It should go without saying that OU fans have kept an eye on Kansas football since Mark Mangino landed in Lawrence in 2002. Mangino was one of the most respected coaches on the Oklahoma staff and the majority of Sooners fans have enjoyed his success. He typically receives an ovation upon his return to Norman and because of the affection for him OU fans also cheer on the Jayhawks in football.

In short there wasn’t a lot of respect or interest for Kansas football before the Mangino era but there is a ton of it now.

On the drive where Reynolds went down Texas attacked the middle on eight of the next eleven plays. The result was an 89 yard touchdown drive. With Reynolds in the game the Sooner defense gave up 198 yards and 13 points. With Reynolds gone the defense allowed 288 yards and 24 points.

Exactly how much the injury hurts the Sooners depends on who replaces him. Brandon Crow proved Saturday that he isn’t ready for that role, yet. If I’m Kansas I’m attacking the middle!

Gerald McCoy and DeMarcus Granger in the middle of the D-Line are two of the best DT’s in the nation and will certainly be in the backfield disrupting the Reesing and the run attack.

With Reynolds out, Travis Lewis will be moved to MLB and Austin Box will be inserted into the lineup. Also, with Reynolds out, Lewis is our best LB. The guy just flies all over the field, as evident by 19 tackles last week against Texas.

In the secondary, Brian Jackson has played a lot better than I thought he would, but the guy back there is, in my opinion, Lendy Holmes. He has been a stabilizing factor back there with the two new corners that we broke in.

On offense, the biggest threat not named Bradford…. I am tempted to say Manny Johnson with his 7 TD’s in the past 3 games and 17.3 yards per catch, of course there is Juaquin Iglesias who has 5 scores of his own and 15 yards per catch, then again Ryan Broyles has the ability to take it to the house just about every time he touches the ball, or you could go with Jermaine Gresham who at 6’6" 260, shouldn’t be able to run that fast. You really have to pick your poison with OU, if you want to take out the deep routes along the sidelines, Broyles and Gresham will torch you up the middle and vice versa. So I will cop out and say that it is all 4 of those skill players.

Bradford is the tallest quarterback to ever start at Oklahoma. He has the size and arm strength to play in the pros as well as the accuracy. Of all of Oklahoma’s starters here are the names that I am confident will be called in the NFL draft.

O.L.
Phil Loadholt
Duke Robinson

QB
Sam Bradford

WR
errr… can’t say anyone with confidence at this point.

TE
Jermaine Gresham

DL
Gerald McCoy

LB
Travis Lewis

DB
Brian Jackson

There will most likely be others but if I had to bet money right now that is who I would bet on.

Even though we didn’t crack over 50 in two of the last three games, we still are averaging 157 yards per game on the ground. The 3.7 yards per carry are more alarming to me than anything. DeMarco Murray doesn’t seem to have the same pop he had before he broke his knee cap. I am not sure if it is health or he just isn’t 100% confident in it yet but that is probably the biggest concern with the rush attack.

Also those rushing numbers are a tad misleading considering that in College sacks count on your rushing total instead of counting on your passing numbers but I digress. Bradford has been sacked 6 times.

Oklahoma was without six starters in last year’s Fiesta Bowl and the suffered the results of it. West Virginia was just better than the team Oklahoma put on the field. The same was true for the LSU and USC games. Not that OU was banged up for those but Oklahoma was just out played by better teams.

The only loss that I would count as falling into your description would be the Boise State game. OU just totally over looked them and thought they would win because they were better on paper.