake Locker runs the 40-yard dash in under 4.3 seconds. His time at a camp while in high school has been reported at 4.28. That may seem unlikely — the NFL Combine's fastest time in the last 20 years was Darren McFadden's 4.27 last winter — one day before Chris Johnson's 4.24.

In any case, Locker is so fast and runs so well that OU coach Bob Stoops said his defense may deploy a spy to shadow his movement.

"It just depends. If you've got an extra guy that you don't need in coverage, that would be awesome," he said. "But I don't know a lot of coverages where that works real well. Otherwise, you rush three and have another guy spying. We actually do some of that. It's kind of a delayed rush. We did it last week with Jeremy (Beal) and Auston (English) in that position. We call it a 'flex' position where he's kind of in the line but not really. We count him as part of the rush. There's something to that."

Quick strike: Of Oklahoma's 15 TDs so far, 10 came after fewer than three minutes of possession. Seven took less than two minutes. OU's most time-consuming drive through most of two games was just over four minutes before a seven-minute march with backups. So how fast is too fast?

"That's never an issue," Stoops said. "I remember a long time ago when I was at Florida, people wanted to say that (Steve) Spurrier scored too fast. What would I do? I was like, 'You can't score enough or quick enough for me. I'm all for it. If you're scoring touchdowns, we'll take it in one play every time.' "

Sneaky Sam: Even though he had two 300-pounders fall on his head and was knocked out of the game at Texas Tech last year, Sam Bradford is no delicate petunia. He was asked to sneak for first downs twice last week on third-and-short.

"Last year I don't think we ran one quarterback sneak. Last game we ran two," he said. "But if that's something the coaches feel we need to do to get a first down, that's something I'm willing to do."

Ex-Sooner up for scholarship: A former defensive lineman is one of 10 finalists for a postgraduate scholarship given by college athletic directors.

Carl Pendleton quit football after his junior season when he received an $18,000 scholarship through the National Football Foundation. He was legal guardian for his 10-year-old brother, Kierstan, and stopped playing to focus on his family and academics. He's now up for a $10,000 grant from the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

Five athletes will be chosen as winners of the John McLendon Postgraduate Scholarships, which can be used to pursue studies in athletics administration. By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

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