Notes from 2005 Spring Football Guide

NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma will begin spring practice on Tuesday, March 22, at 3:30 p.m. Head coach Bob Stoops moved practice back one day from the originally scheduled Monday start.

This week's schedule also includes practices on Wednesday and Thursday.

With the volatile spring weather in Oklahoma, it is imperative that fans planning on observing practices and scimmages monitor SoonerSports.com. The latest adjustments to the schedule including dates and times will be released as soon as possible. SoonerSports.com will also post practice reports, photo galleries and exclusive O-Zone videos for the 2005 spring football season.

2005 Spring Football Central | Outlook | Notes | Offense | Defense

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2005
Oklahoma will play six of the 11 games at home with one, the Texas contest, at its typical neutral site of Dallas.
The Big 12 portion of the slate, in terms of opponents, has not changed from a year ago.
The non-conference slate is new and the game at UCLA represents OU's first non-league game away from Norman (regular season) since a 2003 trip to Alabama.
A total of 40 lettermen return. Twenty-four were lost.
There are 17 players on the team who have starting experience. Those break down to eight on offense, seven on defense and two specialists. The Sooners lost a total of 21 starters -- eight on offense, seven on defense and four on special teams.
The largest class on this team is the senior and group with 25. There are 15 juniors, 19 redshirt freshmen and 24 true freshmen.

THE POLLS
OU has finished No. 3 in each of the last two season-ending polls.
Oklahoma has been ranked among the top three teams in the nation in 29 straight polls.
The Sooners have fallen out of the top 10 only once since Oct. 7, 2000. That happened after a loss to Oklahoma State in the 2001 finale. OU rebounded to win the Cotton Bowl over Arkansas and moved from No. 11 to No. 6.
OU has been No. 1 for 22 weeks of Bob Stoops' tenure. The Sooners are tied with Notre Dame for the all-time lead for most weeks as the Associated Press' top-ranked team -- 95.

AWARDS CANDIDATES
Oklahoma has won several of college football's most prestigious awards over the last five seasons. Excluding the Heisman, Maxwell and Camp, which are presented to the top player regardless of position, here is a look at those Sooners who are preseason candidates for position-specific awards in 2005 ...
Rufus Alexander (Butkus -- top linebacker)
Dusty Dvoracek (Lombardi, Outland -- top lineman)
Adrian Peterson (Doak Walker -- top running back)
Davin Joseph (Lombardi, Outland -- top lineman)
Travis Wilson (Biletnikoff-- top receiver)

TOUTS FROM '04
Oklahoma won its 39th conference championship last season, its third in Bob Stoops' six seasons.
Last season marked the third time in Stoops' six seasons that the Sooners played for the BCS national championship. OU claimed the crown in 2000.
Oklahoma featured five All-Americans (Jammal Brown, Vince Carter, Mark Clayton, Dan Cody and Adrian Peterson).
Oklahoma captured four of the most presitgious awards in college football. Jason White won the Maxwell (top player), O'Brien (top quarterback) and Unitas (top senior QB) awards, while Jammal Brown won the Outland Trophy (top lineman).
n The Sooners produced the No. 2 and No. 3 finishers in the Heisman balloting in RB Adrian Peterson and QB Jason White, respectively. it was the highest cumulative finish ever posted by a pair of teammates and the highest finish ever by a freshman (Peterson).
It was the fourth season in school history with at least 12 wins -- all under Stoops. To put that in perspective, Oklahoma won a total of 12 games combined over the three seasons prior to Stoops' arrival.
Playing against a schedule that featured six bowl teams, the 2004 Sooners became the 11th OU team since 1938 to finish the regular season unbeaten and untied.
Oklahoma was unbeaten in conference play for the 27th time in its history.
OU went unbeaten against non-league foes for the fifth time in Bob Stoops' six seasons.
The Sooners finished 6-0 to mark the 31st time that they have completed a home season with an unblemished mark.

OKLAHOMA ESSENTIALS
Oklahoma has won seven national championships (1950, 1955, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1985 and 2000) ... the Sooners have 38 bowl appearances and 23 bowl victories ... Oklahoma ranks No. 8 in all-time victories with 747, but No. 1 since WWII with 505 ... OU's all-time winning percentage of .726 ranks No. 3 nationally ... The Sooners rank No. 4 nationally with 619 weeks in the AP poll ... OU has a total of 95 weeks at No. 1 (tied for first with Notre Dame) ... Oklahoma has produced 141 All-Americans and 55 national award winners.

ABOUT THE SOONER OFFENSE
Under Bob Stoops, OU has produced its career leader in passing and receiving, while also turning out the fourth-leading rusher in school history and the school record holder for single season rushing yards.
OU has scored at least one touchdown in 81 consecutive games dating back to Nov. 7, 1998.
Under Stoops, OU has rushed for 200 yards 23 times, including 18 over the last four seasons.
Also under Stoops, OU has 85 touchdowns of 25 yards or longer and 197 scoring drives that lasted less than two minutes.

