Romar Note and More
Posted on: October 17, 2015
A few quick notes…
– Note sure if coach Stoops or anyone from the coaching staff addressed the media regarding Matt Romar not playing. I spoke to a couple sources who said that Romar seems to be suffering from a minor lower body issue. He was dressed out but just couldn’t quite go is what I’m told. If Stoops hasn’t addressed it yet, I suspect he will on Monday but whatever it was didn’t sound too serious.
– In his place, true freshman Marquise Overton played very well from what I saw. Really look forward to going back and taking a closer look. But noticed him come off the ball before anyone else on the line a few times. Also noticed him sit down in the middle really well. KSU couldn’t scoop him on one play and he kept Dom Alexander clean and Alexander was able to come in and destroy the ball carrier (nice to see Dom be physical like that!).
– Also many of you probably noticed, as we reported earlier in the week, Will Johnson did play nickel today and Steven Parker remained at safety. This gives Oklahoma the ability to better match-up man to man against 10 personnel but also allows Parker to stay at safety where he can help prevent OU from being out-flanked.
163 Comments
First!!
Whatever!!
Ditto
KJ, I was at my kids swim meet today. I missed most of the game. Were you impressed with Samia? How did he do?
Oh hope the meet went well. I liked what I saw from him. The line just has a different look when hes in. He made some technical errors that could of resulted in some negative yards, but he didnt give up a sack and I like the way he hustled. He was always around the ball. Safe to say he’ll start the next game. The backs seem to do well running off the right when hes in.
My girls did well. My oldest daughter dropped 10 seconds on her free style. My son broke his pinky yesterday. He was bummed he didn’t get to compete today. He’s a freshman but he swims a sub 56 second 100 free style, sub minute butter fly and back stroke.
Good to know. I can’t wait to watch all of the game. Samia just looks more intense than St. John. Brown was mauling people today.
Been swimming a lot for my workouts lately. I love it! Makes me wish I’d gotten into swimming when I was younger. Never was interested then…Great workout. Your kids are probably in great shape!
DR, yes they are. May son’t metabolism is off the chart. He is always eating. He has a free pass in school to eat in class. He’s up at 5am for practice before school and then two hours after school.
I watched both my daughters slim down, considerably.
He did ok. He has “heavy ” feet by which I mean he does slide very quickly left or right and is caught reaching to stop the pass rusher. Whole line still has trouble opening rushing lanes.
Samia may be a guard next year if OU can find another OT or two . Was DS an upgrade over JSJ ? looked that way but, again, KST does not have Texas quickness or speed …..
He was an upgrade and I think hell be a guard next year. We need more legth on the edge. And Texas has more speed but Samias pass set is faster than St Johns and he has better positioning. Texas (on the right) wouldnt of looked as fast as they did against St. John.
DS looked better than St Johns did against texass. Perhaps if Frison had not screwed up he would have been at RT and Samia at LG. I thought I remember DS being projected at guard and OT was kinda out of necessity and not that he was best suited for that position.
HEHEHEHE
Complete Game! IT HAS BEEN AWHILE!
Yup.
The way Will played today makes me wonder why he wasn’t playing to begin with.. But Que was a beast no doubt.
It is great to be a SOONER!!!!
Once Bond gets back this is the defense that will stop Baylor and TCU. Hatari just isn’t fluid enough in space and against the QB run game.
They won’t stop Baylor or TCU exactly, but if they can hold them under 40, then OU has an even chance at winning.
agreed Baylor is a step beyond every other team in the league but , if OU can play at the level it did yesterday, the Sooners can beat the remaining teams except the Bears……don’t see Baylor losing in the regular season …..
I think you meant to say that OU is terrible. Bob Stoops can’t coach. OU’s players couldn’t even start for Kansas.
Curious If J will post any articles this week. Not enough negative bullets to write. Will be interesting to see how creative he gets.
You must feed off negativity,just enjoy the win brother.
Um, u didn’t read between the lines here….
LOL!
Doesn’t matter to me, I haven’t read anything of his in four years.
I imagine the tone would be something of bewilderment on how we come out this way this week, but also came out how we did last week. Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.
It can’t be a coincidence that outside of two busts (that were luckily overthrown) the secondary was even more lock down against a team taking plenty of downfield shots when we finally put Will Johnson out on the field. He should be a huge part of what the defense does from here on out.
Much better, but K’state doesnt have the greatest receiving corp, and also (obviously) struggles at QB.
You know, for all the griping we’ve done about our qb’s the past few years, I bet K’state would have been glad to have ANY of the guys we have/had.. How can they not get a quality QB?
