ARLINGTON, Texas —
If Oklahoma was going to have any chance to win the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, it was going to need to score touchdowns. It didn’t in the 41-13 loss to Texas A&M.
Having to settle for field goals on its first two possessions after long drives kept the Sooners from seizing the early momentum. Both times, they drove inside the Aggies’ 10-yard line, but settled for two field goals.
“The two drives early, certainly against an explosive team like this, you want to be able to put up seven points instead of three. Threes all night aren’t going to be good enough,” OU offensive coordinator Josh Heupel said.
OU’s opening drive told the story of the night. It had two shots with Blake Bell’s short-yardage package from the Texas A&M 3-yard line. Bell was stuffed for no gain and threw away a pass when fullback Jaydan Bird was covered on third down.
“They kind of outplayed us up in there, didn’t allow us to score,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “How much that would have helped, who knows. Still, only gives you a few more points at half.”
The only success OU had in the red zone was at the end of the first half. Quarterback Landry Jones hit Justin Brown for a 7-yard touchdown on a third-down scramble.
The Sooners never reached the red zone in the second half.
Sooners must get better up front
The misery Oklahoma experienced Saturday night wasn’t scarring. It takes something unexpected to cause that kind of shock to the system.
Seeing Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel run from end to end of Cowboys Stadium wasn’t stunning, considering the Sooners’ troubles stopping the run this season.
The 41-13 loss to the Aggies in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic was simply a final exam in a subject OU had been flunking throughout the second half of the season.
“We’ve got to make improvements in all areas, run defense, pass defense, pressures, whatever we’re doing,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “But again, some of it, too, our players have got to make some improvements. We had guys in position a bunch of times today to make plays, and they didn’t make them. The schemes and that kind of stuff only goes so far. Bottom line, it comes down to when you get opportunities to execute, you got to execute.”
It was crystal clear Friday night that OU’s defensive line was overmatched by Texas A&M. Manziel had an endless amount of time to throw and holes big enough to drive a truck through. Defensive ends R.J. Washington and Chuka Ndulue and tackles David King, Casey Walker and Jamarkus McFarland didn’t get off blocks and never came close to collapsing the pocket.
It wasn’t an oddity.
OU had 25 sacks this season with defensive linemen registering just 15.5 of the them. More telling was the tackles for loss total. OU had 55 this season with defensive linemen grabbing 25 of them. The Sooners averaged 37.8 sacks per season and 102.2 tackles for loss per season from 2007-11.
Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops hinted at the problem in the days leading up to the Cotton Bowl. The Sooners lack a down lineman that’s a consistent playmaker.
“We’ve just been kind of a group up front. We haven’t had a Tommie Harris, a Dan Cody-type of player up front,” he said. “It’s probably why we’re not like we were in some of the years we really excelled. Up front is a big part of the game.”
One of the calling cards of OU’s great defenses has been dominant defensive linemen. This season, the Sooners didn’t have a first-team All-Big 12 defensive lineman for the first time since 1999.
What should scare OU fans is that with the exception of Ndulue, the defensive linemen used most of the season were seniors. If OU had better options, they would have been on the field.
OU got away with it in the first half of the season. By November, teams figured out spreading out the Sooners and running the ball was something they couldn’t handle.
“People started picking up on what we were doing. I think one thing was when we first came into the season a lot of people weren’t ready for what we were running,” said safety Javon Harris, who had one of OU’s few Cotton Bowl highlights with a second quarter interception. “We ran a lot man (coverage). A lot of teams just spread us out. When we started facing running quarterbacks, you have to account for them … Once you start spreading out, there’s a lot of gaps open, a lot of lanes open.”
The Sooners have the offseason to try to correct the problem. Perhaps an influx of defensive talent will arrive next month on signing day.
If it doesn’t, OU’s defense will get exposed like it did throughout the final month of the regular season and Friday night.
Stadium issues: Friday night’s game was the third for OU in Cowboys Stadium and it is now 1-2 following a 14-13 loss to BYU (Sept. 5, 2009) and a 23-20 victory over Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship Game (Dec. 4, 2010).
The win was the Aggies’ first in Cowboys Stadium. They’d lost their previous four games there.
Going out with a boot: Punter Tress Way played his last collegiate game on Friday. The senior did leave a very strong impression with NFL scouts.
Way had five punts (all in the second half). Only one of those punts was returned and it netted a 2-yard loss. Three of the five were downed inside the 20-yard line and the five boots averaged 49.4 yards.
Didn’t happen often: The Sooners were the first team to score in the first quarter against Texas A&M since Ole Miss in the fifth game of the season. In the previous eight games, the Aggies had outscored their opponents 120-3.
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For Sooners, field goals weren't going to get job done against A&M
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Central Oklahoma softballers make World Series again
Hayley Hudson gave Central Oklahoma a 5-4 lead with a run-scoring single in the fifth inning and the No. 19-ranked Bronchos staved off a seventh-inning Winona State threat to capture the NCAA Division II Central Super Regional championship Saturday afternoon at Edmond North High School.
The Warriors put two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the seventh in a bid to pull out a late win and force a deciding game in the best-of-three series, but left fielder Devyn Frazier made a running catch in foul territory for the final out to set off a wild celebration on the field.
UCO improved to 47-11 — a school-record for wins — with its 23th consecutive home victory and advanced to the Division II World Series for the second straight year. The Bronchos will face Armstrong Atlantic in the eight-team World Series at 11 a.m. Thursday in Salem, Va.
