Here Come the Oklahoma Sooners

College Football

Before the 2007 college football season started, not many gave Oklahoma a chance to win the national title. Talk about a team that seemingly rose from the ashes, this time last year the Sooners were seemingly on the downturn. Their blue chip quarterback Rhett Bomar was shockingly dismissed from the team, who, by the way has himself risen from the ashes, surfacing this year at Sam Houston State. The Sooners fought hard all year without a quality quarterback, they lost a game due to poor officiating against Oregon, but still managed to land a New Years Day bowl game (Fiesta Bowl), only to lose that game in a heartbreaking overtime defeat to Boise State (on a trick play). They then lost their star running back, Adrian Peterson to the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL Draft. So the Sooners entered the 2007 season with a possible New Years hangover, still no proven quarterback and a junior college transfer starting at left tackle.

We have to give credit to Coach Bob Stoops, in his eighth year as head coach he has a combined record of 87-19, which is the second most wins by any Division 1-A school and the best record of any BCS school during that period. He led the Sooners to the 2000 BCS National Championship and finished the season undefeated. That year (2000) Stoop's Sooners weren't even ranked in the Top 20 in the pre-season. He has led his team to eight straight bowl games, with five being BCS Bowls.

Bob Stoops masterfully put together the 2007 team with brilliant recruiting, throw in a few key junior college transfers and a tough as nails spring training and this Sooner team looks to compete for a National Title and is already one of the Top Ranked Teams in College Football. The Sooners are 4-0 and have scored 50 or more points against every opponent.

So let's look at some of the key players. It has to start with redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Bradford, his early rise to national stardom has given the Sooner nation hope for this year and the future. Bradford is not a one game wonder, he has size (6'4" 205 lbs) and talent, after four games he is the highest rated QB in the Big 12 with a rating of 215.45, and has thrown 14 touchdown passes. Folks Bradford has completed 79.13 percentage of his passes. He is incredibly accurate and throws a nice deep pass with a flick of his wrist. NFL Scouts will keep an eye on this young signal caller in the next few years.

We all knew about running back Allen Patrick, but he has been injured early. In comes redshirt freshman DeMarco Murray (6' 0" 191 lbs), who has 4.43 speed. After four games Murray leads the Big 12 with 8 touchdowns and has accumulated 297 yards. By the way, Patrick is healthy once again, so that is quite the one-two punch at running back.

The running game is so strong because opposing defenses can't stack the line due to Oklahoma possessing two NFL caliber receivers on the outside. Both talented juniors, Malcolm Kelly (6' 3' 217 lbs) and Juaquin Iglesias (6' 1" 204 lbs) can get open early and often and are great with the ball in their hands. They also can field one of the Top Tight Ends in the nation in Joe John Finley, (6' 6" 260 lbs). Finley, amazingly enough, is one of the only seniors starters on the team.

The real strength of this team however is their massive offensive line. This line is brutal and has been pushing people around all year. A lot of credit needs to be given to Coach Stoops for landing two time junior college All American, junior, left tackle Phil Loadholt. This man mountain blocks out the sun at 6' 8" 350 pounds and has surprisingly nimble feet. They have a super talented left guard in George (Duke) Robinson, who projects as an 2009 Top Ten NFL Draft Pick. Robinson is also huge at 6' 5" 330 pounds, he has started since he was a true freshman and has lost 46 pounds since arriving at Oklahoma. They also have a very talented sophomore right tackle in Trent Williams (6' 5" 321 lbs), who will be sharing time with junior 6' 6" 312 pound Branndon Braxton.

The defense isn't as strong as the offense, but they are still solid with yet another super talented redshirt freshman in 6' 4 290 pound defensive tackle Gerald McCoy. The defensive backfield is chalked full of NFL talent with three solid seniors in cornerback Marcus Walker and safeties Darien Williams and DJ Wolfe. The real strength of this defense however is a pair of juniors and future NFL safeties in Reggie Smith (6' 1" 199 lbs) and giant hard hitting Nic Harris (6' 3" 225 lbs). Do you see a trend here? The Sooners have almost no senior starters on their roster and depending on how many jump early to the NFL, the Sooners could easily be the top ranked team heading into the 2008 College Football Season.