Tulsa World: Spring valuable for Bradford

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Spring valuable for Bradford

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 2/22/2009 2:26 AM
Last Modified: 2/22/2009 3:09 AM

Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford is excited about finally getting some quality time with his new receiver corps.

The Sooners open spring football practice on March 3, and Bradford must build an on-field rapport with guys he already knows but doesn't know well — at least not in a game. The graduation of three wide receivers means the Sooners, instead of using practice snaps to identify Bradford's backup, will be using this spring to get the reigning Heisman Trophy winner as much work as possible with their replacements.

Bradford's thumb injury is 100 percent healed, he said, and he already has been throwing to players like Adron Tennell, Brandon Caleb, Jameel Owens and Dejuan Miller in unstructured passing drills that they schedule themselves.

"I think spring ball's going to be probably more important this year than it has the past couple years just because we do have a lot of new guys that are going to play for us," he said. "But I feel like our wide receivers, we've already made a lot of progress."

Bradford took questions last week at the Davey O'Brien Award ceremony in Fort Worth:

This will be your second spring practice as the starter, but the first as the Heisman Trophy winner. What has changed for you?

I think every year is obviously different. Because you're not the same player, and you don't have the same players around you. But I don't think the Heisman Trophy's changed anything about me or about the way I'm going to approach this spring. I'm going to approach this spring like I have 15 practices to get myself better and get myself more prepared for next year.

Better at what?

There's a lot of things. I talked to coach (Josh) Heupel the week we got back. We had a long conversation just about watching different things that he felt like I could work on and different things that I felt like I needed to work on. But I think one of the main things for me is maybe minor details in defenses that might tip their hand as to what they're going to do. Things that maybe I wasn't thinking about last year, things that were maybe too complex for me to comprehend or maybe I didn't want to comprehend last year.

What would be an example?

Maybe a defensive linemen is like kicked over into a 1-technique and they blitz strictly to that side if he's in that position, or a linebacker is maybe bumped over two feet, which indicates that he's blitzing.

Your center, Jon Cooper, said he wouldn't be surprised if you came back for 2010. Too early for any indications one way or the other?

No, I haven't thought anywhere near that far. Obviously, that's a long time away. I'm going to cross that bridge when I come to it. I'm not going to say for sure that I'm going to leave after next year, but I'm not going to say for sure that I'm going to come back after next year. It's just something I'm going to have to see how this year goes and just see what's best for me.

We asked Bob Stoops last summer how you could improve from 2007 and he said throw a few more touchdowns and a few less interceptions. You kind of took that to another level. Do you expect that kind of statistical improvement in 2009?

That was one of the things that me and coach Heupel talked about. Numbers are great, but they're not the determining factor of how well a quarterback is playing. There's a lot of things that a quarterback can do to put his team in a situation to win a game other than numbers. So I'm not going to set any goals as far as numbers are concerned. There's a lot of things that I want to set goals personally for what I want to do, but there's not going to be a whole lot of numbers in those goals.

Will you be watching the NFL Scouting Combine closely this week, just to sort of study how the whole thing works?

A little bit. Not closely, but we'll see. We'll see.

OU SPRING PRACTICE DATES

March 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 (scrimmage), 25, 27, 28 (scrimmage)

April 2, 3, 6, 8, 10
Red-White game: April 11

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

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If you see a comment that violates our terms and conditions, please help us by clicking the "Report this Comment" link next to a comment. That will alert the web staff to review the comment. Thank you. -- Web Editor Jason Collington

	Report Comment shaw411, Scottsdale, AZ (2/24/2009 8:16:41 AM) Has Sam had a haircut yet?
	Report Comment Arbythree, Tulsa (2/24/2009 3:53:40 PM) No shaw411. Sam is still the "Mane Man"

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