Easy to forget we were there a year ago. They lost their starter in game 1 too. That’s tough to replace
They also had about the worst luck you could possibly have at the most important position too. But, the secondary played about as tight to their assignments as I’ve seen them play in awhile, better quarterbacks would make a few more plays against it but still struggle I’m betting.
Overton plugged the hole well, and pushed the line back, he will be an all American by senior year!
Kid has a chance to be special.
Next Gallimore and Overton.
I don’t think it’ll take that long. He is a monster!
Word to the wise for all of you high school coaches out there, have your linemen wrestle. Even if they never see the mat, the leverage and toughness they’ll learn will be the best way they can spend their winter.
All kids should wrestle. Greatest and oldest sport of all time but I’m kind of bias.
yep, noticed him in the opposing backfield a time or two. nice.
Your negativity for all things OU is slipping. Please resume to finding anything to hate about OU.
i really think SD is a sock account and after him becoming so disliked over a long period of time and people calling for his banishment the powers at be have toned him down a bit.
A lot of #$&@ that he says is solely to get under others skin and to get a reaction. If you are a real person SD, my apologies, I legitimately feel sorry for you and hope you don’t view all aspects of life like you do OU Football
Sadly, I didnt even notice he got into the game. What quarter did he finally get in, and I’ll look for him on the replay..
in the 2nd qtr i believe is when i spotted him
He was dominant in getting to the backfield. Dude was a mauler
Johnson was very active, what took us so long getting him out there?
Kept trying Byrd… Sometimes it takes coaches a while to find out if a guy is “the” guy or not.
Made a world of difference moviñg Parker to S and Johnson to the NB, and oh yeah, only 3 missed tackles!
Will johnson should have been playing from the start. Same with Dru.
Still would like to see Alvarez at center and farniok at LG. Samia did look good
SMH.
Did you watch Alvarez today?
He got beat more times than he blocked
That #90 had his way with him.
You’re in the darlington camp. I’m in the Alvarez camp. Maybe we’re both in the wrong camp and should be looking for dalton to get those snaps. Like I said I admit I look for anything I can point and say “wtf is Ty doing?”
I’m in who the best player is camp. Alavarez needs serious strength training in his upper body. He’s young and still has time. I like his effort and his technique is pretty good.
I don’t focus on the oline much, but the few times I did, Alvarez did not play well.
He struggles in the passing game for sure. Run game he isn’t too bad.
You should, a guy way back when I was in my early 20’s told me that is where the game of football is won and lost. And he was right, it is.
I know you don’t like alvarez but he will be a better than ty by the time he is a senior. He does whiff some blocks do, hahaha. Some I thought he was a Spanish matador.
It isn’t that I don’t like, I love the kid and his back story. He just isn’t ready and needs much more strength.
Farniok is a back up.
Farniok has played decent IMO. No one has been as bad as JSJ. thankfully someone got his snaps today and samia looked good. I’m wondering what happened to damlier?
both he and Grant have apparently been passed over.. barring a bunch of injuries, neither probably going to get enough game time to ever be a factor………….
I like him starting at LG.
I believe Dru started in game 1.
Dru made a lot of mistakes early, just needed a few weeks to get more comfortable, remember guys unlike brown he is a true freshman, haven’t even really begun to see what he could be
You start him and learns the first few games. From What I have seen from him, he plays a lot better than St John.
He did play better this week but he missed a lot the first game, u cant just start some one who isn’t ready on the line that’s how u lose ur qb, u have to work them in, this isn’t a video game, is he better not sure, but go back and watch the first game st John was better then but only cause dru needed time, EVEN GK needed to redshirt his first year, but after a little time with smitty and shipp he was ready
Actually Dru replaced him in the Akron game . KJ will back me up on this one
Best guy plays and regardless of class. If your freshman is better than your senior so be it
So where was he in the tennessee game
Also st John came back in and replaced him, some one might think that maybe they were rotating guys through
Whatever they did on defense today was great. I’ve been asking for more time for wade he’s played well and did so from what I saw today. Romar hasn’t been bad but hasn’t been outstanding. Will Johnson at the nickel was a nice upgrade the secondary looked good. Any time you hold the opponent to less than 150 yards, it’s going to be hard to find an eye sore on defense.
Yes! I liked seeing Wade get in there. Some guys can try hard in practice, but somehow they just have an extra gear when its game time. Gotta play em though to find out who has that…
WILL JOHNSON!!!!
Stunned wolverine.
HA!
Nice head of hair, though.
couldn’t happen to a more deserving fanbase outside of South Bend, IN.
You deserve to be infected with botulism.
