Published: September 14, 2005 01:28 am            

John Shinn's Oklahoma Football Notepad

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops expects running back Adrian Peterson to play Saturday at UCLA, but hasn’t decided if he will start.

Peterson was suspended from practice Monday and Tuesday after violating an athletic department rule against skipping classes.

“At this point, we anticipate him playing,” Stoops said. “Start or not depends on how we feel practice is going, what we feel we need to do. Depending on what further happens from here, we’ll see.”

Peterson rushed for 220 yards in the Sooners’ 31-15 victory over Tulsa last Saturday and has scored all four of OU’s touchdowns this season.

Stoops has raved about everything the sophomore Heisman Trophy contender has done that relates to football, but added there’s more to playing at OU than producing on the field.

“I’m going to tell you there is not a guy who goes at it harder in the weight room in the summer and on the field.” Stoops said. “You watch him, the way he plays determined. But there are other parts of what we do here as college students and on a college team that also need to be fulfilled.”

By design

OU was expected to utilize its quarterbacks’ abilities to run this season. Yet, for the most part, that hasn’t happened.

Both Stoops and offensive coordinator Chuck Long said that was no accident.

“As far as quarterback-designed runs, that’s just not something we’ve worked to yet,” Stoops said. “Last week, you have an opportunity to give it to Adrian Peterson or have your quarterback just run it. We ran it plenty.”

Will that change when the Sooners face UCLA in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.?

It might, but it’s not the biggest issue on the offense’s radar. Figuring out a way to effectively throw the ball is a bigger issue.

“Though that’s going to continue to be developed, the other areas of throwing the ball are, to me, what are more pressing,” Stoops said.



No regrets

One has to wonder who would be starting at quarterback if Tommy Grady hadn’t elected to transfer to Utah in August.

Grady was expected to compete with Bomar and Paul Thompson for the starting job, but was left on the outside looking in when he had to take an intercession class and missed preseason practices.

“I’m not much on looking back on what might have been,” Stoops said. “I will say all along we had confidence in Tommy. As I said last week, we never had a pecking order coming into the season. Even though the media did, that wasn’t us, because we saw the potential in him.

“That situation’s done and these guys are good guys. We’ve got to continue to work with them in better ways, and they have to continue to stay positive and work, too.”



Taking the heat

The offensive line took a lot of criticism for OU’s season-opening loss to TCU. The unit played better against Tulsa.

Center Chris Chester was asked if the criticism had anything to do with the offensive line playing better against the Golden Hurricane.

“We take this all in stride as a team because we know that if there is one thing wrong with the offense, then we all play a part in it,” Chester said. “We know that we all have our part to play in order for everything to work.”



Underdogs

The Sooners are already seven-point underdogs to the Bruins, a rare position for OU.

Running back Kejuan Jones said there’s an upside to the situation.

“Being the underdog is helping a little this year because people know we aren’t going to come out and blow teams out every game,” he said. “We know that we have to play four quarters, so it kind of feels good to be the underdog … To be able to come out and sneak up on teams now is going to be pretty exciting.”



Props to Freeby

Punter Cody Freeby had a huge game against Tulsa, averaging 50 yards on five attempts. One of his boots went for 70 yards. His last punt went 57.

Freeby, who had to fight off Mike Knall for the starting spot in the preseason, was the Sooners’ special teams player of the week.

“Cody Freeby and his punts were excellent,” Stoops said. “He changed the field position a number of times, which was big.”

        

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