Random observations gleaned from an evening spent above Owen Field.

Because if you’re looking for fantastic dead-on insight, you need to understand a couple things.

These scrimmages tell us less than you think about this consensus top 10 team that continues to split its quarterback reps between three guys, that really likes its defense, especially its reshuffled secondary and that seems to have about three too many talented running backs for the number of balls allowed in play at any one time; after all, it’s not like any of genius media folk ever looked back after one of Bob Stoops quartet’s worth of Big 12 titles and said, “You know, it was all right there in that preseason scrimmage.”

• Hard to know what it amounts to, but Ryan Broyles, Norman’s own, is seeing the field in darn near every series. That’s right, it’s Broyles back there, fielding just about every punt, shuffling a couple times for his own amusement before handing the ball to a nearby official.

We’re not allowed to speak to freshmen (why, exactly, is great question), but has there ever been a more no-win position? Broyles can’t return the punt, show us his stuff and excite a hometown crowd. All he can do is drop it.

He didn’t.

Hey, at least he’s on the field.

Bully for Broyles.

• I still like Sam Bradford to win the job, a conviction first arrived at after watching the spring game and thinking only this kid seems to project the confidence everybody’s hoping to see and have in their quarterback.

On the other hand, it was Keith Nichol making the play drawing the most oohs and aahs from the pancho-clad fans inside the stadium, hitting Manuel Johnson with a Jason-White-right-in-stride strike for a 53-yard score.

A defining throw?

Is there such a thing?

As good as it gets, at least.

Bradford came back with a pair of touchdown passes to Adron Tennell, a 34- and 17-yarder, yet both belonged to the receiver more than thrower.

• Just thinking about it, if it’s not Bradford’s job, what’s next for Sam? Does the Sooner Nation hold anything for the Putnam North product then? Not for that reason, though it’s enticing, it remains hard to think an extra year in the system won’t eventually be worth starting the season opener.