A.D. 2005
A look at Oklahoma sophomore running back Adrian Peterson ...
Last season, Peterson carried 339 times for 1,925 yards. His number of attempts ranked No. 1 in the nation, while his net total was No. 3.
During the off-season he had surgery on his left shoulder, which precluded his participation in spring practice. He is expected back at full strength when the August workouts begin.
Peterson set a single season rushing record at Oklahoma, surpassing the previous best of 1,896 yards by Billy Sims in 1978.
Peterson also eclipsed the NCAA single season mark for a freshman. Ron Dayne had the previous best at 1,863 yards.
Peterson set other NCAA freshman standards for consecutive 100-yard games (nine) and 100-yard games (11). He tied the record for reaching 1,000 yards the fastest by doing so in the seventh game. He now shares the record with Emmitt Smith (Florida, 1987) and Marshall Faulk (San Diego State, 1991).
He gained 100 yards in 11 of OU's 13 games.
He was the first freshman ever to be named a finalist for the Doak Walker Award.
Peterson averaged 164.0 yards against the four ranked opponents on OU's schedule.

WILSON ON THE RADAR
With Mark Clayton slicing up opposing secondaries over the last four years, it was hard for other OU pass catchers to get much notice. Travis Wilson carved out his own niche last season and launched himself for 2005 with a pair of touchdown grabs in the Orange Bowl ...
Last season he led the Sooners with 11 touchdown receptions. He has 20 for his career, which is 11 shy of the school record set by Clayton.
Wilson logged 29 receptions for 330 yards and five touchdowns over his first two seasons before erupting in his junior campaign with 50 catches for 660 yards and the 11 scores.

FIVE SENIORS UP FRONT
Oklahoma lost three offensive line starters to graduation (Jammal Brown, Vince Carter and Wes Sims) but still boasts five seniors up front. Davin Joseph and Kelvin Chaisson have been the starting guards for all or part of the last three seasons. Joseph will likely move to tackle. The other seniors are Chris Bush, a part-time starter over the last two years, Chris Chester, a converted tight end, and Brett Rayl.

ABOUT THE SOONER DEFENSE
Oklahoma has forced at least one turnover in 70 of the 79 games of Bob Stoops' tenure and has at least one interception in 51 of the last 67 games. OU has multiple interceptions in 17 of its last 39 outings.
Opponents completed 50% of their passes in less than half of their games against Stoops-coached teams -- 37 times in 79 games.
Foes scored less than 14 points in 47 of the 79 games.
OU has eight shutouts under its current coach. During that same period, the opponents failed to score more than seven points 25 times.
The NCAA charts five major defensive categories -- scoring defense, total defense, passing defense, rushing defense and pass efficiency defense. Over the last six seasons, there have been a total of 30 opportunities to rank among the top 25 (five categories times six seasons). Oklahoma has been among the top 25 in 28 of those 30 opportunities.

2004 HIGHLIGHTS
Oklahoma blanked Texas, 12-0. The Longhorns had scored in an NCAA-best 281 games prior to the shutout.
Nebraska kicked a 39-yard field goal on the final play of the game to avoid its first shutout in 112 games. OU won 30-3.
Kansas State's Darren Sproles had just 34 rushing yards on 13 attempts. OU held Kansas State to just one net rushing yard.
Texas Tech sandwiched 70-point outings around its 27-13 loss in Norman. The Red Raiders' lone touchdown came with 4:50 remaining in the game.

BIRD MAN
Larry Birdine played behind a pair of All-Big 12 players last season in Dan Cody and Jonathan Jackson, but still managed to emerge as one of the top ends in the Big 12 ...
Tied with Cody and Jackson for the Big 12 sack lead with eight despite the fact that he didn't start any games.
With 11 career sacks, he ranks No. 25 at OU. That may not sound like much, but he has only one start in his first two seasons.

RAISING THE RUF
LB Rufus Alexander toiled in obscurity as a freshman then had a major breakout as a sophomore. Alexander had two total tackles and a fumble caused as a freshman while playing in one game as a reserve. As a soph, he started 10 of the 13 contests and finished with 74 tackles, the third-highest total on the team and the top figure among those returning for 2005. Alexander also led the team with three fumbles caused and three recoveries.

DVORACEK RETURNS
DT Dusty Dvoracek is back with the team after being dismissed from the 2004 squad. OU head coach Bob Stoops reinstated Dvoracek, a senior, in January. Dvoracek is a former All-Big 12 performer and a former CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. In 2003, he was credited with 40 tackles, including seven sacks and 16 tackles for loss. All three of those numbers were tops among OU's interior defensive line for that season. It is worth noting that the D-line that season included Tommie Harris, the Lombardi Award winner and a first-round draft choice of the Chicago Bears.

POOL DECLARES
FS Brodney Pool became the fourth Sooner under Bob Stoops to declare early for the NFL draft. The others were DT Tommie Harris, DE Jimmy Wilkerson and S Roy Williams.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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