Inside College Football

All's Not O.K.  

Preseason No. 1 Oklahoma suddenly has some major problems to fix

By Ivan Maisel

If second-ranked Oklahoma hopes to have any chance of winning its second national championship in three years, the rest of the team must catch up to the defense. The good news to come out of last Saturday's 37-27 victory over Alabama was that the Sooners' defense allowed the Crimson Tide only one drive longer than 39 yards. The bad news is that in other aspects of the game, Oklahoma looked average to poor. Among the major flaws Alabama exposed:

The Sooners turned to the steady but unspectacular Hybl (8) after White was hurt. John Biever

• A nonexistent running game. The Sooners finished with minus-23 rushing yards, the worst showing in school history. Oklahoma tried to rectify problems in its rushing game (119.4 yards per game last season) by hiring former Northwestern offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, who designed an attack to enable the team to run effectively out of the spread offense. After senior Quentin Griffin rushed for 237 yards against Tulsa in a 37-0 opening win on Aug. 30, it appeared that Wilson had done his job. On Saturday, however, the Crimson Tide defensive front dominated the line of scrimmage, sacking quarterbacks Jason White and Nate Hybl six times and limiting Griffin to three yards on nine carries. Wilson was particularly bothered by the Sooners' three three-and-out performances at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth.

• Uncertainty at quarterback. Oklahoma was expecting big things out of White, a junior, who missed five games with a torn left ACL last season. But late in the first quarter on Saturday he went down with a torn right ACL and is expected to miss the rest of the season. Hybl, a senior, performed ably, especially with the game on the line. Trailing 27-23, he led the Sooners on their only sustained drive of the day, going 80 yards to give them the lead for good with 2:11 to play. Hybl is steady, but he has slow feet and an average arm, and it's questionable whether the Sooners can win the title with him under center. Backing him up are three freshmen, the best of whom, redshirt Brent Rawls, is out for a month with torn ligaments in his right thumb.

• Holes on special teams. Alabama special teams coach Mark Tommerdahl noticed last week that Oklahoma left itself open to an onside kick. At a team meeting on Friday, coach Dennis Franchione announced that if the Crimson Tide opened the game kicking off, it would deploy the Gomer Pyle ("Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!"). Sure enough, the Tide won the toss, recovered an onside kick and made a field goal for a 3-0 lead. Alabama also blocked two punts -- returning one for a touchdown -- and a field goal and recovered a Sooners fumble on a kickoff. As a capper, the Crimson Tide executed a textbook fake field goal when holder Lane Bearden scored on a three-yard run with 10:16 left that gave Alabama a 24-23 lead.

Oklahoma showed the resilience of a champion by coming back against the Crimson Tide, which entered the game unranked. But will the Sooners have what it takes against better teams?

Issue date: September 16, 2002

For more Inside College Football see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, September 11. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

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