By Kolby Paxton
Landry Jones apologists beware. You might want to skip down a few paragraphs.
The senior signal-caller is Oklahoma’s all-time passing leader with 12,379 career yards, and the proud owner of 13 school passing records. In 2011, Jones tossed for 4,463 yards; down from a 4,718-yard sophomore campaign, when he fell two merciful yards shy of breaking Sam Bradford’s mark. If healthy, the Artesia, N.M.-native will double Bradford’s career passing yards (8,403) by season’s end.
He will also quadruple his predecessor’s interception total in what feels like the longest. four. years. ever.
Wait, before you fire your No. 12 jersey in my general vicinity, allow me to play a more coherent version of yourself. “Landry Jones throws for a gazillion yards,” you’ll tell me. “He won the Fiesta Bowl and the Big 12 Championship. He’s 2-0 as a starter versus Texas. He’s a first round NFL Draft caliber talent.”
Crimson-tinted glasses look ridiculous, even on Elton John. They also make it nearly impossible to read and react objectively. So, before you attempt to peruse through the following, you’ll want to remove the nonsensical spectacles and place them upon the brim of your Bob Stoops visor.
Jones is the byproduct of a quarterback friendly system and, more pointedly, abundant volume. You’ve heard it before. But have you really?
Consider: Only Houston’s Case Keenum and Texas Tech’s Seth Doege attempted more passes than Jones in 2011, and the two combined to equal the Oklahoma quarterback’s number of completions to the wrong color jersey (15) – on 622 additional tosses. And, while his total production – the big, shiny, five-digit yards total – dwarfs that of the statues across the street, the finer details of his stat line do not. For example, his yards per attempt average (7.6) is good for 11th best in school history among quarterbacks with at least 200 pass attempts. Eleventh. The University of Oklahoma has only been throwing the football since 1999, during which time, the Sooners have started only seven different field generals. Holy checkdown, Batman.
Jones’ yards per completion average is percentage points ahead of… Danny Bradley. His career efficiency rating is just behind… wishbone specialist Jamelle Holieway.
Jones’ Big 12 Championship triumph – a feat that he has accomplished exactly once in three years as the Oklahoma starter – came versus the team that used to be Nebraska. Rumor has it, that team immediately defected to the Big Ten, and no one has seen or heard from the Cornhuskers since. The Fiesta Bowl that followed pitted the Sooners with Big East sacrificial lamb Connecticut. The season-ending loss to Oklahoma was UConn’s fifth of the season. That’s the same number of L’s as every other Fiesta Bowl participant combined (Texas vs. Ohio State, ’08; Boise State vs. TCU, ’09; Oklahoma State vs. Stanford, ’11) since 2008-’09
As for that whole 2-0 record versus the Longhorns, do we really need to discuss the state of the Mighty Mack Browns? Case is not Colt. Suffice it to say that no one in Austin is pointing to the Red River tilts of the early ’90’s in an attempt to validate the quarterbacking prowess of Peter Gardere. And, while he may have an NFL-level skill set versus air, whatever team spends a first round pick on Jones should just be aware that I successfully started a “Go pro Landry” chant during the second quarter of the Bedlam beat down – and that was before he started fumbling footballs over his own head.
Making matters worse, the greatest receiver in program history is now a member of the Detroit Lions, starting running back Dominique Whaley is recovering from a not-quite-Patrick-Edwards-but-close broken leg, two offensive lineman have been lost for the season due to injury, and five days ago, defensive tackle Stacy McGee became the fifth suspended Sooner of the off-season.
Having said that, all of that, the Chase for Eight appears to be alive and well in 2012 – thanks, in part, to a FBS field full of flawed contenders, a relatively favorable schedule, and yes, even Landry Jones.
Jones is reasonably adept outside of the opponents 10-yard line, and once the Sooners get within 30 feet of paydirt, well, there’s a Belldozer for that.
On the perimeter, despite the loss of Broyles and mass suspensions, the Oklahoma receiving core is very good. Junior Kenny Stills is among the top pass catchers in all the land when he’s not Tweeting or wearing dresses. His production dropped when Broyles went down with a knee injury last season, but newcomer Trey Metoyer figures to reduce the Broyles-less-induced stress level considerably.
The backfield is deceptively loaded, if void of the feature back for which the program is known. Junior fullback Trey Millard is among the Sooners’ most valuable assets. Someone once coined the phrase, “Good things happen when you go to J.D. (Runnels).” Well, better things happen when you go to Millard.
The ball carriers lining up behind OU’s do-it-all fullback come in all shapes and sizes. From the diminutive Roy Finch (5-7, 175), to Whaley (5-11, 204), to impact freshman Alex Ross (6-1, 208), offensive coordinator Josh Heupel has a wealth of horses in the stable.
Mike Stoops is back, and with him, come expectations of a return to defensive dominance. Big 12 offenses of today are not the Big 12 offenses of 2003, but after a season in which Brent Venables’ group surrendered a combined 89 points in losses to Oklahoma State and Baylor, attaining a considerable level of improvement is well within reach.
The defensive line is in flux as a result of McGee’s suspension, leaving Casey Walker and Jamarkus McFarland as the only true tackles in the rotation. End David King will slide over and start ahead of McFarland in his place. Rarely, in recent history, has the defensive line been a weakness at Oklahoma, but it is in 2012.
The linebackers, on the other hand, are a strength. Tom Wort is hard-nosed and physical, and figures to take the leadership role in his third year as a starter. Corey Nelson had 5.5 sacks in 2011, and is on the cusp of becoming a star.
Previously, under Stoops, the secondary was elite. When he left, the consistency in the defensive backfield left with him. Upon his return – and with Tony Jefferson’s move back to safety – the unit is primed for a resurgence. Demontre Hurst is among the most gifted cover corners in college football. When the Sooners take the field versus UTEP, Hurst will play in his 41st game as a Sooner. Aaron Colvin started at cornerback as a true freshman, but was moved to safety in 2011. Stoops moved Colvin back to corner in the spring, creating the best duo of air traffic controllers in the Big 12.
Prediction: 11-1 (8-1)
Oklahoma should be favored in each of its 12 regular season contests. Texas, inexplicably, cannot seem to find a quarterback. The Notre Dame secondary is vulnerable. Baylor is back to being Baylor and Oklahoma State, well, is back to being Oklahoma State. Only late-season road trips to Morgantown, W.V., and Fort Worth, Texas, appear to stand in the way of another trip to the BCS National Championship. Of course, with Landry Jones under center, Morgantown might as well be Baton Rouge, La.
R&J 