Shockwaves: What Sam Bradford’s Shoulder Sprain, Oklahoma’s Loss, And BYU’s Win Mean

Yes, Oklahoma’s 14-13 loss to BYU last night is a stunner that will send OU tumbling from their lofty preseason ranking. The other tremors to the college football landscape will be felt for a while.↵↵So Long, Heisman. Let’s get this out of the way: If Sam Bradford’s shoulder sprain knocks him out of multiple games, he will not repeat as the Heisman winner. The award relies too heavily on statistical exploits, and Bradford will not have the time to accumulate them. With this, and with Tim Tebow’s flash-free performance against Charleston Southern, Colt McCoy becomes the Heisman front-runner. He’s a statistical dream with the asinine “He deserves one because he hasn’t won one” hype behind him, after all: The combination of production and attention will wrap McCoy in the prestige the Heisman loves.↵

↵↵The OU Fallout: Offensive Fall-Off. Less than eight months since their record-setting offense was derailed in the BCS title game by Florida, Oklahoma sputtered again. Against a Mountain West team that ended last season by giving up 31 points to Arizona, the Sooners put up a paltry 264 total yards, with a horrific 18.2% rate on third-down conversions. Don’t blame it all on Bradford’s bum shoulder, either; in his nearly full half of work, he only passed for 97 yards. ↵

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The Sooners’ problem with moving the ball (and the chains) would exist with or without Bradford. Without Jermaine Gresham, they seem unable to move the ball through the air, and without the offensive line that helped both Chris Brown and DeMarco Murray run for over 1,000 yards in 2008, they cannot chew up yardage on the ground. The Sooners were the masters of the big play in 2008; last night, they had zero plays of more than 20 yards.
↵↵This won’t be a problem against Idaho State, but Tulsa will score against Oklahoma, and Miami’s defense is better than BYU’s. Losses loom, and the Sooners cannot have even one if they are to make it to Pasadena.↵

↵↵Here Come the Cougars. Boise State’s reign as the chosen BCS buster of the year lasted two days. I won’t complain: BYU did to Oklahoma what Boise State did to Oregon, and then some, at a “neutral” site. ↵

↵↵Harvey Unga, a 1,000-yard rusher in 2008, didn’t play, and BYU churned out a pitiful 28 yards on 33 carries, but quarterback Max Hall led the Cougars on long, grinding drives all night. Their masterpiece, a 16-play, 78-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter, put the Cougars ahead for good and shaved 8:44 from the clock. If this team can play ball-control offense without a running game and stymie one of the nation’s most feared attacks in the first season of the year, how good will they be when they hit their stride?↵

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