Yea that was a stunner of all stunners. That one would eat at you for some time, especially if they run the table, and still have 2 losses on their record. And hence, wouldnt likely get into the playoffs.
Classic surrender cobra.
KSt really surprised me early on by throwing so much and not trying to establish their running game.
They surprised me by playing Huebener over Cook. Granted, Cook was equally ineffective, but in the games I’ve seen he’s been the better QB…even though he’s a WR
several observers on the radio broadcast wondered what the hell snyder was thinking
It was odd not to test our run defense. Maybe we gave them a look they didn’t like to run against. And maybe they wanted to jump out early and thought they could take advantage of our secondary which has been good this year. Not sure where the pass defense ranks but only Tulsa has had their way against our secondary
It was baffling. Their strength has been the read option between the tackles and they came out throwing. Not like Snyder to do that. Very odd.
We did beef up our line with the 3 DL. I did like one play we showed blitz with striker from the field side, and then brought Alexander on the other side while dropping striker in a zone where Alexander normally would be. That play plus the blitz mike has shown a few times with Sanchez, are plays we need to make against the good teams.
I wasn’t worried about ksu, easy saying that after a 55-0 stomping but I explained earlier this week that I think losing to ksu or tech is just as embarrassing as losing to Texas. And Kansas was very close to making that a fact.
Exactly. The third DL was the key. Keep their OL from scrumming the second level, and allowed LBs to attack the lanes.
Suspect he thought he might surprise our revamped secondary, and the freshly minted starter Will Johnson. Didn’t work.
Seriously. I didn’t get that at all. We were just ran off the field by Texas. Snyder is a ball control kind of guy too. Add that to the fact that they were starting their 3rd string guy to begin with and it just makes no sense to go pass first. I think they panicked too early, which is not Snyder-like at all. I’m not complaining about getting a win like this, but KSU’s offense confused me too.
i wonder if it had to do with OU scoring so easily to begin the game, thinking they needed to rely on the passing game to keep up.
Would love to find a couple of good, heavy on the Good juco oline man for next year, don’t have to be stars just solid big guys that can help, lineman get hurt a lot and we need some solid backups that can come in and not look like there freshman
I understand some of our juco haven’t hit like st John but he would be a ok backup, yes we have some good classes in the past 2 years and this could be another really good year, but we need to plug so holes till bill gets 4 years in and has his guys where he wants them
The recruits we are in on for the limited number we are taking on the OL this year would all have to drop before they would look for a juco lineman.
Yes but we have been recruiting a few juco guys, I think I saw where we will take something like 4 maybe 5 if it’s the right one, but we do have a juco offer or 2 out there
To just lineman though? Or juco offers out there to several positions? Cuz juco offers to several positions is normal..
For the most part yes, to me u recruit juco to plug holes and u don’t just have holes on ur starting line up, u have holes in ur 2 deep, yes u recruit everyone hoping to compete but there r time u have guys that r really good at spots that start and the guys behind them r young and never played or just not 100% ready yet so u go after a juco to fill for one to have a guy that has pt and 2 a guy that most likely been in a college weight program for 2 1/2 to 3 years plus it show those young guys we will not wait on u, if u want to play better get after it everyday
I’m never about recruiting guys to be backups. Every guy they go for should be guys they think have the potential to start. Obviously not all of them will, but you don’t want to go after guys that you really don’t think aren’t that good.
ANY NEWS ON FRISON BEING BACK YET?
Not playing this year.
Ok but is he back with the team or atleast around the team
You need to ask KJ.
Yes indeed, Super K, when you have another DL to keep the second level from gettin’ messy, the LB can come down and make plays.
This is off-topic but wanted to ask an opinion: The MU/MSU final play that allowed MSU to shock everyone. Look at this vid clip. The second clip down.
http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/msus-miracle-win-over-michigan-as-called-by-each-teams-1737144939
From what I can see, Michigan had no intention of kicking the ball. The snap was a little low but if you look, isn’t the punter leaning to his right as if to just keep the ball and run out the clock? It appears he took his eye off the snap and was looking to his right where he was going to run. He muffed the snap and then instead of just falling on the ball he tried to throw it out of bounds. Crazy play.
If that is what they tried to do then harbaugh is trying to hard. Put your qb and most dependable players on the field and run the clock out
Yea, that was a tough call. In hindsight, prob shoud have def left offense on field, and let your defense defend a hail mary if they have too.
He was going to take a few steps to the right, and then kick it. Lots of punters do that, but in this situation it was a bad idea. At any rate, he dropped the snap.
I think he’s a rugby style punter
Crazy good for MSU. Ranks up there with the TD run Auburn made vs Bama with 1 sec left. That’s why I love college football.
