Oklahoma Stud RB

[Tom E]

This is a serious question, i am a mild college football fan. Wasn't their a rb from oklahoma adrian peterson who was all the rage. What happened to him...

[Cuckoo]

Has missed much of the season with an ankle injury but returned to near full health a couple weeks ago. The last two games (against Nebraska and A&M), he has looked really good, especially now that the passing game is working for OU. Early in the year, teams were planning only to stop him and his output was largely mediocre before his injury problems.

He won't be a Heisman finalist this year, but if he gets healthy, there's no reason to expect him not to be in the running next season.

[MrBug708]

OKlahoma lost everyone else

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Tom E

This is a serious question, i am a mild college football fan. Wasn't their a rb from oklahoma adrian peterson who was all the rage. What happened to him...

He had a horrible start, with the OU offensive line playing horribly in the early part of the season. Then he had an injury that kept him out for four weeks. (he had a few carries in a couple of the games, but wasn't full strength and they finally shut him down)

He came back two weeks ago and he ran for 135+ in each game with 2TD's a game.

He's averaging 4.7 yards a carry this year and has 10 TD's.

He'll be one of the front runners for the Heisman next year provided he doesn't get hurt. (Obviously if Young comes back, he'll be the top candidate)

[Cuckoo]

Originally Posted by TroyF

He had a horrible start, with the OU offensive line playing horribly in the early part of the season.

I would agree with this for the most part, although it seems relevant to note that he did have 220 yards and 2 TDs against Tulsa in the 2nd game of the year. Not necessarily a horrible start as much as an inconsistent start. Both UCLA and TCU shut him down, and Bomar had not shown any ability to make up for that. Then the injury pretty much took him out of the next four games.

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by TroyF

(Obviously if Young comes back, he'll be the top candidate)

Out of curiosity, what's everyone's thoughts on Young? I think he'll declare for the draft. I can't see him having a better collegiate season than this one.

[sooner333]

His injury was probably for the best for the team...OU wasn't going to beat Texas with him, they didn't lose any others without him and it forced Bomar to grow up and do things on his own.

Peterson is still a stud and I predict he'll have an amazing bowl game to get back on the national map in a big way.

[sooner333]

Originally Posted by ice4277

Out of curiosity, what's everyone's thoughts on Young? I think he'll declare for the draft. I can't see him having a better collegiate season than this one.

Young said he's coming back. I think the only league he'll ever make it in at Quarterback is one where Edmonton and Calgary have franchises. He's an amazing athlete who can command the college game better than anyone else...but while he's cut down on mistakes, he doesn't necessicarily have the best arm, throwing motion, and loops balls into the holes in the coverage, which he has time to do because Texas has one of the best, if not the best, offensive lines in the nation.

[st.cronin]

Are there any long term injury concerns re: Peterson?

[Airhog]

his ankle seems to be a nagging injury, but I would imagine he will be totally healed by next season.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

Are there any long term injury concerns re: Peterson?

That was my big concern on Peterson coming into this season. Last year, he had a great offensive line to run behind. Usually all he had to do was make one guy miss, and the rest were taken care of with blocks. Even so, he did start to get knicked up towards the end of last season.

This year, he had to make a lot more happen on his own, since the holes didn't open up for him like they did last season. What took most of last season to accumulate hit-wise, he got in the first few games this season.

[Huckleberry]

Like most running backs, he found that it's harder to gain a lot of yards when there aren't 5 yard wide holes every play.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

Like most running backs, he found that it's harder to gain a lot of yards when there aren't 5 yard wide holes every play.

Thing is, he's not doing to bad of a job at it. I heard a lot of Texas fans, namely IMTG criticize Willis McGahee for the same thing. He seems to be a pretty good pro.

Peterson is now averaging 4.7 yards a carry without having 5 yard holes opened up for him. I think he's going to be just fine.

As for Young, if Vick is an NFL QB, so is Young. He does have a looping motion, but he can do things nobody else can. He'll be drafted high and he'll get a shot. Not sure how good I think he'll be, but I think he will most certainly get a shot and I'd be surprised if he went outside of the first round.

