Oklahoma Sooners wide receiver was moved by the tragedy that happened last week at Sandy Hook Elementary and wants to give something back. The teams leading rusher has come up with a plan on just how to do that.

He plans to auction off the gloves he wore during the game against WVU. He scored the last minute touchdown that actually pushed the Sooners to go home from Morgantown with the win. He has cleared the auction with OU’s compliance department, so to any of you whistle-blowers out there, apparently its legal.

He plans on taking the proceeds of the auction and giving it to victims of the tragedy. Stills earlier this week on wanting to do something for those involved:

Yeah, I talked to compliance yesterday. We’re going to try and auction off the gloves. I saved my gloves and the sleeve that I was wearing. I’m trying to auction off those on the Web site, I think, SoonerSports.com Web site and give the proceeds to one of the families that was involved in the tragedy.

It’s been really heavy on my heart. Just a really tough situation to go through and I just couldn’t imagine going through something like that, you know, having a little brother, having nephews and nieces that I care about a lot. Like I said, it’s weighing pretty hard on me, so I wanted to do something I could to help and to represent our university and the football team.

It has yet to be determined when the actual auction will take place, but it is nice that someone wants to go out of there way to help those in need. Especially when the people of Newtown, Connecticut probably have no idea who Kenny Stills is. Good on you, Kenny.

The Oklahoma Sooners went into Red Raider land with a chip on their shoulder and it showed. Landry Jones was mad, Kenny Stills was mad and the defense was mad. And by mad I mean they were out for blood. Apparently the loss to Kansas State lit a much needed fire to help lead the Sooners to a 41-20 win.

After Jones’ performance two weeks ago, many doubted that he had the drive left to lead this team to a much needed win. I never jumped off the bandwagon. Why? I’ve seen Jones play well and I’ve seen him play bad. Landry was due for a good game. The Sooners needed a quick 7 on the opening drive instead of the settling for 3 they have been doing and the offense produced just that. He ducked coverage, the line protected him, it looked like a focused Jones. His second quarter TD pass to Stills marked the 100th of his career.

Give the defense a hand, they picked-off Tech QB Seth Doege 3 times: one for a pick-six, another set the offense up to score and one was picked-off only to be fumbled with a Tech recovery. The former No. 1 Tech defense in the country gave up 380 yards, which is almost double what they’ve given up in the four previous games. Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville said on Friday that he thought Iowa State’s defense was better than Oklahoma’s. Today after the game he said, “Defensively we played a better football team.” They also played a better team offensively, but when have you ever heard Tubs compliment a team.

Something to take notice of was Sooner LB Tom Wort getting benched early on in the game. He also may have been replaced. Frank Shannon came out making plays for losses and putting Doege on the ground. Wort was missing tackles and not finishing up. Mike Stoops made the right call, Shannon deserved it today.

QB Landry Jones and WR Kenny Stills worked well together today. They seem to be more in-sync. After the game, Stills even took to saying that Landry silenced some haters today. Seeing him so excited on the sidelines and smiling was a good change.

The game marked an end to a losing streak in Lubbock that’s been held since 2003. It also marked an end to Texas Tech undefeated start. Unfortunately for the Red Raiders, it also means their record for not winning a conference game at home since 2010 still stands.

You know what this also means, right? It’s now officially Texas week.

It was football time in Oklahoma on Saturday night as the Sooners returned to Norman for week 2. The opponent isn’t exactly what I’d call a good measuring stick of where the Sooners want to be when going over their performance, but all-in-all, they didn’t look too shabby.

The highlight of the Sooners offense was not QB Landry Jones, but RB newcomer, Damien Williams. Williams ended his night with 156 yards and 4 touchdowns, with his longest being an impressive 89 yard run. With this week’s performance added with week 1, Williams became the 4th player in Sooner history to have consecutive 100+ yards in their first two games in the crimson and cream.

Jones had a decent night with 252 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did have an interception and was almost intercepted again shortly after by FAMU standout, Devan Roberts. Besides the pick, Jones broke Sooner records last night by moving into the second most winning quarterback in program history, overtaking Jamelle Holiway. He could tie Steve Davis with another win.

The defense looked good for a second week in a row, allowing only 61 yards rushing by the Rattlers. The FAMU offense only had 235 total yards in offense compared to the Sooners impressive 662. Damien Fleming, the Rattlers QB ended the night with only 133 yards and 1 touchdown. Again, the defense looked good, but against a more evenly matched team, they still have a lot of work they need to do.