This was far crazier.
You might be right, but I heard a broadcaster say the Michigan punter was rolling to right, as in the “rugby style punt.” But I’ve never seen the guy punt, so not sure if he is that type of punter or not..
He is. He rolled to the right on a couple of other punts I saw during the game, and the announcers mentioned his rugby-style punting.
I think he kicks rugby style, so that would be normal. I think he was going to kick it. And I don’t think that is the wrong choice either. If he gets that kick off, even if it’s just a 10 yard punt, the clock runs out and Michigan wins. They just got tight. Snap was low. Punter panicked and didn’t catch it cleanly. Then didn’t jump on it like he should have.
Poor Michigan. 🙂
Yes, that is correct.
Should have just kicked it immediately. I wonder if the coach bothered to tell him to just fall on the ball in case he mishandled the snap?
Maybe he did tell him and put a negative thought in his head?
Who knows, down goes Meatchicken.
He’s rugby style.
My take is that he didn’t really know the situation well enough, maybe because he didn’t grow up playing American football, and because of that tried to get the kick off instead of just falling down after recovering the ball.
He recovered his muff but crazily tried to kick it backwards, over his head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BB6PZA2n1A
The insane ending to Michigan-MSU is why we love college football.
Looking at the MSU/Mich game, I can only think of what happened to us last year against OSU. Failing to close the deal.
Been on a road trip but caught some of the replay. Got the impression the decision was made for LR to ‘run his offense’, at his tempo, from the get-go and not be concerned with who got how many touches. This looked more like the ECU I’ve watched. OL still not together and the # of sacks was disappointing. Great defense and great win coming off a very disappointing txass game and the travel snafu.
They looked like an entirely different team than we have seen all year. The spread was there, the bubble screens were back, and we had some success rushing. The D was simply awesome yesterday, absolutely dominant.
It was very heartening for me to read that Coach Stoops said that the team had probably the hardest two days of practice that they have probably ever had this past week. That has been my biggest concern the past three years is that we had become soft (same thing that happened to Fexas). I want the old Stoops coached teams again. A defense that gets in your face, doesn’t concede an inch and enforces their will on the opponent. Hopefully, this was a giant step in that direction.
Let’s not get too excited. For Stoops teams, this is the big set-up. We win big in a big game, move up in the polls, get over-confident and then lose one everyone knows we should win. So, do we lose to Tech, Iowa St or KU? Team and coaches need to get hungry and stay hungry. Stop worrying about “holding something back” for the next opponent. Stop living on what Sooners in the past have done and stop celebrating before you have actually accomplished something – like winning a conference championship.
That already happened. I can understand blocking last week out of your mind though.
Maybe. I love Bob Stoops and think he is a great coach and asset to OU. I have two issues with him – his teams always play too close to “arrogant” instead of “confident” and he still believes you can hold something back offensively and win in a league where teams are putting up 50 and 60 points a game every week. Would like to see M Stoops go though.
There has always been swagger at OU, ever since I can remember. Usually with good cause.
Maybe, but can’t think of a time in the last few years when that attitude was deserved. We may have had it, but other than beating AL, not much reason to. And that comes from Stoops as he always says “beating one team is not what we are about, we are about winning championships.” Okay, so, where are they the last few years except the one we shared with OSU?
For the life of me I just don’t understand why you would want M Stoops to go after the game yesterday but I guess to each his own.
Well, you may be right, but I still can’t get last week (or even last year) out of my head. I guess the question is, did he really learn something. We should know after OSU and TCU because both of them have running QB’s. Only problem is that both of them (and esp. TCU) also have good receivers and their QB can throw much better than the Texas QB. You are right though, yesterday’s game plan was very good and the changes in players in the secondary seemed really good changes.
How many national championships would you like us to win before we celebrate?
None. Didn’t say anything about a national championship. Would be nice to win an outright conference championship and to stop losing games we should win. I would be happy if we win the rest of the games this year and not just get the living daylights kicked out of us by Baylor like we did last year. I think all but Baylor are winnable. Don’t think we have what it takes to beat Baylor.
You can troll elsewhere.
Right, Rick. Because I take it you are one of those positive guys who would have kept us from getting the changes we got this year. Had it not been for a group of alumni that took a visit to Boren and expressed their displeasure, we would still have the same coaching staff we had last year. So, speaking what we feel about OU, negative or positive, does not make anyone any less of a fan.