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Thing is, he's not doing to bad of a job at it. I heard a lot of Texas fans, namely IMTG criticize Willis McGahee for the same thing. He seems to be a pretty good pro.

Peterson is now averaging 4.7 yards a carry without having 5 yard holes opened up for him. I think he's going to be just fine.

Never implied otherwise.

Peterson is a very, very good back. But he's not "the greatest of all time" like people wanted to anoint him last season.

4.72 ypc isn't great but shows his production has been improving. His stats will probably look fine after taking on Tech and OkSU, two teams in the bottom 15 in the nation in rush defense. They're even worse than A&M at stopping the run.

The point is that he wasn't as great as everyone said last year and he wasn't doing as poorly as everyone said this year.

[MrBug708]

RB's have ripped UCLA a new one this year. Wonder why Oklahoma was the exception? Kinda like in 1998. UCLA couldnt stop a cold but Ricky Williams was stopped cold.

[vex]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

RB's have ripped UCLA a new one this year. Wonder why Oklahoma was the exception? Kinda like in 1998. UCLA couldnt stop a cold but Ricky Williams was stopped cold.

Because Oklahoma couldn't pass at that time of the season.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

Never implied otherwise.

Peterson is a very, very good back. But he's not "the greatest of all time" like people wanted to anoint him last season.

4.72 ypc isn't great but shows his production has been improving. His stats will probably look fine after taking on Tech and OkSU, two teams in the bottom 15 in the nation in rush defense. They're even worse than A&M at stopping the run.

The point is that he wasn't as great as everyone said last year and he wasn't doing as poorly as everyone said this year.

I'm not sure about "the best of all time" comments. You have to have more than a year before you can say that about anyone.

But I think most of the rest of the comments were pretty dead on about him last year. You just don't see many freshman put up the kind of season he did. He's clearly a very special football player. Barring him getting a huge head (like a certain Buckeye) or a major injury, I see him starting in some NFL pro bowls.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by vexroid

Because Oklahoma couldn't pass at that time of the season.

He was 20-29 for 241 yards

[duckman]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

He was 20-29 for 241 yards

That was because they were putting eight-nine players in the box on every down and using run blitzes to keep AD from making any plays.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

He was 20-29 for 241 yards

And fumbled the ball four times, (one of which was returned for a TD). He also was sacked a ton and the team was 4-15 on third downs.

UCLA stacked the box every play that game. They dropped 8 guys, 9 guys. They dared him to beat them. Peterson didn't have a prayer in that game.

[Huckleberry]

So basically when the defense has to respect the pass and not focus on the run and there are large holes to run through Peterson is awesome. And that makes him special how?

Focus on the things Peterson is great at. Speed, strength, balance, etc. Because so far he has not shown that he can make yards himself when the holes aren't there.

The greatest runners have done that. Sanders did it in college. Williams did it in college. Campbell. Sims. Even Quentin Griffin and Eddie George did it in college. One on one with a defender they would not go down a vast majority of the time. Adrian Peterson isn't there yet. Jaxson Appel tackled Peterson one-on-one last year about 4 times in one game.

He is better this year than last in many ways, actually. Last year he would try to bounce outside way too often if the huge hole wasn't there. This year, maybe because of the injuries, he has shown a willingness to hit it where it's supposed to be. He could very well be better in the end because of his injuries this year.

He's still learning, which is frightening. The ability is there, he could end up being the best. It's just that people want to get so far ahead of where he actually is. It happens all the time with players everywhere. Rodrique Wright of Texas had a great freshman year and really good sophomore year. But his junior year and first 5 games or so of this year he simply didn't perform. But that early hype has him on all the award lists. 4 or 5 weeks ago the stories finally started showing up locally about how his draft stock really wasn't that high because NFL scouts notice things like taking plays off. Since then he has turned up again. Unfortunate for his teammates that it took his pro potential to make him bust his ass for them, but it is what it is.

Let me make one thing clear. I don't resent Peterson. He's a great player. The Rod Wright media fawning nauseated me because he was half-assing it on my team. The Peterson lovefest from a year ago was way more understandable. But Peterson is getting a raw deal this year for the same reason he was getting an undue amount of love last year. A lack of critical thinking by analysts.