Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript
September 02, 2007 01:46 am
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T atum O’Neal in Paper Moon.
Led Zeppelin I.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Dr. No.
Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls.
Pearl Jam’s Ten.
Go ahead and just try naming a finer debut than the one Sam Bradford put together Saturday night against North Texas. That stuff at the top may be a little silly, but limiting the exercise to college football seems awfully stifling after all that transpired.
All Bradford did was complete the best statistical half ever by a Sooner quarterback. All he did was complete 91.3 percent of his passes. The not-so Mean Green may be the worst team in college football, and after Saturday, Todd Dodge has little room to argue, but Nolan Ryan in his prime struggled to find the strike zone 21 of 23 times, which just happened to be Bradford’s completions and attempts in his very first game of college football.
Shall we call him Slingin’ Sammy?
Shall the fervor created by OU’s 79-10 victory over North Texas only be referred to as Sammania?
Has a star ever been born this quickly on Owen Field?
Adrian Peterson ran for 100 yards on the nose against Bowling Green. Josh Heupel engineered a 49-0 victory over Indiana State. But that was the halftime score Saturday night.
Don’t even bring up the last redshirt freshman to start behind center at Oklahoma. Whatever his name was, Bradford had a better time hitting open receivers than that guy had receiving the snap. That guy proved so unreliable Bob Stoops was pulling his hair out after sticking to a second-half strategy of not throwing a single pass just to slip by Tulsa.
But not our man Sam.
Oh, no.
Our man Sam was rewriting the record book.
Our man Sam ushered in the longest mop-up quarterback session (for Joey Halzle) since Josh Heupel gave Bob Stoops no choice but to play Nate Hybl the entire second half at Baylor.
Our man Sam did absolutely nothing wrong.
Which just might be the thing.
So many of Bradford’s yards belonged to the receivers and what just might be the worst pass defense in America. (Don’t you know, in Denton, folks are saying it looked like a high school defense!) Indeed, the record-setting debut was set in motion by Bradford, but made so by Juaquin Iglesias, Malcolm Kelly and Jermaine Gresham.
Still, Bradford’s brilliance remains unclouded.
He completed 21 of 23 passes, which makes him accurate. He did not throw an interception, or even throw a pass that might have been intercepted, which makes him responsible. He threw four touchdown passes, which sure looks good in the boxscore. And more than once, if you were paying attention, he showed a few things no boxscore will ever record.
With 35 seconds to play in the first quarter, Bradford rolled right and liked none of his options. So he kept rolling and rolling and rolling. Surely he would throw the ball out of bounds. Instead, he threw a jump ball Malcolm Kelly caught about 10 yards downfield. It was ruled no play, the refs saying Kelly went out of bounds on his own before returning to make the catch. But the thing was, Bradford threw it where only Kelly could catch it, like turning nothing into something, even risk free.
Later, during the Sooners’ second drive of the second quarter, Bradford dropped back to pass and again saw little, so he dumped it off to DeMarco Murray for a gain of 6. But it was how he dropped it off, the essence of nonchalance, like he was tossing Murray his keys. You don’t get to look that disinterested doing the right thing without a boatload of confidence and seasoning beyond years.
Bradford’s last throw of the first half was a 24-yard touchdown pass to Kelly. Kelly was covered like a blanket by Mean Green corner Latif Nurudeen. Well, the yards and points are in the stats, but they can’t describe the quality of the toss. Nurudeen in Kelly’s pocket, and still the ball was delivered where Kelly could get it and Nurudeen could do nothing about it. It was a great catch, only made possible by a fantastic throw.
Heck, one of Bradford’s two carries went for a nifty 10 yards up the middle, and just about the time folks might have been wondering if he can throw the deep ball, he hit Kelly in stride down the right boundary for a 65-yard score.
Any questions?
Not really. Opening night, Sam Bradford had nothing but answers.
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com
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