ESPN's Maisel puts OU in title game

ESPN's Ivan Maisel has predicted Oklahoma will play USC in the BCS Championship game in New Orleans at the end of this season. See:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview07/news/story?id=2974110

Let's just hope the other team isn't LSU. I'd hate to suffer through another week of "Tiger Bait" screams from drunk LSU students jamming up Bourbon Street on New Years. Hopefully the cat fight that is the SEC will prevent that from happening. On the other hand, USC has class fans. It would be nice to get a re-match with them for the national championship.

Stoops has named the team captains. The honor went to Joe Jon Finley, Allen Patrick, Lewis Baker, Marcus Walker and Jacob Gutierrez. Finley, a tight end, and Patrick, a running back, will represent the offense. Baker, a linebacker, and Walker, a cornerback, will represent the defense, while Gutierrez, a running back, represents the special teams. All five are seniors.

Baghdad Bob Stoops Press Conference

Our friends south of the Red River have this hilarious account of a typical Bob Stoops press conference. Check it out:

http://www.barkingcarnival.com/scipio-tex/any-given-stoops-press-conference

New Season, New QB

From the soggy scrimmage...

Saturday's scrimmage sealed the deal for Sam Bradford. Coach Stoops today announced the redshirt freshman from Oklahoma City will be the starting QB.

We sat through the rain-drenched scrimmage (who knew that a tropical storm would come to Norman), thinking perhaps it would be the "separation Saturday" the sports pundits had labeled it. But, frankly, there wasn't much difference in play from Bradford, Keith Nichol and Joey Halzle.

Nichol and Halzle made more mistakes, that's true. Both probably knew they were playing catchup, so they took more chances. But none of the QBs were good throwing the football in admittedly difficult conditions.

The difference was Bradford didn't make mistakes. At least not many. And when he did -- such as when he under threw some balls -- his teammate made him look good, as in receivers coming back to the ball and making plays. This may be a season of the supporting cast making the starting QB look good.

We can live with that.

At least now Bradford will get the majority of snaps with the first team offense. He'll get better. Those timing pattern passes will get crisper. We're just glad the first test is against North Texas.