Sooner Report: Dog Days of Camp

News & Notes
The Sooners practiced inside the Everest Training Center for a little over two hours on Tuesday morning due to rainy conditions in Norman. The club is currently scheduled to conduct its final two-a-day session on Wednesday. Fall classes begin on Monday, Aug. 19, meaning the Sooners will then resume their normal in-season schedule of late afternoon practices.

Head coach Bob Stoops confirmed Tuesday that freshman defensive end D.J. Ward underwent a procedure to remove an enlarged spleen. The condition was non-football related and was detected prior to the start of preseason drills. Stoops indicated that the estimated recovery was approximately six weeks. While the potential exists for Ward to receive a redshirt, Stoops was still optimistic about the possibility of Ward playing this season.

Can You Hear Me Now?
If you were a fly on the wall at an OU practice this August, you'd quickly become acquainted with the various voices of the Sooners' coaching staff. But when the first-unit defense is on the field, the sounds of one particular senior from Skyline High School in Dallas, Texas, are frequently heard above the din.

Whether he's barking calls, helping teammates line up or pointing out something he's spotted on the offensive side of the ball, linebacker Corey Nelson has fully embraced a leadership role this season.

“This is a very big year for me, because it's my last year,” Nelson said. “I have to be able to show that I'm capable and the coaches are going to let that happen because I'm an older guy and I'm a leader.

“They look for me to lead so I have to lead by example. I should have a lot of tries out there to make plays ... I feel like I have a lot to prove since last year was a down year. It's not even just me; it's the defense as a whole. We all have something to prove.”

Junior defensive back Julian Wilson is also anticipated to take on a larger role for the Sooners in 2013 and he's taken notice of the increased volume of Nelson on the practice field.

“Big difference,” Wilson said. “He's always been a leader but this year he's taken his leadership to another level. You can just tell that he's really focused in this season. This is his last year at it, so you can really tell that he's into it.”

Sophomore linebacker Frank Shannon (a fellow Skyline HS graduate) put Nelson's knack for leadership more succinctly: “We went to the same high school, so he's always been a leader in my eyes.”

Comfortable Isn't in Julian Wilson's Vocabulary
It's been anything but a comfortable offseason for Southmoore High School product, Julian Wilson. Aches and pains on the football field pale in comparison to the devastation that Wilson and many of his high school teammates saw in Moore, Okla., after a series of tornadoes ravaged the state.

While Wilson and many of his current OU teammates and coaches aided in the recovery efforts in Moore and other communities, this junior defensive back now has a steady focus on getting prepared to play the nickel position for the Sooners in 2013.

“Yeah, I feel comfortable but ?comfortable' isn't a word I like to use because there's always somebody fighting to get my spot,” he related. “Really I'm competing every day; I'm not comfortable yet because my spot isn't solid yet. We haven't gone into the first game and I haven't been named the starter so I need to go into camp every day thinking like that.”

You can probably thank OU's defensive coordinator Mike Stoops for helping instill that sort of attitude in Wilson. If you've ever been on the practice field or in a meeting room with Stoops, “comfortable” typically isn't an adjective that comes to mind.

“The thing I love about Mike is that he's just a real up-front coach,” Wilson added. ?“He's not going to sugarcoat anything for you; he's going to tell you the way it is. If you're practicing bad, he's going to tell you that you're practicing bad. I just like the way he keeps it real with you.

“If I'm not playing to OU's ability, he's going to tell me to step my game up. I just like that. I respond well to the things he does because since he's been here he's taught me a lot and made me a better player. I'm still getting better and he's still teaching me more things. The sky's the limit.”

QB Stats of Big 12 Champions Under Stoops
Oklahoma's head coach has reiterated a steady message since Big 12 Media Days in Dallas regarding the ability of the OU staff to prepare starting quarterbacks. Stoops touched on that topic again this week.

