Landry Jones and OU: My Final Assessment of their 2012 Season

After an ugly loss to Johnny Manziel and the Texas A&M Aggies a lot of Sooner fans are left scratching their head for the future. That being said, there will be future blogs to come regarding that but I want to focus on the QB that is a hot topic amongst Sooner fans, Landry Jones. Landry Jones played his last game where it strangely began in JerryWorld and both had the same result, a loss. For those who know me, you know I've been quite harsh on Landry Jones after his Sophomore season--which was actually his best season statistically--but my final assessment may surprise you.

Watching the Cotton Bowl was not the easiest thing I've ever done as a Sooner fan. Actually, let me rephrase that. That 3rd quarter was the hardest thing I've had to watch as a Sooner fan and I attended the 2011 bedlam game where we lost 44-10. Where I was left speechless is not where most people would expect me to be (Landry Jones decision making), it was how Mike Stoops defense took it upon themselves to play the worst quarter of defense I have seen in a long time. The Cotton Bowl did nothing but reaffirm that the SEC is top dog and that Johnny Manziel is just a stud. Although I think Manziel CAN be stopped, that's not the point here.

Landry's senior season was the craziest thing I have ever seen from a QB. Landry would start the first 3 games averaging 258 yds/gm with 5 TDs and 3 turnovers (2 ints and 1 lost fumble). Decent numbers but his first two games were against UTEP and Florida A&M. He would have one of his worst games against Kansas State where you can argue he lost the game. In fact, I believe he did lose the game on his fumble returned for a TD and OU lost by 5. After I called for Landry to get benched, these are his numbers for the rest of the season: 349.4 yds/gm, 25 TDs, and 9 ints all while completing 66.7% of his passes. For those keeping count, he threw the ball an average 44.8 times a game during that span. Insane. The interceptions are a little much but the kid's a gunslinger. Those numbers are nothing short of impressive and if you watched the showdown against West Virginia, you would know Landry's audible on 4th and goal with the game on the line allowed OU to win the game. The next week he'd throw for 500 yds and 3 TDs that was HUGE in an OT win over the OSU Cowboys. Here is a fact: without Landry Jones under center OU loses to West Virginia, Oklahoma State, and maybe a red hot Baylor team ending the regular season at 8-4 or even 7-5. 

So what went wrong this season? The DREADFUL Mike Stoops defense during the second half of the season as well as poor offensive play calling by Josh Heupel. To be fair, Heupel called good plays most of the time but in key situations his offensive play calling could only be compared to watching a novice play Madden for the first time. The plays made no sense. Whether it was during bedlam in the first drive of the game where he put Blake Bell in at 1st and 10 in Cowboy territory to run an option play; that SAME GAME where on 3rd and short he put in Blake Bell to run a play action pass play; or last night where on 3rd and short he calls a pass play for Landry Jones. I'll also never understand how when OU played the (now) #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a game where Landry Jones threw for 356 yds completing 68% of his passes why Heupel refused to allow Landry to just air it out against a defense that had our number on every run play allowing 15 yards rushing all game. Combine this with the insane amount of screens we like to run (especially on 3rd and long) I can't make sense of the play calling. If it worked that'd be one thing, but it simply was not working.

Between Mike Stoops and Josh Heupel there's absolutely no question that Mike Stoops defensive planning has been nothing short of terrible. In 4 of the last 5 games Mike Stoops defense allowed an average of 43 points a game. That's not winning defense. That's not the Mike Stoops defense we are used to seeing. Did anybody else watch how bad the tackling was? For those who decided not to watch the Cotton Bowl, here's a perfect reenactment.

At the end of the day, OU got a share of the Big XII title as well as another 10 win season. I'm proud to attend a university where a 10-3 record is disappointing even if it was to all 3 Heisman finalists. I was also too hard on Landry Jones and I do think we will miss him next season. He's no Sam Bradford or Jason White but he was a good QB. In the draft I wouldn't be too shocked if the Jets or Cardinals pick him up in the middle of the draft as well as the Dallas Cowboys. He can't be any worse than the QB's the Jets, Cardinals, or Cowboys at the NFL level.