Safety, Tony Jefferson did leave the game early on and was later seen on the sidelines with a cast on his foot. Bob Stoops commented after the game that it was only a sprain and if the game was closer, he would have still be in there.

The main problem the Sooners face is getting off to a slow start. They had the same issue last season. Jones and Co. seem to wake up in the mid-second quarter and this can’t happen. Once they get into conference play, they can not get rolling so late. Everyone remembers Texas Tech from 2011, so I don’t need to say much more. The offensive line seemed to be blocking a lot better, but it’s hard to judge against FAMU.

A definite improvement from week one was the special teams play. Penn State transfer, Justin Brown was fabulous on kickoff returns. He almost took 2 to the end zone and set the Sooner offense up in scoring position. Kenny Stills ended the game with 120 yards and 1 touchdown while JUCO transfer, Trey Metoyer had a great 18-yard touchdown.

Naturally, when you have a 69-13 win, we got to see the not so usual suspects. Stoops started rotating more people in and to the roar of the crowd; we got to see Sterling Shepard. When Shepard made his first career catch, the fans that were left in the stadium went wild. Both backup QB’s Blake Bell and Drew Allen got to be under center for a while, which was nice to see Bell throw the ball instead of run. Though we did see hand-off left, hand-off right more than once out of him.

As I have said a couple times, it’s really hard to judge improvement with an opponent like FAMU. The real test will be in two weeks when they take on the always competitive Kansas State. Wildcats QB Collin Klein is on a hot streak and they will be searching for a revenge game in Norman this year, after the Sooners came to their house and handed them a beating in 2011.

The Sooners go into week 3 with a bye. Its time to rest, work and improve. Then repeat.

It what was one of the latest Sooner games to kickoff in a long time, The Oklahoma Sooners traveled to El Paso Saturday night and it wasn’t the prettiest of games.

From my article earlier Sunday: From the moment of the first snap, the Sooners were completely out of sync. Every attempt at trying to build a momentum on offense was answered with a Miner defense were on the ready. There were some shining moments on the offense; Landry Jones connected with Kenny Stills for a 68-yard touchdown and Penn State transfer,Justin Brown had a great 25-yard kickoff return, but that was about it during the first half. The Sooners were a terrible 2 of 8 on third downs. What really was the main momentum turning point was the first drive of the game for the Sooners. A three and out, which then resulted in a blocked Tress Way punt that was ran in by Nathan Jeffery. This would be the Miners only time to get on the board, but not from lack of effort. Stills stepped up to Jones main target and did a pretty decent job of it last night.

They had 3 missed field goal attempts by two separate kickers and an attempted fake punt that the Sooner defense was completely ready for. The fake punt set up Jones and crew with great field position which resulted in a touchdown to tight end, Brannon Green. This pushed the Sooners to a 17-7 lead. Jones footwork looked to me like it was much improved from last season. He seemed quicker and more aware of his surroundings.

The Sooner defense actually played a decent game. After the opening drive wake-up call, they quieted the Miners offense, holding them to just the one touchdown. Tom Wort and Tony Jefferson both had interceptions slip out of their hands on more than one occasion. Considering they were missing 3 out of 5 starting DT’s, it was a semi-fair showing.

The offensive side of the ball needs improvement. Jones ended the night with 222 yards and 2 touchdowns. Stills led the receivers with 121 yards on 6 receptions, one being 68 yards, with 1 touchdown. Damien Williams led the Sooners on rushing, with 104 yards on 9 touches and had an impressive 65 yard run. Williams also scored the final touchdown of the game, bringing the game to a final of 24-7.

The Sooners have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks before they get into conference play. Jones and his weapons need to work on chemistry, while the defense needs to fix the holes in the line and get a better grip on opposing teams run game. Once the defense gets some key players back on the field, I think the defense will not be as big of a concern as the offensive line. The biggest thing I took away from last night was the lack of strength on the OL. Unless improvements are made, Jones will be running for his life for a second year in a row.

This wasn’t the opening game Sooner fans envisioned for this season, but barely escaping El Paso may be what the need to set them off in the right direction.

We can only hope.

More Sooner sightings on the college football award watch lists this week, and it’s only Tuesday. So far the total of Sooners making lists is up to eighteen. On Monday came the announcement of the Butkus and the Lombardi Awards.

Corey Nelson

The Lombardi Award is given out every year to the Nation’s best lineman or linebacker. The Sooners past have had 3 Lombardi winners: Tommie Harris (2003), Tony Casillas (1985) and Lee Roy Selman (1975). For 2012, Ben Habern, Gabe Ikard and Corey Nelson. For both Habern and Ikard, they have been on multiple watch lists over the past week, this is Nelson’s first nomination.