“I’d say that was a nail-biter,” head coach Genny Stidham said. “It was a good game, both teams played well. Winona has a great team and they didn’t give up, but we came up with some big plays and came out on top. -
Central Oklahoma golf coach picks up award
Central Oklahoma’s Michael Bond has been named the NCAA Division II Central Region Coach of the Year by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association, with Aly Seng and Erica Bensch both earning All-Central Region honors.
Bond led the Bronchos to perhaps the best season in school history in 2012-13 with top-five finishes in 10 of their 12 tournaments. UCO won three titles, including the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association crown and its first-ever regional championship, and finished 10th in the Division II national tournament. -
Workman's blast cranks UCO's engine; Bronchos cruise to 5-2 win
Nicole Workman’s solo home run gave Central Oklahoma a lead it would never relinquish and the No. 19-ranked Bronchos went on to topple Winona State 5-2 in the first game of the NCAA Division II Central Super Regional Friday night at the Edmond North High School Softball Complex.
Workman blasted her 14th homer of the season to lead off the second inning, with UCO adding three runs in the third and one more in the fifth to take a commanding 5-0 lead before the Warriors created some anxious moments in their final at bat.
WSU scored two runs and had runners on second and third on with just one out in the top of the seventh, but Kalynn Shrock got the final two batters to close out her fourth straight complete-game outing of the postseason and put the Bronchos in control of the best-of-three series. -
Richters rip competition at KickingBird
The KickingBird 2-man scramble was won by Jeff and Josh Richter, finishing with a 57.9 on May 11.
Jeff Jester and Kevin Wright wrapped up second-place honors with a 59.9 and Rick Morales and Ronnie Roberts placed third (60.1).
In the second flight, the top score was 60.4 by Jerry Bernhardt and Ted Carter. Picking up silver was the tandem of Jerry Fuller and Ramona Jacobi (61.2) and the third-place squad was Dyke Hoppe and Mark VanSickle at 62.0.
Morales was closest to the pin on No. 6 and Jeff Richter landed a dart on hole 14. -
Eagles' season finished; Lopez earns national honor
Southeastern, Fla. eliminated Oklahoma Christian 4-0 om the National Christian College Athletic Association World Series in Mason, Ohio today to advance to the tournament semifinals, while OC closes at 26-26.
OC would have advanced to the semifinals with a win, but completed a terrific turnaround from an 8-34 season in 2012. The Eagles made only the second national-tournament appearance in the program's history, with the other coming in 1972, when OC finished third in the NAIA World Series. -
Multiple baseball camps offered in Edmond
Edmond Schools baseball coaches Kyle Roberts (Edmond Memorial), Jeff Shafer (Edmond Santa Fe) and Karl King (Edmond North) will instruct the Edmond All-Star Baseball Camps starting May 28 at Edmond North High School.
A pair of all-skills camps will take place for kids ages 5 and older from May 28-31 and June 3-6. Times are the same, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
On June 7, a pitcher/catcher camp will be offered for ages 8 and older with the identical time frame. Cost is $35 for the pitcher/catcher camp and $125 for the all-skills camp.
For further inquiries, contact Karl King at 863-3570. -
Arthur Hills eating up Bronchos
Central Oklahoma’s struggles continued at the NCAA Division II Women’s Golf Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla. Friday.
The Bronchos made 10 double bogeys and two triple bogeys en route to a season-high 329 score on the rugged 6,228-yard, par-72 Arthur Hills Legends Course at LPGA International, leaving UCO in 10th place with a three-round total of 975.
Nova Southeastern has an 881 total heading into Saturday’s final round, giving the four-time defending champion Sharks a one-shot lead over second-place Lynn. -
Bronchos will make 12th appearance in national golf championship Monday
No. 18-ranked Central Oklahoma will make its 12th appearance in the NCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championships in Hershey, Pa. next week.
The 54-hole stroke play portion of the tournament runs Monday-Wednesday at the 7,061-yard, par-71 Hershey Country Club East Course, with the top-eight teams from the 20-team field advancing to match play. -
Online registration for 2013 UCO Endeavor Games now open
Registration is now open online for athletes and volunteers for the 2013 University of Central Oklahoma Endeavor Games, June 6-9, the nation’s largest multi-sport event for athletes with physical disabilities.
Athletes of all ages or sporting experience are invited to register for the event. Community members are also encouraged to register to volunteer with more than 300 volunteer opportunities available.
Similar to the summer Paralympic Games, athletes may register for multiple adaptive sports, which include cycling, indoor archery, outdoor archery, powerlifting, sitting volleyball, shooting, table tennis, track and field, wheelchair basketball, and, for the first time at the UCO Endeavor Games, paratriathlon. The paratriathlon will be limited to athletes over the age of 16 with previous paratriathlon experience. -
Deer Creek drops Carl Albert again for state title
They did it again.
The Deer Creek girls soccer team knocked off rival Carl Albert in the Class 5A state soccer title game for the second consecutive season.
The Lady Antlers, led by freshman Lauren Haivala’s two goals, topped the Titans 2-1 May 10 at Noble High School.
On May 7, Deer Creek blanked Tulsa Edison 2-zip in the semifinals for a chance to play for its fourth state championship in girls soccer. - More Sports Headlines
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