Tulsa World: OU Notebook

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OU Notebook

By GUERIN EMIG, World sports writer
Published: 11/24/2008 2:25 AM
Last Modified: 11/24/2008 3:18 AM

He was everywhere: Active doesn't begin to describe the Saturday night that Oklahoma's Travis Lewis had.

The weakside linebacker made a game-high 13 tackles to give him 118 for the season, just 15 shy of Brian Bosworth's single-season record for Sooner freshmen.

He accounted for the game's first turnover with his late-second-quarter interception, and his 47-yard return set up DeMarco Murray's 1-yard touchdown plunge for a 42-7 halftime bulge. The runback also gave Lewis 108 return yards on his four interceptions on the season, breaking Travian Smith's 11-year-old record for return yardage by a linebacker.

Lewis accounted for Tech's second turnover as well when he stripped running back Shannon Woods to force a fumble. Keenan Clayton returned it 53 yards to set up Chris Brown's 2-yard scoring run for a 52-7 lead.

Lewis also joined safety Nic Harris to stop Tech's only end around try for a loss of a yard. He snuffed one of Tech's two direct snaps to wide receiver Michael Crabtree for a loss of two. And he broke up a pass.

Coach Bob Stoops called Lewis' performance "incredible."

"We watch TV and ESPN," Lewis said. "They weren't really giving our defense a chance, and it got under our skin. We came out hungry."

Who brought J.R.?: As they said they would, the Sooners called on rarely-used linebacker J.R. Bryant for a handful of plays Saturday night, usually bringing him in as a stand-up third-down pass-rusher along with three down linemen.

Bryant, who also helped on kickoff coverage, was credited with five tackles, half a sack and another tackle for lost yardage.

"He plays hard," defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. "He's long, athletic, plays with great effort."

While Bryant brought pass-rush relief, Venables didn't substitute for starting ends Jeremy Beal and Frank Alexander until the fourth quarter. That duo was a big reason why OU was able to pressure Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell without having to blitz much.

Crowd of control: One more bit of proof that the frenzied fans at Owen Field had a major impact on Saturday night's game, courtesy of this postgame comment from Tech running back Baron Batch: "It was just the atmosphere, something that made us get excited. It caused us to miss the routine plays that we normally convert." By GUERIN EMIG, World sports writer

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