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Passing woes
OU's star quarterbacks under Bob Stoops have rarely shined in bowls

OU quarterback Sam Bradford against Baylor earlier this season. MICHAEL WYKE/ Tulsa World

 
By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 1/4/2009  3:06 AM
Last Modified: 1/4/2009  3:27 AM

Follow the Sooners as they prepare for the BCS title game in Miami.



MIAMI, Fla. — Quick, name the Oklahoma quarterbacks who won MVP trophies in bowl wins under coach Bob Stoops.

Did you come up with Nate Hybl and Rhett Bomar?

A little strange, isn't it? The new Quarterback U.'s best bowl QBs over the past 10 years are one guy most Sooner fans consider an in-between fill-in, and another guy most Sooner fans would rather not consider at all.

OU's best Stoops-era quarterbacks — Josh Heupel, Jason White and Sam Bradford — have ranged in bowl games from dreadful to mediocre to just pretty good, while Hybl was offensive MVP of the 2003 Rose Bowl and Bomar was offensive MVP of the 2005 Holiday Bowl.

"When you're really successful at quarterback, or when you have struggles, I don't see it as always just the quarterback," Stoops said.

Bradford, of course, can rectify much of that with a big game — and, most importantly, a big win — on Thursday when the No. 1 Sooners meet No. 2 Florida at 7 p.m. at Dolphin Stadium in the Bowl Championship Series title game.

Bradford's challenge is two-fold: unlocking a fearsome Florida defense, and maintaining his record-setting pace.

"I think when you don't play for a month, it's kind like the first ballgame of the season, where it might take a little time to settle into the flow of the game," Heupel said. "It's not like a regular season ballgame where you've been playing for three or four or five straight weeks."

Heupel scuffled in two bowl games, was a graduate assistant for both of White's national championship game defeats and last year was Bradford's position coach at the Fiesta Bowl.

Under Heupel's tutelage, Bradford surprised most college football observers with an amazingly efficient and productive freshman season, in which he led the nation in passer efficiency and tossed an NCAA freshman record 36 TDs. Then he surprised everyone again by playing poorly in his first bowl game, throwing just one TD and two interceptions in a 48-28 loss to West Virginia.

Bradford said he became rattled by early sacks, missed receivers open in the end zone and ultimately tried to do more than he was capable of.

"That's the difference in a year's time for Sam," Heupel said. "When things don't go well or he takes a sack or gets hit, he's able to bounce back and play that next play as its own separate play and not let one play affect the next.

"Certainly that's going to be a key for him in this ballgame. When you get into a national championship game, you're competing against the best of the best. They've got a bunch of great athletes and play good defense. They're going to make some plays here and there. It's how you react to that. How you bounce back. What's your next play when adversity strikes? If we can make plays after they make plays, then we give ourselves a chance."

Offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said Bradford's shortcomings in last year's Fiesta Bowl are at the feet of Bradford's teammates and his own play-calling.

"We didn't block as well (and) we got a little one-dimensional," said offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson. "As a quarterback, he's a function of our group. And as that group looks good, he looks better. I'm sure he would say he needs to play better. I would say in general we didn't play well."

Said Stoops, "When we've had troubles, protection's been the issue — and/or being one-dimensional. Those things have come up. That's what I see when I see production in some of those cases hasn't been what we're used to. I think it's the whole team."

In the case of Heupel and White, injuries played a significant factor. Heupel endured an elbow injury ("that's part of it," he said) in the Orange Bowl that caused Stoops to ask ex-quarterbacks coach Chuck Long in pregame warm-ups, " 'Geez, can he go?' I mean, balls were fluttering here and there. But in the game, Heup's out there gutting it out." In the Sugar Bowl, White played through a broken toe and sprained wrist.

The difference? Huepel is beloved because his team won the national championship, while White's team lost it — twice.

"You maybe get too much credit and too much blame," Heupel said. "For the quarterback to play well, he's got to have 10 other guys playing well on the offensive side of the ball. I don't know that offensively, as a football team, we played as well (in White's bowl games) as we had during the course of that year."

Bradford isn't injured, and his teammates say that unlike the '04 team, they're focused. And these Sooners aren't a heavy favorite like they've been in the Fiesta Bowl.

But Bradford and White share one stark similarity heading into their championship showdowns.

"There was a lot more attention on the fact that I won the Heisman Trophy," White said. "If you don't win the Heisman Trophy that year and just play in the bowl game, it's not as big a deal. Since I won the Heisman Trophy and we lost the bowl game, then it becomes a big deal that the Heisman Trophy winner lost his bowl game.

"It's not just 'Jason White lost in the bowl game,' it's 'Heisman Trophy winner Jason White lost in the bowl game.' "

2008 FIESTA BOWL
West Virginia 48, Oklahoma 28
Sam Bradford: 21-of-33, 242 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT

BREAKDOWN
Completion percentage: 201-of-321 (62.6) Yards per game: 229.9 TD-INT: 11-12



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

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3 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!
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Photog, (1/4/2009 9:22:01 AM)
Bradford isn't injured? What's that thing on his left hand? What kind of reporting is that?
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soonerdavid, (1/4/2009 12:28:09 PM)
Yo, Photag, an injury to his left hand/thumb will not efect his ability to run or throw
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Bird1, Tulsa (1/5/2009 7:44:06 AM)
Amen Soonerdavid. Remember what he did to Mizzou when all they could do was TAPE his thumb in place.
 

 
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