Another one of my favorite awards, the Butkus Award watch list was also announced on Monday, which is given to the Nation’s best linebacker. Tom Wort was on the list with 51 other nominees. This is Wort’s second watch list for 2012, making it on the Nugurski watch list last week. Former Sooner greats who have won the Butkus include Brian “The Boz” Bosworth (1985 & 1986), Rocky Calmus (2001) and Teddy Lehman (2003). All of whom are in my top list of my favorite Sooner players.

On Tuesday, the Biletnikoff watch list came out and included Kenny Stills. The award is given out to the most outstanding receiver in football. The award can be given out to any player who catches a pass. This marks the second watch list for Stills this preseason.

Wednesday will bring the announcement of the Davey O’Brien, which I’d be shocked if Landry is not on it.

The last Sooner to win the Maxwell, Jason White

Starting the week, the 2012 College Football Awards Watch Lists are being released. Today was the release of the Maxwell Award and the Bednarik Award. The Maxwell Award is given to the best all-around player in college football. The Bednarik Award is given to the Nation’s best defensive player.

Sooner Nation has 3 players on the watch list for the Maxwell and 2 on the Bednarik. The last time a Sooner won the Maxwell Award was in 2004, by Heisman winning QB Jason White. The 2012 Sooners on list are: Kenny Stills, Landry Jones and Dom Whaley. Bednarik list includes, Tony Jefferson and Demontre Hurst.

The Semi-Finalists for each award will be announced on October 29, with the Finalists being announced November 19. You can view the lists in their entirety here.

Tomorrow will bring the announcement of the Mackey Award and the Rimington Award.

Wednesday night, Sooners head football coach Bob Stoops released a statement. A statement most Sooner fans weren’t too happy to have heard. If you googled the statement or went to SoonerSports.com you were presented with a one sentence, non-informative piece of information:

University of Oklahoma head football coach Bob Stoops announced on Wednesday that Quentin Hayes, Trey Franks, Kameel Jackson and Jaz Reynolds have been suspended indefinitely for violation of team rules.

Oh.

Jaz Reynolds vs. Kansas State

So if you are keeping count at home, that’s 3 WR’s and a DB. But before everyone starts banging their head on desks thinking doom and gloom, let’s get a couple things straight. The WR position is one that Oklahoma has recruited HEAVILY in, especially in 2012.  Kenny Stills and Trey Metoyer already have the outside positions locked up (in my opinion). The only thing the Sooners are looking to replace is a slot receiver. There are quite a few options of players that would fill this void nicely. Oklahoma picked up some stellar talent in the WR position, but the only problem is, is the lack of experience.  As for Quentin Hayes and the DB position, this is something I don’t think needs to be a cause for concern at all.

Also, I’d like to point out that it hasn’t even been a week since Kameel Jackson announced that he was “transferring” to Texas A&M, without informing the Aggies, mind you. By the way, in case you hadn’t heard, they said they would not take him.  So you would have to think that this is something that has been brewing in Norman for the last couple of weeks.

Offensive Coordinators Josh Heupel and Jay Norvell have Sterling Shepard, Durron Neal, Derrick Woods and JUCO transfer Courtney Gardner to work with. They lack the experience QB Landry Jones is used to, but in that talent pool, I would expect one to be able to step up. You can believe that Norvell has already been looking for JUCO players to fill the void.

Looking at the big picture, this is not a huge loss for Sooner Nation. I know some of you will disagree, but considering Trey Franks has been suspended before, and has an issue with staying on his feet… Reynolds on the other hand stings a little. He had 41 catches and 715 yards and led the team with an average of 17.4 ypc before his season-ending injury. Once injuries start to plague the Sooners, which it will because it never fails, the lack of experience  may be a cause for concern.

In the same breath, it’s nice to see Coach Stoops crack down on players violating team rules. It has yet to be released on what the actual cause of the suspension is, but I have my suspicions. And for those of you that have mentioned money to me, I have not heard that nor do I believe it.

It’s only May, Stoops still has time to dust off Barry Switzer’s playbook and bring back some wishbone action. I’m joking. Kinda.

After the tornadoes on Friday, I questioned making the trek to Norman for Saturday’s Annual Red/White game. After staring at the radar for a couple hours, I decided to risk it, and I’m glad I did. It was hard not to notice some the damage on the way in towards the stadium. There was downed power lines, trees uprooted everywhere, roofs missing. But if one thing can bring a city together, it’s Oklahoma football.