“I keep saying this, it's not our first rodeo,” he suggested. “We have done this a lot. We have won eight Big 12 championships with six different quarterbacks.”

As they're fond of saying in the securities sector, “past performance does not predict future results.” But in the case of quarterback play at OU, it's worth taking a look at the signal callers in the Stoops' era who have won Big 12 titles during his tenure. It's also interesting to examine the eclectic mix of stats those quarterbacks in the season before winning a Big 12 title at OU.

There's Paul Thompson, who completed 11 passes in 2005 before guiding the Sooners to a conference championship and a Fiesta Bowl berth the following year. Of course, Jason White won the Heisman the year before leading OU to a Big 12 title in 2004 en route to winning the Maxwell, Unitas and O'Brien Awards.

Then Sam Bradford proceeded to break many of White's records during an amazing run of success that saw him win the same litany of awards as he eventually guided OU to the BCS Championship Game. Like Bradford before him, Landry Jones would go on to win two Big 12 titles, becoming the conference's all-time leading passer in the process. Let's take a look . . .

Stoops' Big 12 Championship Signal Callers

Year? OU Record?? Starting QB ?? Key Stat
2000 ?? 13-0* ? Josh Heupel? ?? 64.7 completion percentage (280 of 433)
The prelude: Boasted a 2-to-1 TD-to-INT ratio with 30 TDs and 15 INTs in 1999

Year? OU Record?? Starting QB ?? Key Stat
2002 12-2? Nate Hybl? 24 TDs, 8 INTs (3-to-1 ratio)
The prelude: Threw 14 TDs and 13 INTs as the Sooners compiled an 11-2 campaign in 2001

Year? OU Record?? Starting QB ?? Key Stat
2004 12-1? Jason White? 35 TDs, 9 INTs (3.9-to-1 ratio)
The prelude: Won Heisman Trophy & Davey O'Brien Awards after throwing for 3,846 yards and 40 TDs in 2003 en route to being named AP Player of the Year

Year? OU Record?? Starting QB ?? Key Stat
2006 11-3? Paul Thompson? 7.94 yards per attempt (2,667 yards on 336 atts.)
The prelude: Completed 11 of 26 passes for 109 yards in 2005

Year? OU Record?? Starting QB ?? Key Stat
2007 11-3? Sam Bradford? 10.6 TD percentage (36 TDs on 341 attempts)
2008 12-2? Sam Bradford School-record 50 TD passes, 9.77 yards per attempt
The prelude: Guided Sooners to back-to-back Big 12 titles in first two seasons at OU

Year? OU Record?? Starting QB ?? Key Stat
2010 12-2? Landry Jones?? 4,718 passing yards ? two shy of OU seasonal mark
2012 10-3? Landry Jones?? Career-high 66.1 comp. pct., career-low 11 INTs
The prelude: Threw for 26 TDs and 14 INTs with a 130.8 passer rating in 2009.

*National Championship

Set Your DVRs For Friday
The ESPN DIRECTV Mobile Studio wraps up its two-week tour of 10 schools with a stop in Norman this Friday. You'll see the ESPN DIRECTV Mobile Studio on campus all day Friday with live hits on SportsCenter and other ESPN programming throughout the day. As part of the tour, College Football Live with Chris Cotter and Robert Smith will originate live from Headington Hall at 4 p.m. on ESPNU.

A two-time Pro Bowl selection, Smith began his broadcast career with ESPN in 2005. Smith regularly contributes to College Football Live and Football Friday as an analyst and occasionally appears on Outside the Lines. He starred as a running back at Ohio State from 1990-92 and for the Minnesota Vikings from 1993-2000, where he posted 6,818 career yards rushing.

We'll make sure to remind Mr. Smith that he was the Vikings all-time leading rusher before a certain OU alum named Adrian Peterson eclipsed that mark. Cotter joined ESPN in January 2012 as a studio anchor, appearing on?SportsCenter?and in other roles.