Sooners Sharp In First Spring Scrimmage

March 13, 2003

Norman, Okla. - Spring break starts this weekend for University of Oklahoma students, but the Sooner football team showed so sign of looking forward to the fun and sun in wrapping up the first week of spring practice, Thursday.

OU held a 103-play scrimmage in front of approximately 4,500 fans at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and head coach Bob Stoops pronounced it a success.

"I'm extremely pleased," he said. "There was a lot of good, sharp play and we got a lot in on both offense and defense. The best thing is that nobody got hurt. That's always the best thing."

Oklahoma punched in four touchdowns. The longest was a 65-yard pass from Noah Allen to Brandon Jones. Two of the scoring plays covered six yards, a run by Donta Hickson and a pass from Paul Thompson to Richard Allen. The final score came on a 10-yard pass from Allen to Jones.

Thompson, who completed eight straight at one point, also had a 65-yard toss to Ataleo Ford that set up his scoring toss to Allen.

OU completed 26-of-44 passes for 347 yards. Quarterback Jason White sat out the scrimmage waiting for final clearance as he returns from knee surgery. That left Allen, Brent Rawls and Thompson to take snaps. Allen was 10-of-21 for 138 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Thompson hit on 9-of-12 passes for 141 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions and Rawls completed 7-of-12 for 68 yards with one interception.

"For as little time as they've had out here, I thought all of the quarterbacks managed well," Stoops said.

Brandon Jones had the most catches and yards with five grabs for 104 yards and two touchdowns. Travis Wilson caught four balls for 38 yards and Mark Clayton had two for 46.

On the day, the Sooner running backs carried 48 times for 229 yards. Estus picked up 77 yards on 15 carries, while Kejuan Jones had 62 on 10 rushes. Renaldo Works had 14 carries for 45 yards and Hickson had nine attempts for 45 yards. All four of the running backs who carried the ball had at least one run of 10 yards with the longest being a 32-yarder by Jerad Estus.

"The backs ran hard and the line played well," Stoops said. "This is going to be far and away our best line. We'll have a good ability to run the ball."

Lance Mitchell was the leading tackler with 12. Teddy Lehman, Jason Carter and Brodney Pool all had seven. OU had five sacks, including two by Brandon Shelby. Antonio Perkins had the lone interception, while Larry Birdine was credited with a fumble recovery. The Sooners batted down six passes, including two each by Matt McCoy and Mark Bradley.

Statistics

Rushing: Estus 15-77, K. Jones 10-62, Works 14-45, Hickson 9-45.

Passing: Allen 10-21-0-2-138; Rawls 7-12-1-0-68; Thompson 9-12-0-141-1.

Receiving: B. Jones 5-104, Wilson 4-38, Allen 3-25, Estus 3-17, Clayton 2-46, Rankins 2-15, Works 2-12, Ford 1-65, Donley 1-6, K. Jones 1-12, Moses 1-5, Runnels 1-2, Ekuri 1-0.

Tackles: Mitchell 12, Carter 7, Lehman 7, Pool 7, Nicholson 4, Poteat 4, Shelby 4, Thompson 4, Chambers 3, Cody 3, Sacheck 3, Alexander 2, Bradley 2, Birdine 2, Dennison 2, Hager 2, Hulsey 2, McCoy 2, Latimer 2, Perkins 2, Sublet 2, Allen 1, Crump 1, Harris 1, Jackson 1, Strait 1.

Field Goals: DiCarlo -- 33 (g), 44 (g), 37 (g), 23 (g); Sarubbi -- 33 (g), 33 (g), 37 (g), 44 (g); Fanuzzi -- 33 (n), 37 (n), 44 (g).

Scoring Plays

Donta Hickson 6-yard run. Richard Allen 6-yard pass from Paul Thompson. Brandon Jones 65-yard pass from Noah Allen. Brandon Jones 10-yard pass from Noah Allen.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Sharp In First Spring Scrimmage

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