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OU's offense can hide sins of other units

OU kicker Jimmy Stevens kicks the extra point with holder Carter Whitson on Oct. 4 against Baylor. OU's kicking game has been a liability all season. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World

 
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist
Published: 11/13/2008  2:20 AM
Last Modified: 11/13/2008  8:26 AM

 All right Oklahoma football fans, raise your right hands and repeat the following:

"We hold the followings truths to be obviously evident:

1. The Sooners' defense will be burned by at least two big plays per game.

2. The Sooners' special teams will be less than special at least a couple of times per game.

3. Truths No. 1 and No. 2 won't matter because the Sooners' offense is potent enough to outscore Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and whoever OU plays in the Big 12 Conference championship game if its finds a way to sneak into the title contest for a remarkable seventh time in the last nine seasons.

Those three points must become No. 5 OU's creed as it prepares to face No. 2 Texas Tech on Nov. 22 and No. 11 OSU a week later.

It's became painfully apparent to the Sooner Nation that it's too late in the season to hope its defense and special teams units can change their ways.

OU may lead the Big 12 in total defense, but there's a reason its 345.6 yards-allowed-per-game ranks only 51st nationally. The Sooners, like most teams, haven't figured out a way to totally shut down the big plays that are the linchpin of the spread offenses that are tearing up the college game this season.

OU ranks 109th out of 119 Division I-A team in kickoff coverage return, and is the only team to have three kickoffs returned for touchdowns. The Sooners are 4-of-8 on field-goal attempts and have missed four extra-point kicks.

The most obvious solution for the kicking woes is to find someone with a strong enough leg to boot every kickoff so deep it can't be returned, and with the accuracy to be trusted in critical field-goal situations.

Coach Bob Stoops could pull freshman kicker Tress Way out of his redshirt season with only two regular-season games remaining. Stoops has yanked redshirts off freshmen late in the season before, but said that Way has yet to demonstrate he'd be a dramatic improvement over the players handling the kickoff, field goal and extra point duties.

It's not too late for Stoops to hold tryouts for the job. Colorado coach Dan Hawkins, frustrated that the Buffs have converted just four of 14 field goals this season, held an unsuccessful tryout this week that included a candidate from the student radio station.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach discovered his extra-point kicker when a student won a field-goal kicking contest at halftime of a Red Raiders' home game earlier this season.

It's doubtful that Stoops will follow the path taken by Hawkins or Leach to solve the kicking problem.

"We obviously haven't been very good," Stoops said. "The holds are there, the timing's there, you've got to make them.

"We're practicing it. We're working it. Hopefully some of those guys will make some improvement and get in a (game) situation and be able to handle it."

Stoops also acknowledged that he's running out of options when it comes to finding players who can do the job on the kickoff coverage team.

"We've used about everyone we can," he said. "So we're just going to try to keep getting better with the guys that we've got."

All of which means Stoops must depend on an offense that hasn't let him down the entire season. The Sooners are second nationally in scoring, averaging 51.4 points a game, and third in total offense, churning out an average of 549.8 yards per game.

It also means that for OU to win out, it must disprove two of the game's long-held beliefs: You win with defense, and you can't win championships unless you play well in all three phases.

The great unknown as OU (9-1, 5-1 Big 12) prepares for its critical two-game stretch against the Red Raiders (10-0, 6-0) and Cowboys (8-2, 4-2), is just how many points the Sooners offense can produce.

Since it suffered its only loss of the season to Texas on Oct. 11, OU has averaged 57.7 points a game in wins over Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska and Texas A&M. There is little doubt that the Sooners could have averaged around 70 points in those contests if Stoops hadn't pulled his starters in the second half and held down the scoring by calling vanilla running plays directly into the teeth of the defense.

"I don't ever believe that you're winning on (only) one side of the ball," Stoops said. "It's the overall production of all areas."

That's the gospel according to Stoops. But the new Sooner Creed is based on evidence that reveals the truth — this OU team will go only as far as its offense can carry it.
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Columnist

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3 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!
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Rhymeister, Tulsa (11/14/2008 2:41:58 AM)
I don't think they can hide the defensive liabilities when Texas Tech rolls into town. If OU ran the ball better then they could keep TTU's offense off the field but it's doubtful that OU's defense can stop TTU's attack. I think people are going to be suprised at the end result...
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Shepard, (11/14/2008 9:49:09 PM)
I thin OU will smoke TT. It's those Pokes that scare me in their own house.
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Shepard, (11/14/2008 9:49:48 PM)
Spelled think wrong in my last post. Kind of Ricky Ricardoish.
 

 
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