More people showed up than I originally thought would be there, considering the predicted tornadogeddon by the National Weather Service on Saturday. They did end up closing the East side of the stadium, so everyone sat on the home side. The game was moved up to 1:30 from a 2:00 start time for a preventative measure, because the bad weather was scheduled to hit the Oklahoma City area around 5:00 PM.

As always, the Spring Game is a chance for the guys who aren’t your usual suspects get their time to impress. And the one person everyone wanted to see proved all the rumors true: Trey Metoyer. Metoyer has unprecedented speed, great hands and was quite impressive on Saturday. Hopefully his presence will give Kenny Stills the boost he needs to get his head back in it. Stills dropped some easy balls yesterday, one of which was set up perfectly and he would have been endzone bound had he held on to it. The offense did run a play that had Stills and Metoyer lining up on the same side, with Stills moving into the slot a la Ryan Broyles. With tweaking and perfection, this could be deadly.

Another thing most Sooners were looking forward to was seeing if Blake Bell’s passing game had improved any. We all know the “Belldozer” is effective, but the Sooners need for a backup QB to be multi-dimensional is a must. He threw a couple dangerous balls, which against a full-speed defense, would have been ended up in a possible pick-six. The improvement was there, but still a LOT to work on over the Summer. Drew Allen got some reps in along with Kendal Thompson. Thompson has some wheels on him, he found his way out of trouble more than once. Granted it was against second and third team defenses, but his speed is something that stuck out.

Brennan Clay had quite a few carries yesterday at running back. He had the most rushing yards out of the RB corps. Danzel Williams also had a decent showing, and Roy Finch had a nice sideline run, where the sideline was the only defender left that he hadn’t got passed; the sideline won. It also helped that improvements on the offensive line in blocking were helping the backs find the holes.

» Continue reading “Sooner Spring Game: The Calm After The Storm(s)”

Sophomore WR Kenny Stills

After a much needed week of rest, the Sooners are back in action this coming Saturday against Baylor. This begins the Sooners final 3 game stretch and their last shot at BCS title game contention.

This also marks the first game without WR Ryan Broyles. The Sooners have set Dejuan Miller to replace Broyles and join up with Kenny Still and Jaz Reynolds in the starting line-up. And Kenny Stills says he is ready for the challenge of replacing his mentor, Broyles.

I always put together clips of Ryan and the stuff he’s done. I just hope to duplicate those things and try to make plays like him. I feel like he’s been preparing me for this since I got here. I have to take advantage of the opportunity.

The biggest challenge for the Sooners on Saturday is going to be containing that Bears offense, which is one of the best in the country. QB Robert Griffin III and his main target, Kendall Wright are an offensive force not to be taken lightly.

Oklahoma will be facing another running QB; Griffin has 478 yards rushing and leads the Big XII in completion percentage with 74.2. Kendall Wright has 1073 yards with 81 receptions and 9 touchdowns, but has been down the last couple games, without scoring once.

Baylor started off the season very strong, but things have taken the typical Baylor turn and things have started to decline for the Bears. The mid-season meltdown is in full effect. They went into overtime last week with Kansas, a team they should have easily beaten with their offensive talent, and came back from a 21-point deficit to beat them 31-30. Silver-lining for the Bears is that they have won the last 5 home games, averaging 49 points per game.

Offensively, these teams are very evenly matched and would expect to be an offensive slugfest. This is when the Sooner defense needs to step it up.

Even though Baylor is 6-3, Griffin has been putting up outstanding numbers. Oklahoma’s defense will need to put pressure on from the start. It can’t be one of those 1st half Sooner slumps they have been putting on the last couple games. Sleepwalking in the first half and then turning it on for the second. If they allow Baylor to score early and often in the first half, it will be a battle to catch up in the second.

Baylor has never beaten Oklahoma, but this is the team with the talent to do it. If Oklahoma wants to stay in the Chase for 8, they need to execute and execute early.

The game is scheduled for a 7:00 CST kick-off and is going to be televised on ABC regionally.

The ESPNU All-Access special kicked off Monday highlighting the Oklahoma Sooners football team through their preseason workouts. The show takes fans through meetings, practices, and an inside look at Coach Bob Stoops.

ESPNU will be running new episodes everyday this week except for Wednesday.

And in case you missed the first episode, and have an extra 25 minutes or so, I have added the first show below. Just have to say;I love Kenny Stills hair. And Stoops’ compliance meeting was fantastic.

Boomer!