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OU Notebook
 
By JOHN E. HOOVER, World sports writer
Published: 11/10/2008  2:14 AM
Last Modified: 11/10/2008  3:29 AM

 Dominating Dominique: Ever since he got blocked on a bubble screen pass that turned into a 77-yard touchdown at Kansas State, Dominique Franks has been the Sooners' best cornerback — maybe in a long time.

Later in that game, the Wildcats tried the same play, but Franks read it and blew up the receiver for a 6-yard loss. He also jumped in front of a receiver on a misdirection screen pass for an interception. A week later, Franks decoyed Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz into thinking he had a similar opportunity, then jumped in front of Ganz's flat pass and returned it for a touchdown.

And Saturday, Franks nearly intercepted an option pitch, colliding with the pitch man as the ball arrived, batting the ball up to himself as he spun around, then snagging it and returning it for another TD. He may be playing at a level unseen at OU since Thorpe Award winner Derrick Strait in 2003.

"He's really good," defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. "He's the pitch player and he played the pitch instead of the quarterback. Somebody else was on the quarterback. Great job on his part, and again, good discipline. Big play. Good play.

"I think I've seen him continue to get more and more comfortable as the season's gone. And confident. He's a good football player, instinctive and makes plays."

About the coverage: Oklahoma has proven repeatedly it can't consistently cover kickoffs. But the numbers are staggering. Of OU's 87 kickoffs, 74 were run back. Of those, 11 returns (15 percent) went for more than 30 yards, and eight (11 percent) covered at least 50 yards. Combined, those 11 runbacks covered 734 yards and averaged 66.7 yards.

Cincinnati had runbacks of 51, 63 and 97 yards, Washington had a 38-yarder (only a shirttail tackle saved a TD), TCU's covered 75, Baylor popped a 32-yarder, Texas went 96, Kansas gained 42, K-State picked up 75 and Texas A&M streaked 67 and 98.

The direct result: three touchdowns, three short fields that led to offensive TDs, one field goal, one missed field goal, one fumble, one interception and one loss-on-downs.

"That's been happening the whole season, to a certain degree," Venables said. "But the other side is, we can have an opportunity to stop 'em in those short fields, too, and we didn't."

Staying aggressive: OU raced to a 21-0 lead midway through the first and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said he felt a lull. The next possession ended in a punt, and two of the next three ended with a missed field goal. Wilson blames himself.

"Sometimes, my problem is, I feel like I'm trying to be too nice to too many guys — 'Get him his balls and get this formation group in the game, he's a good player' — instead of just getting on a roll and rolling with it. But again, I like my fullback, I like my tight ends, I like those receivers. I tried to get (Juaquin Iglesias) the ball, tonight being down (near his Killeen, Texas) home for him. I had a bunch of thoughts. We kind of lulled at 21 for a while, I said, 'Quit thinking about getting everybody happy and let's just score again and get back in a better flow.' "
By JOHN E. HOOVER, World sports writer

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5055567475852000, Euless (11/10/2008 6:37:07 AM)
So Wilson finally admits that he's jacking around with the offense, trying to force this and that. (He tried to run, run, run vs. Texas which cost us the game). Agreed, buddy. Stop being Mr. Nice Guy and go with what's working.

God Bless
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JDW, (11/10/2008 9:36:19 AM)
The piece addresses kickoff coverage & our offense & you choose to criticize the offense? In the Texas game, we called twice as many pass plays as we did run plays. 22 called run plays in 67 offensive snaps is not exactly what I would call trying to "run, run, run.) Besides that, our offense is hardly what cost us the game. We gave up a KO for a TD & couldn't stop Texas after Reynolds went down.
 

 
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