For so long I always scratched my head when Oklahoma refused to give back-ups significant playing time in the second half of games. On multiple occasions we heard coach Stoops justification for this. He’d always say that as a player back when he was at Iowa he hated getting pulled out of the game. Something seems to have changed.
In the Louisiana Tech game we saw player after player rotate in. We saw young DBs come in and take snaps in the first half and take a significant number of snaps in the second half. We saw a lot of rotation on the defensive line. We saw multiple running backs, etc.
I don’t know what caused the change but it was a welcomed one. Perhaps it was all the injuries that OU dealt with last year that made Stoops realize how important it is that he build significant depth. Tribulation is a great teacher. Or maybe it has to do with Coach Mike Stoops. On multiple occasions I’ve heard him talk about “keeping players engaged”. He talks about creating a roll for players keeps them more engaged and creates a better overall team dynamic on and off the field. Or maybe it’s because, like myself, the coaches see that this team could be poised for some runs not just this year but in the coming years and they want to make sure that young talent is more than capable of replacing any losses. Or maybe it’s the fact that the young freshman are indeed as special as Stoops has claimed and he feels they really deserve to see the field. Or maybe it’s the fact that OU actually has NFL athletes on the team now and could start losing guys to the draft earlier and earlier.
Whatever the reason…I loved it!
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Did Derrick Woods get any time? I may have missed it, but I was surprised to not see him more.
He did…the only play I noticed him was when he lined up incorrectly and we had to burn a timeout because of it.
Yea, when I saw the replay, Stoops was not happy with Woods and made sure he knew it.
Agree on the rotations. Heck, it made me get more engaged as we have talked about all of these guys but no numbers. I had to look up the #’s to make sure who they were. good stuff, thanks
Yeah, as Brian said…he did get out there. Saw him listed on the participation chart. I think the issue Woods is going to have is OU is playing less WRs than they used to. And of the 2 or 3 WRs on the field at one time they’re trying to develop a BIG receiver. So ultimately he’s being forced to compete for playing time with guys like Shep, Neal, Young, Quick, etc. and there aren’t as many reps to go around in general.
Is knowing where to be and trust issues why Woods isn’t seeing the field more? From what I have seen on the field Neal and Woods don’t seem far apart.
IMO, Neal has PROVEN to be a value at blocking! I would say if nothing else, that has what has separated Neal into more playing time. I had wondered all summer if our WR could block, Neal has proved he can above all others, (I did see other WR blocking, but if Neal had one guy to block, that guy did not make a tackle.
Excellent point Super K. It seemed forever the starters would remain in the game well after the game was out of control. I always think of Landry Jones. OU would have a huge lead and he would just stay in the game. It was great seeing the young guys play and get that valuable experience.
Any chance Woods moves to safety with the limited depth there?
With Cody Thomas being heathly…it will be nice to see what he looks like out on the field.
It could bring new meaning to the HUNH. Imagine chaining out the whole line on OL. Also will be good to get Mead some PT to find out if he is our answer for stretching the field. As for the QB situation, II know Knight is still green and needs the experience, but don’t see much value for him getting extra snaps with the second team O and just as probably against defensive subs. I see more value in Cody getting it so he can get some game speed action. There is a good possibility we’ll need him at some point this year!
I’ve always thought it went back to our loss to Colorado in 2007. We blew everyone out leading up to that game, and most of our starters hadn’t played more than a half each game. Then we got into a dogfight in high altitude and collapsed in the 4th quarter. Stoops has been big about playing starters deep into games since then, although he pulled Bradford early plenty in 2008.
Totally agree with you. It’s great to see so many guys make the field.
There are two more explanations Stoops has given about leaving guys in. One is that there simply is no substitution for reps, and some guys need as many as possible, particularly early in the season. The other one is conditioning. He doesn’t want to wait for the big, close game to play guys extended minutes and have them not used to being in there that long, and possibly get tired or have lapses as a result.
It’s always seemed to me that in years where Stoops felt he had players that were capable of playing, he hasn’t hesitated to put them in. Usually when he does’t, I figured it means they haven’t executed well enough in practice for him to trust them in the game. I think that injury issues have played into it as well. Some years, just not enough healthy guys to rotate safely. Obviously, this year the team is deep and stocked with talent. More players seem to have a better grasp of the details of the “system.” Is that the players, the coaches or both, I don’t know. Add to that, the healthiest we’ve been in what, maybe 15 years, in terms of injuries, and you get lots of guys rotating in early.
It’s weird, on the one hand, this team feels “advanced” and like a veteran squad, and yet at the same time, you look on the field and at the depth chart and it’s filled with very young guys.
Speaking of Mead, anyone have comments on his performance last week? I thought during the game that he was dropping everything thrown his way….but as mentioned before, I had a very noisy, distracted tv roomful of people and ended up answering questions for a lot of the game so I could have utterly missed the plot on Mead.