| 04 January 2010
2009 Offense Season Recap
A season that started with such promise ended as quickly with one play in the new JerryWorld Death Star Stadium . Sitting in the stands when Sam got crunched, it was literally watching a nightmare unfold. Now, I've seen Sooner QBs go down in games in my short history being a Sooner fan, I was unfortunately there for Jamelle's knee versus OSU in 1987. I saw Jerome Brown break Troy Aikman's leg in 1985. I even was there when Charles Thompson broke his two legs against NU in 1988 (didn't realize at the time that would be CT's last play as a Sooner). I was even there for Jason White's second knee injury against Bama in 2002. But this injury seemed very different. It was the first game, and you knew that OU's backup was completely green, and OU had a very tough schedule facing them.
If there are any parallels I guess it's the loss of Thompson going into the 1989 season, the Sooners were completely unprepared for the loss, and had to start a Redshirt Freshman QB way ahead of schedule.
So let's start this season recap position by position with QB where OU's season of chaos started and continued.
QB:
OU started the season with arguably the best passing QB in college football. There were lots of questions about OU's offense, but Sam and to a very large degree Jermaine Gresham were the known qualities that were going to stabilize things while the new players got into form. Well with slightly under 30 minutes of football played, OU's offensive gameplan for the year got shredded completely (Jermaine's official loss for the year waited 4 more days to arrive).
Looking back in many ways, Landry and rest of the team might have been better off if Sam had had surgery immediately and was knocked out for the year.
Instead, we were left with the Sam watch for the next 4 weeks. Landry played well against just plain awful Idaho State (although the penchant for locking into Ryan Broyles was glaring early), and set records against Tulsa (which was awful the rest of the year, but early September that win looked very good). The OU coaches almost seemed to hold Sam for UT instead of playing him at Miami. The Miami game was the first real sign of trouble for Landry. Once he lost Broyles to an injury it almost seemed like the coaches lost the confidence to let him attack the Miami secondary.
Sam returned for a pretty meaningless effort against a Baylor demoralized by the loss of Robert Griffith, and then appeared ready for Texas.
Sam played one series leading to a FG, and then got slammed into the turf again ending his season. After starting two games, then sitting for a game, Landry was back on the field as the OU starting QB.
It's hard to pin the UT game loss on Landry. He did threw one questionable INT and one plain awful INT, but really with a limited Broyles and no running game at all Landry was overmatched against a good UT defense.
The rest of the season was really a roller coaster for Landry with his play wildly changing home to away. The double nadir was the NU game where Landry had perhaps the worst QB game ever under Bob (5 INTs consistently overthrowing WRs even when there was no pressure), and then the Tech game where Landry could not generate any effective offense to keep OU in the game if their Defense decided to show up.
Landry's stats compared to Sam's freshman year factoring in the massive difference in talent at WR, TE, and OL look very good. They look great.
The problem is that Landry's feasted on horrible competition without a great game against a ranked team or away from Norman. In addition, the same problems that he had early in the year were continuing to show up late. The growth progression curve seemed to be stalled out.
Fortunately, other than a bone headed INT against Stanford that let them back in the game (when it appeared that OU was about to go up 14-0). Landry played an excellent game against Stanford correcting some of his previous repeated mistakes (the biggest one being stepping up into the pocket to complete throws) and found a variety of WRs other than Broyles to make plays. His improved play after a month of bowl practice lends some credence to the belief that with a full offseason knowing that he can be the starter that Landry can be a much improved QB for OU's opener in 2010.
RB:
This position really after Landry/Jermaine got hurt should have been a strength for the Sooners to ride with a new QB. Instead, he running game all year was unreliable and weak.
Chris Brown without the Sooner OL of the last year 3 years seemed to be tentative and was consistently missing the gaps that were there.
Demarco Murray seemed to be the better of the two RBs and provided a much needed boost as a WR out of the backfield. Murray was OU's second leading WR with over 500 yards.
Both RBs managed to grind out over 700 yards rushing, but at a very pedestrian 4.1 yards per carry each (down from 5.6 yards).
Without Sam scaring them, teams loaded up to stop the run and make Landry beat them. It looks like Murray will leave early, along with Brown graduating leaving the RB position wide open this spring and fall.
Both Jonathan Miller and Jermie Calhoun provided glimpses of what they might provide next year, but they really only got carries in scrub time (amazingly both managing to out earn Murray/Brown on a per carry average while the Sooners were running out the clock).
A really frustrating year from the Sooner running game, the Sooners basically with a stacked hand all season that they couldn't get to play.
WR:
If not for Ryan Broyles, it's questionable whether OU would have won 6 games this year. In addition, a full game from Ryan Broyles versus Miami and a healthy Broyles versus Texas might have been enough to turn those two very close games into Sooner wins.
Just how good was Broyles this year, his receiving yardage represented 30% of OU's total passing yardage. Broyles receiving total was over 700 yards better than the next WR (Dajuan Miller). Broyles eclipsed the 1000 yard mark to be put himself in some great company with Mark Clayton and Juaquin Iglesias, in fact with close to 1800 yards total Broyles if he stays 4 years has a great shot at Mark Clayton's career mark of 3241.
