Jay "The Birdman" Stumpff - My Story

It was a beautiful day for the 41,100 plus crowd to watch their beloved Sooners take the field. Did I mention it was a beautiful day? Oh the defense looked good. That is about all I can say real positive about the Sooners after their close of spring drills. I think the way OU has played the last 2 seasons that Stoops should have had a closed practice scheduled for this week so that way the team could have had a great outing for the spring scrimmage and then the closed practice they could end like the stink fest they closed the last 2 seasons. Okay that is a bit harsh. OU had some good highlights. Like the 103-yard kick return from Lendy Holms and a 40-yard return by Travis Wilson. Wilson might have ripped another TD run if it weren’t for the brick wall he ran into by the name of Garrett Hartley, the kicker. Garrett played great Saturday hitting all of the PAT attempts and knocking in a 42-yard field goal.

Defense
The defense registered 12 sacks. Granted the quarterbacks wearing blue shirts were limited to touch football and could not scramble after being touched. All three QB’s hit some good passes which had to be called back because the quarterback was touched before he threw the ball. Overall, the defense looked really good but then again they know almost everything coming at them. In total the defense had 12 sacks, 6 tackles for a loss, 4 interceptions (1 returned for a touchdown), and a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Rufus “RUUUUUU” Alexander lead the way for the Sooner D with 8 tackles, which 3 were for a loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Following RUUUUU with 8 tackles as well was Chijioke Onyenegecha. He also had a pass deflection. The linebacker core, Alexander, Zach Latimer, and Clint Ingram, looked really good and played well as a unit. Marcus Walker, Onyenegecha, Eric Basey, and Jowanh Poteat played well at the corners keeping the WR’s out of sync with their timing routes. The D line was okay. They had some good plays and kept the QB’s busy. The one downside to the whole day for not only the defense but the team as a whole was Dusty Dvoracek suffered a torn left bicep. Dusty had surgery to repair the bicep yesterday and will be out for 4 to 5 months. Team doctors report that he might be back as early as the September 3rd game with TCU.

Offense
Again, it was a beautiful day to go to Memorial Stadium. The score was tied after the end of the first two quarters, zero-zero. Paul Thompson made the most of the scrimmage going 13-of-24 for 131 yards, a touchdown, and 2 interceptions. Tommy Grady was 5-of-15 for 33 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions. The crowd favorite was Rhett Bomar, judging for the reaction went 9-of-19 for 72 yards and 2 interceptions. Thompson moved the ball pretty well on his first possession but the drive quickly stalled just over the 50-yard line. Bomar put together a nice drive only to end it deep in the red zone with an interception. Grady could never get a rhythm going and was ineffective moving the ball. The running game showed the lack of AD Peterson. Adrian is sidelined for the spring drills rehabbing his shoulder. The running backs for OU are deep but the difference between 1 and 2 is like the difference between the north ridge and the south ridge of the grand canyon. So their assessment is incomplete without the star pupil. The wide receivers are fast. That is the best statement I can make about them after Saturday’s showing. As a unit, they caught 27-of-58 passes for 236 yards. Some of those reception opportunities were knocked away be good defensive plays but most of their chances were dropped.

Special Teams
The highlight of the day for the special teams was the 103-yard kick return by Holmes. As stated above Wilson also had a great runback of 40 yards. Garrett Hartley was solid but under utilized. The punting game stunk. There is no better way to put it than that; okay maybe inconsistent. First of all one stat that didn’t make it into the books was a play that wasn’t counted, a bad snap that was recovered for a touchdown. Sophomore punter Cody Freeby struggled moving the football in the right direction on the punts. He had a nice 52-yard boot in the second quarter but for as much practice as he had that was the best all day. Most of the kicks were 35 or fewer yards shanked to the left or right. A possible excuse for his inconsistency could be from a back injury he suffered earlier in the week. I know I suffer for a while doing anything and kicking a ball would not be easy for me. Heck, kicking a ball as far as he does would not be easy for me with a good back. But then again he is 14 or 15 years younger than me and is getting his college tuition paid for by kicking a football he should be more consistent.

Overall
It was a beautiful day. It was football, more importantly OU football during the off-season. It was spring football and no national championship was ever claimed during spring drills. Moreover, Stoops and company did not want to tip their hand during a televised “practice”. Only 25% of their playbook was utilized. No questions were answered in the search for the new quarterback to replace Jason White but the race might have tightened to a 2-man race. Grady struggled for the second scrimmage in a row and in a 3-man race a struggle is a big mountain to over come. The question will linger on like a well written season faunally that keeps you talking about the show and wondering what next fall will bring.

It truly was a beautiful day… more to come (see part 2 later)

~Bird~

I am glad that you guys had a great time! I was glad that my friend Darin Boyd was able to take you on some tours. I know Trey had a Wonderful time!

Posted by: Dianne at April 18, 2005 01:56 PM

Chijioke Onyenegecha is still my favorite football name, but I gotta like Jowanh Poteat, too!

Good summary....

Posted by: Ranee at April 18, 2005 06:08 PM