Tulsa World: No. 4 Sooners beef up ground attack

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No. 4 Sooners beef up ground attack
Oklahoma strives for a balanced offense against No. 16 Kansas.

OU's DeMarco Murray can't break free from a pair of Texas defenders last week. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 10/18/2008 2:05 AM
Last Modified: 10/18/2008 2:25 AM

Oklahoma strives for a balanced offense against No. 16 Kansas.

NORMAN — Oklahoma will run the football better against Kansas on Saturday. Count on it.

Nothing against the Jayhawks. But when No. 4-ranked OU and No. 16 Kansas kick off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Owen Field, the Sooners' running game will be improved. Here's why:

In building efficient passing numbers through the first five weeks of the season, OU's offense lost its identity. The Sooners once strived for balance and a forceful running attack, but fancy passing led to fancy practicing, and OU has struggled to gain yards on the ground.

"It's very disappointing," running back DeMarco Murray said.

Last week, in averaging just 2.9 yards per rush against Texas — and losing 45-35 to the Longhorns — a light came on. Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson and line coach James Patton declared a change, starting with Monday's practice.

"Maybe with all the passing and things we do," Wilson said, "maybe we don't get in the rhythm we need to be as strong a running team as we'd like to be."

So Wilson said he slimmed it down. Fewer plays, formations, personnel groupings, reads, options — everything is simplified.

"My suggestion to coach Patton (Monday) was, we need to get about 20 plays of coming off the ball early and setting the tempo and running," Wilson said. " To me, running's an attitude more than anything. Maybe we've just lost our little attitude about that, and we need to get it back."

It is about time, guard Duke Robinson said.

"A couple plays, not fifty-million plays," Robinson said, "just to get us going, get us in that running mentality."

Running backs Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray said there was a much stronger emphasis on running the football during practice this week. That is welcome news for an offense that has averaged 2.9 yards per carry over its past three games.

Wilson said watching film of the Texas game revealed more missed assignments than in any game since he has been coordinator.

"I've got to look at what we're doing," he said. "Am I doing too much? Am I practicing it right?

"If you're not careful, you can get into some mannerisms in your practice routine where maybe you're not emphasizing or doing things."

Head coach Bob Stoops said he would like to run more effectively, but said not being able to run is only "a problem when you're not throwing it very well." OU is averaging 391.7 yards passing over its past three games.

"Everybody has such an issue with our offense," Stoops said, "but we have scored touchdowns on 27-of-28 in the red zone."

Patton said added passing reps in practice should not affect run blocking on game day.

"You call run plays," Patton said, "you need to come off and put your screws underneath their chin every play."

But against Texas, 12 of OU's 17 running plays came on first down, and 10 of those netted 2 yards or less. That is a lot of second-and-long situations.

OU's 26 official rushing attempts against Texas (including sacks, scrambles and a punt fake) were the program's lowest total since 25 in the 2003 Big 12 title game, and the 17 handoffs (including one reverse) were the fewest at OU since 13 in the 2002 Alabama game.

"We've just got to run it more often," Robinson said. "If you kind of get away from running the ball all the time and more get into passing and picking up blitzes and stuff like that, you kind of get out of that running mentality."

Also, 50 percent of OU's running back handoffs versus Texas came out of the shotgun formation. In OU's five previous games, shotgun handoffs accounted for less than 14 percent of the running plays. The rest came with the quarterback under center and the running back behind him.

In the shotgun, the running back is almost standing still when he gets the football. Both Brown and Murray said their strength was taking handoffs from the "home" position and hitting the line of scrimmage at full speed.

"I feel like I'm best coming out of the backfield," Brown said. "I'm just trying to get adjusted to coming out of the shotgun."

Murray said it was "a little bit" harder to get started out of the gun.

Stoops said as long as defenses stack the line with extra defenders, and as long as Bradford's doing the passing, the Sooners will not try to force the run.

"We'll sit back and pass protect 60 times a game if we have to. If we want to line up in the I formation every play, I think we can get a run game established," center Jon Cooper said. "That's the beauty of this offense."

John E. Hoover 581-8384
john.hoover@tulsaworld.com By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

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