Unfortunately, as good as Broyles was the rest of the WR core was a mess of inconsistencies in particular dropped passes. Adron Tennell was widely believed to be the answer as a WR compliment to Broyles. Tennell dropped passes, didn't compete for passes, and pretty much got nailed to the bench after giving up on a pass that become the INT which allowed NU to score their only touchdown. Early on, it looked like Brandon Caleb might be the answer, but injuries and inconsistency led to him not really being a factor in the second half of the season.
Dajuan Miller at times appeared to be the answer, then would seemingly disappear from the WR rotation.
Cameron Keeney showed a nice start, but consistently was letting the ball get to his body and dropping passes (two huge passes in the end zone to Keeney against UT made Sooner fans wish that Dajuan Miller had been in the game instead.)
Jaz Reynolds showed some early flashes then got hurt, then end of the year showed some burst again.
Clearly, a veteran WR core would have helped Landry greatly.
Just like the QB position, there were very positive signs at the Sun Bowl from the WR core beyond the great game that Broyles had. Miller had a very good game and Jaz Reynolds made a number of clutch move the chain catches. And that 3 player rotation at WR got the majority of the reps. No drops and improved route running also were evident from Miller and Reynolds. Just a very clean game overall from the WR core.
TE/FB
As bad as losing Sam was, in many ways losing Gresham was five times worse. OU didn't even have anyone close to Landry's level ready to replace Gresham.
James Hanna couldn't get off the bench, and basically looks like a big WR. Brody Eldridge is not really a pass receiving TE, at least not in a flexed TE look like Gresham and was badly needed to shore up OU's OL disaster.
So OU went from having Eldridge/Gresham at TE to James Ratterree 6-3, 225, walkon.
The loss of a TE crippled OU's red zone attack, really limited OU's power sets (especially OU's ability to flex from power set to spread set in the no huddle). Finally, Gresham's probably could have been the other safety blanket for Landry in the passing game where Gresham was a consistent coverage mismatch.
OU's usually reliable FB Matt Clapp got hurt early with a broken wrist, reducing his blocking and receiving ability to basically nothing.
All these injuries killed the productivity of a position that generated nearly a 1000 receiving yards down to 200 yards.
Now, like QB/WR. TE had a good bowl game where Ratterree made several clutch catches (nearly half of the TE receiving yards for the year came in the Sun Bowl), and there is a wave of talented help on the way to the position.
OL
So OU's starting OL for the BYU game was from left to right
Jarvis Joseph/Tyler Evans/Brody Eldridge/Brian Simmons/Trent Williams
for the UT game it was
Jarvis Joseph/Stephen Good/Ben Habern/Brody Eldridge/Trent Williams
for the OSU game it was
Eric Mensik/Brian Simmons/Ben Lepak/Stephen Good/Corey Brandon
Finally for the Sun Bowl
Mensik/Simmons/Williams/Good/Brandon
OU started 12 different offensive lineman in 2009, and probably would have started more save for the fact that no one else was left save for two players redshirting.
BYU game was an absolute wholesale disaster where any sense of offensive progress was drowned in a morass of penalties and missed blocks.
Injuries kept shuffling different players into the lineup along with simple lack of execution.
OU started 4 different centers due to injuries.
Nowhere was there a bigger breakdown in development and coaching than at OL.
By Mid-Season OU was playing a vastly different OL lineup flushing away all of the development of 2009 during Spring practice and August camp.
There appears to be at least 7 critical problems/mistakes.
1. Not moving Mensik and Eldridge to OL during Spring Ball when it was clear depth, competition, and finally leadership were desperately missing. Given time to add weight and prepare for the move to OL both players could have been in the 285 to 290 range and ready to "save" the OL.
2. Not trying Brandon at LT earlier in the season and moving Trent back to his natural RT position. Williams struggled most of the year at LT while Brandon appears to be much more comfortable at LT.
3. Both young OL Habern and Good started the year hurt and never really had a chance to recover in season. Good lost significant weight/strength with an illness in September and Habern before his foot injury was never really healthy due to a bad back.
4. The midseason injury to Brian Simmons really destroyed any continuity that the oline had developed after the BYU debacle.
5. Both Jarvis Jones and Corey Brandon allegedly (or at least we were told) had fantastic August camps, then the season started and both guys were playing at a really low level.
6. Signing two fall enrollee JUCOs. Vinson is transferring without playing a down at OU and Jefferies got suspended during the season and found himself in the OL doghouse. OU badly need to have a JUCO OL in spring ball to provide some competition (OU's whole OL situation could have radically different if James Carpenter has chosen OU instead of starting for Bama). Instead of signing two JUCOs for fall, OU would have been better spent finding two HS OL to add overall depth to OL.
7. Attempting to run the no huddle scheme exclusively with a new OL rotation week in and week out. Especially in the BYU game it was clear that the run up to the line and wait approach used by OU was leading to false starts. In addition, the speed up to the line in the red zone rarely worked, and merely led to the OL getting stuffed on red zone runs. OU needed to be far more deliberate with this more inexperienced OL
The OL never really found a consistent run game push, but did in the second half of the year provide a good pass blocking base. Of course, the NU game the OL really got blitzed, but NU's front four has pretty much handled every OL that they have seen.
In hindsight, the OL should have been
LT: Eric Mensik after adding 20 pounds in the offseason or Corey Brandon
LG: Brody Eldridge after adding 20 pounds in the offseason
OC: Brian Lepak/Ben Habern
RG: Brian Simmons
RT: Trent Williams