Thank you for changing the program, and for keeping your negative drum beat going. I’m sure it is doing a lot of good, and while you’re at it, take note of the the recruits pics on twitter, notice some of them are wearing the “BOOM” sooner T’s, bet you don’t know where they come from. While you are “changing the system” through negativity, please remember that those recruits read these boards. They are much smarter than they are given credit for. If you think they are being impressed with fans that can’t find anything good with our team, then go ahead and continue the troll, until you get what you want. I’m sure we will all be better off with it.
Well, Rick, sorry to see you are one of those on here who believes only your opinion matters. After spending over 20 years of coaching, I think I can say with some assurance that all those recruits could care less what you or any other positive people are saying on this website. Most are much smarter than you give them credit for. Most have people surrounding them making sure they don’t listen to fans like me and you. Most can look at last week vs Texas and realize we had some coaching issues. Most can look at last year and realize we had some coaching issues. Will it change their mind – some maybe, most not. But my point is they don’t need you or my opinion to make that decision. You being forever positive won’t change one recruit’s mind. My questioning coaching decisions won’t either. Maybe you think your opinions really matter to them. I know better.
Offtopic…but did anyone else enjoy listening to the abc commentators? I’m biased but the last two games these guys have done a marvelous job calling the game
There was quite a discussion last night. Most of us would disagree with liking the commentators, but would agree with your choice of team.
Did anyone notice how much better the CBS HD feed is opposed to the ABC HD feed?
Is it just me but has anyone else noticed the lack of holding calls on teams OU has played. Neither UT & KSU has a SINGLE holding penalty. In this day an age of holding, I find this disturbing. On the other hand, OU has been called several times in each game for holding. No conspiracy guy, just thought it was an interesting stat.
The holding call on Westbrook yesterday was pretty weak as well.
The other guys was manhandling Westbrook which I agree with you.
There was a blatant holding on their RT and the official was standing 5 yds away, no call.
Orlando’s holding call was legit, but it sure was a lazy effort by Orlando, even if it was late in the game.
Can’t wait till Evans gets healthy and we have some competition at the tackle position. With Evans talent, it will sure push Brown and he won’t be sucking air so much as he will be in better shape.
Several plays yesterday where I screamed “holding!!!” at my tv so I’d agree on wanting to see the other team actually penalized for holding.
Texas was particularly egregious
YES, yes indeedy.
…..http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/johnehoover/john-e-hoover-ou-at-kansas-state/article_bce0d4f7-e694-55a7-a088-c7b591978059.html
Does anyone really like the rollout backside deep post combinations that Riley dialed up a couple times yesterday? I know they were dropped/semi batted both times but man I really like the type of opportunity that particular play creates. Could see huge plays from it in the coming games (hopefully).
I vote yes. I like it when he rolls out in general.
Right. Moving the pocket is a good idea with a struggling oline, throw in that post pattern with westbrook’s speed and it just looks so deadly.
I liked the one he threw to Mead. The only problem was the strong wind and how it moved the ball around being such a high arc. Mead tried to adjust on the run, but couldn’t reel it in, otherwise it was a TD.
I was impressed with mead’s jets when he turned it on to try and go get the ball. Showed a little extra speed I didn’t know he had but man the way the ball just slid through his hands like it was greased… Tough catch though.
Less wind or a flatter trajectory it was six.
I like the roll out passes and I like seeing our taller receivers going deep.
It is a great sign to see all the 6’5-6″ guys that are getting on the field getting down the field. Exciting stuff for sure.
Nothing against Mead or the wind factor, that ball was there and went right between his hands. He’s dropped other balls much easier to catch, and some of our other receivers have caught more difficult balls than that one.
I saw him miss the ball at a perfectly thrown back shoulder fade route that is LR’s bread and butter play. We have to find receivers that can run that route and understand it. LR made a living on that one at ECU.
Had he made that catch yesterday it would have been miraculous.
I really want to be a Mead fan, but man he is a drop machine.
He could use a long date with the tennis ball machine.
I don’t agree. The pass on Saturday was tough, the ball was moving around in flight from the strong wind. In the wvu game people claim he should have caught the ball that was thrown behind him…while he was running, with a DB hanging on him. Those aren’t drops in my mind.
I also liked the new play where Andrews stays home to block when Baker rolls out to the right.
Coaches put us in the #15 hole.
I am pushing for more playing time for D.j ward over Charles tapper I think he has such a upside to him anybody agree?
He certainly has a good upside, but he’s a little undersized. They use Dimon on the 1st team who is undersized and DJ on the 2nd team who is undersized. Having them both on the field on running downs might present problems. But he is playing very well, glad to see him coming along. He didn’t play for quite a while, missing his senior year of HS and then the injury at OU.
You are “pushing” for DJ?
Not only are you ignorant and illiterate, you have delusions of grandeur.