Tulsa World: OU notebook

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OU notebook

By GUERIN EMIG, World sports writer
Published: 11/28/2008 2:30 AM
Last Modified: 11/28/2008 3:35 AM

Gotta love Gresham: Oklahoma's Jermaine Gresham, one of three finalists for the Mackey Award presented to the nation's top tight end, is coming off one of the best games of his career. He caught five passes for 95 yards, all in the first half, to help stake the Sooners to a 42-7 lead over Texas Tech.

Not only that, but his blocking assisted DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown to their 233 combined rushing yards.

"Jermaine's been awesome," OU coach Bob Stoops said. "He's just a great guy in everything that we've asked him to do, a great worker, a great guy going to class. And then on the field, he's really grown and has taken a lot of pride in being a good blocker. Everyone's known about his ability to catch the ball and run after the catch, but he's really taking a lot of pride in being a really physical blocker as well and he's done a great job with it. He's come a long way that way."

Gresham will try to play more of a role in OU's offense Saturday than he did last year against Oklahoma State, when he caught just one ball for 24 yards.

No distractions: For the second straight week, OU enters a big game with nearly as much of the talk centered around the national championship race/BCS picture as the matchup itself. It wasn't a distraction last Saturday night, but will it be a challenge to shut out the noise again this weekend at OSU?

"I hope not," offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said. "Our deal is we need to do what we need to do to win this game. The best way to do that

is the way you practice. Our guys have been pretty good.

"Last week I was really concerned with all the hype. 'Let's don't make this game bigger than it is. Let's play within ourselves. Let's play within the framework of our offense. Let's be physical. Let's take care of the ball. Let's don't think we've got to do something special now. What we do when we play well is pretty good. Let's continue to work hard, and let's try to maintain who we are and what we are.'

"For the most part this team has been pretty mature, and they've done that."

Judgment day: Stoops had taken a wait-and-see approach when asked about his offensive line the last several weeks. Not anymore.

Asked how good OU's O-line was last Tuesday, Stoops replied: "Really good. These last several games have been very, very solid. Texas Tech, everyone talked about all their improvement defensively, and they are good. And I thought their defensive line coming in was good. But our guys stayed on blocks and played physical and finished blocks.

"There were a lot of nice seams. When you run it for 299, you're doing a lot of good things on the offensive line. And we protected well." By GUERIN EMIG, World sports writer

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