OU spring practice

[Eric the Red]

Long’s dilemma: Choosing among three newcomers

 

NORMAN — Just for a moment, think of Chuck Long as someone who has been pulled into a game of three-card monte.

 

After all, the Oklahoma offensive coordinator has been charged with watching three quarterbacks. All have solid qualities. All have some deficiencies. More maddening is that none have any discernible characteristics that have made them stick out from the pack. And, on top of that, through the first week of spring practice, all have been shuffled around right before Long’s eyes.

 

It’s when the rotation of players stops — an occurrence most likely to happen in the fall — that the game begins.

 

Is Paul Thompson’s command of the playbook the way to go? What about Tommy Grady’s arm? Or Rhett Bomar, he’s got the quick release and good legs, but no experience? Which card to pick?

 

Decisions. Decisions.

 

Long has got to make the right one. If he falls victim to a mirage, OU’s house of cards could tumble down. (OK, maybe just a crack in the foundation would appear. After all, running back Adrian Peterson is still around.)

 

Now knowing all that, here is the demented thing about Long: He thinks all of this is — get a load of this — fun.

 

“It’s a great time for a coach,” he said.

 

Yeah, well, if that’s true, there are a lot of coaches, not exactly a grin-and-giggle group, out there having a great time.

 

There is Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State and his three quarterbacks. Miami’s Larry Coker has a little eenie-meanie-miney-moe going on between Kyle Wright and Kirby Freeman. Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville might as well throw darts blindfolded at his list of three candidates. The candidates obviously have taken up this tactic. None completed 50 percent of his passes in the latest scrimmage.

 

In all, nine of 2005’s projected top 25 teams have quarterback battles this spring. (Another five or six, depending on which preseason lists are consulted, have little-tested heir apparents in place.)

 

So then, the trick for all those coaches involved in quarterback conundrums is how to find the right guy. The method might be a little different than you think.

 

“A lot of it is going to be gut,” Long said.

 

Gundy said in times when the race is tight — at OU and OSU the races are projected to be just that — gut instinct has come more into play.

 

Now if they employed just that method, it might make for moments when coaches and fans alike would get a sinking feeling in their guts. But have no fear, numbers are crunched. Raw data analyzed. Video is pored over.

 

“I’ll watch tape and take notes,” Long said. “I keep a log of their progress and their statistics and how they are throwing the ball.”

 

What coaches at OU and OSU value most, however, is the chance to evaluate in the simulated live setting of practice.

 

“Every day, everything we do is a chance for me to evaluate them,” said Larry Fedora, OSU’s offensive coordinator. “Every rep we take is another evaluation; how they handle what happens on the play and how they react to what happens on the play.”

 

Coaches want to know not only is the quarterback a guy they can count on, but one the team can count on.

 

“It’s not all about what happens, it’s also about how they react to what happens,” Fedora said. “Their body language, if they’re down ... because they’ve got to lead the team.”

 

For instance, at OU, what Long has to find out is which of the three could have stepped into Jason White’s shoes at Texas A&M last season, not gotten rattled and given the Sooners the best chance to pull out the comeback. OK, truth be told, maybe none of them.

 

But which one has that potential must be discerned in a period when the only players the quarterbacks are going against are their own.

 

That’s what makes the evaluation difficult. That’s what also forces Long to not just have a myopic view of the QBs. Instead he must also watch the players around the QBs.

 

“A lot of (the evaluation) is going to be how the players respond to them,” Long said. “I want to see how our players around them respond. And how they lift players around them.

 

“That’s a big part of quarterbacking,” he continued. “Taking an average play that the defense takes away and then making it better through just sheer will and guys responding to them.”

 

The only way to evaluate that this time of year is through practice.

 

“I tell the players the coaches don’t make the decisions on who plays,” said Gundy. “They do on practice. Ninety percent of the decisions we make are based on what we see in practice.”

 

But, at OU at least, not everybody has agreed on who the quarterback should be 100 percent of the time.

 

“It wasn’t always unanimous with Nate Hybl and Jason White,” Long said. “Those are opinions. And when it is all said and done, I’m the guy that’s around the quarterbacks the most.”

 

Because of that, Long said, the ultimate decision on which card to pull will be up to him and Bob Stoops

[kramer]

This article is abit ridiculous. OU acting like they have a problem. They have the number one QB recruit in the nation from a year ago. Plus the have this guy named Peterson at RB. Yeah there gonna struggle this year.

[Eric the Red]

Lots of talk going on that Adrian Peterson has injuried himself. Could be out for the year?? Amyone else heard something like thius??

[hoyamannn]

Wasn't the talk at the end of last year that if he had shoulder surgery, or if his shoulder surgery didn't go right, that he was going to almost surely redshirt? At the end of the year it didn't sound like he would be playing this year.