OU's QB Football Spring Game Evaluation.

I'd be lying if I said this post isn't just me trying to get away from writing a journal for my history class as well as begin studying for my accounting exam but...this is something I was wanting to address at some point. So my first year at The University of Oklahoma has been everything I had dreamed it would be. Perfect. The only real blemish was the disappointing 2011 football season the Sooners had, but I am not going to go ahead and address all of the issues the 2011 national title favored Sooners had last season but instead, address what I saw in the spring scrimmage from March 31, 2012.

If you haven't had a chance to or wish to watch the highlights from their scrimmage you can catch all three videos here: http://www.soonersports.com/allaccess/index.html?media=313639

Let me just start out by saying that I'm doing my very best to ensure this isn't in anyway biased as I am not a huge fan of current starting QB Landry Jones. I tried my best to support and believe in his abilities , but at the end of every game he plays it becomes something very difficult to do. I find myself feeling as frustrated as Dallas Cowboy fans do with their QB Tony Romo. I mean, sure Romo and Landry have good numbers but can they, or have they, come through when you need them too? No. Looking back on his first year starting, due to Sam Bradford's injury, I had a lot of hope and was more understanding as he was a backup to the best QB in Oklahoma college football history. He had no chance of reaching similar numbers or producing as much as Bradford. But when we look back at OU's past couple of seasons, starting with 09; OU is one good QB away of reaching a BCS game and maybe the national title as I believe Bradford beats BYU, Miami, University of Texas, and the Cornhuskers. The loss by TTU was too much to argue that OU could have won with Bradford. Anyway, after his freshman campaign he had a fairly successful sophomore campaign throwing for almost 4,800 yds and 38 TDs. Then his junior season arrived and he fell apart as OU's best wide receiver would miss the rest of the season due to a torn ACL. After this, Landry wouldn't throw another TD, have 6 ints, all through 171 pass attempts and then end the streak against the lowly Iowa Hawkeyes. To be fair, Blake Bell was put into a special package around the same time Broyles suffered the season ending injury that would take Landry out of a majority of red zone situations and give Blake Bell 12 rushing TD's during the same stretch. But I digress. This is about how OU looked in their first scrimmage of the year.

Of course, I spent a majority of the time watching all 3 of the quarterbacks through the scrimmage and I am going to start with Drew Allen. Drew Allen is a QB that doesn't receive enough credit as he is a great backup and a guy I wouldn't mind getting a shot at starter. He looked good in the scrimmage as he was only sacked once and did everything he could to secure the ball and not turn it over. He didn't do anything jaw dropping but he didn't do anything that made me cringe. Something that OU coaches and a lot of people are used to seeing as he gets an A+ as a game managing type of QB, but a B- for a full time starting QB. Some games you have to take risks if you're behind a couple of scores in the 4th and I wonder if he has the ability and the confidence to make those deep throws if needed. Although I doubt he will ever be in that position, he definitely could be a starter for many college teams out there.

Next I'm going to evaluate Landry Jones. Landry Jones just made me sick throughout most of the throws he was making. Now although all 3 QB's ran a lot of slant patterns and some screen passes, Landry still found areas to force the ball as you see in the 2nd video he forces a terribly thrown ball to Jazz Reynolds, who's running a slant to the right side, that is covered by two defenders and would very closely be intercepted. The very next pass I have a hard time analyzing as I can't tell if it was a broken play because Trey Franks (#2) accidentally fell, or if it was just a really bad pass as it was swatted down by the safety. Besides a couple of very poor throws he was sacked (or in this case, touched) 3 times, and had a hard time adjusting to the pressure around him. He did have a couple of very good throws as you'll see in the third video he has a great pass thrown to a spot to only where Kenny Stills can (and does) catch it, and another down the left side to freshman Trey Metoyer who breaks two tackles to score the TD. Trey is looking like someone who will eventually dethrone the talented, but lazy, Kenny Stills as the go-to receiver. Overall, after much thought, Landry Jones is getting a B-. A grade that pains me to give him but he did make throws that neither Blake Bell or Drew Allen could make during the scrimmage.

Finally, there is QB Blake Bell. A QB that is being called by many fans to send Landry to the bench and create an offensive style that Stoops has never ran before. A system that is built around a mobile QB. Blake Bell has been discussed as being the best Jumbo package QB you can have but is not a good passing QB. From what I've seen in the scrimmages, he is surely developing into the next starting QB for the Sooners when Landry enters the NFL draft. Blake Bell had an amazing performance and looked very comfortable stepping back in the pocket and reading the field. He even made a terrific deep throw to wide-out Kenny Stills down the left side. He plays the QB position that makes many defensive coordinators have nightmares as he is able to make the defense uncomfortable as he would make them put more in the box to account for his ability to scramble, except this time he is actually able to make the throws needed to succeed at the college level. He has the ability to run the OU offense in the same way Tim Tebow ran the Florida offense. When the pressure did get to Bell, he made a great read and short pass to his wide-out that allowed the receiver some space to get a fast sprint going before he was pushed out of bounds. There is a lot I love about Blake Bell, especially as he is showing to develop as a passer. Overall, Blake Bell gets an A-. The only QB I didn't change my mind about when grading. He is finally coming into his own as he is making great reads, making defenses put more in the box, and finally making the passes needed to become a successful starting QB in college. In my dreams, I see Landry having 3 ints against UT and getting benched for Blake Bell to rally OU to a victory as Longhorn fans and players feel beaten down. Let's just wait and see if dreams really do come true.