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Sooners Sloppily Defeat North Texas September 10, 2001 by Jason Waganer Executive Editor
Oh the growing pains. To put it simply, that's what the defending national champs are going through -- growing pains. The Sooners have a steadily improving quarterback, several true freshman making substantial contributions and a slew of redshirt freshman and sophomores getting their first real significant playing time. Let's face it, mistakes are inevitable.
The Sooners improvement was impressive from week one to week two. The defense stood up against Air Force and showed that it was capable of completely shutting down a pretty good Falcon offense. Then in week three, against a much weaker opponent, the defense gave way on several big plays and let the North Texas offense post some pretty decent numbers.
However, the North Texas game was probably just a mirage. After Co-Defensive Coordinators Brent Venables and Mike Stoops get their attention again this week, the defense should return to its superb play.
Individually, Rocky Calmus and Roy Williams have definitely lived up to their billing. Calmus has had 33 tackles so far this season, five of which have been for losses and he's had one sack and forced a couple of turnovers. Williams has had 29 tackles, five for a loss, one sack and has also forced several turnovers. If the two stay healthy, the Sooners defense should continue to be on the nation's best.
Offensively, the Sooners moved the ball up and down the field at ease against North Texas (something it didn't necessarily do in the first two games). However, mistakes and missed third down conversions caused the scoring output to be poor. When a team posts 543 total yards and only 37 points, its pretty obvious mistakes were plentiful.
Starting Quarterback Nate Hybl continues to progress. Although he still continues to miss some apparent wide open opportunities down field, Hybl seems to be getting comfortable in the pocket and had a very nice game statistically last Saturday night. He had some pretty Heupel-like numbers going 28 for 40 for 350 yards with two TD passes, one TD run and one interception. Some may blame him for some of OU's offensive problems in the first two games, but against North Texas Hybl had a very good performance.
The one area the Sooners need the most improvement on offensively is third down conversions. So far, the Sooners have only made 10 of 39 third down attempts. That's only a 26 percent third down efficiency level. . That's not an acceptable percentage for a team hoping to repeat as National Champions.
On the positive side, the Sooners are outscoring their opponents by more than 28 points per game and Hybl is completing 62 percent of his passes. And Quentin Griffin, the offensive MVP so far this season, is averaging 168.6 all-purpose yards per game (113.3 on the ground and 55.3 in the air).
Overall, the North Texas game was a wake up call for a team that Bob Stoops says right now is "not very good." Compared to last October or last January, the Sooners probably aren't very good right now. But those are very high standards and an unfair comparison. The Sooners are young and steadily improving. Let's wait and compare the Sooners this October to last and this January to last.
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