College football is here and I'm lovin' it. I'm lovin' it because I get to read a lot of great posts about who is doing this...and why this team is this...or that team is that. I'm lovin' it because it means I get to spend a week of quality time with my dad with no interruptions from the rest of the clan. I'm lovin' it because for the first time in a few years the Oklahoma Sooners...are blowing the doors off of their opponents in the early part of the season. I fully understand that it is only two games into the season. I fully understand that there may be a high school team or two in the country who could give North Texas a run for their money (at least that is the consensus of some Sooner detractors). I fully understand that the Miami Hurricanes aren't the Miami Hurricanes of the 1980's and that they are on the comeback trail. However, after watching the Sooners of the past few years play down to the competition (and once below it) in early season games...it is good to see them crushing teams like they are supposed to...when they are supposed to.

Hammering North Texas 79-10 gave the Sooners some confidence at positions that were questionable, at best, heading into the season. Starting the year with a redshirt freshman, Sam Bradford, at QB, the loss of their most proficient DE's to graduation, and the loss of their two primary linebackers...along with Adrian Peterson's departure for the NFL left many questions for the Sooners. Bradford opened up strong with a 21-23 for 363 yards and 3 touchdowns against North Texas. DeMarco Murray answered questions regarding the loss of Peterson (and Peterson's projected replacement Allen Patrick) with a 5 TD performance. The DE's and linebackers pressured all day. But this was against North Texas. Who cares? Well, the Sooners did. And all of the neighsayers said "Wait until they play Miami!" They'll get a true test against that defense. We'll see what OU has after that game."

Well...! Miami's defense...had a tough time on Saturday. The redshirt freshman at QB was 19-25 for a paltry 205 yards. Yea, but he ripped the Hurricanes for 5 TD passes. So for two games he is 40-48 for 568 yards and 8 TD's. Not bad! Allen Patrick finally carried the ball this year. After sitting out the North Texas game he carried the ball 7 times for 47 yards. Chris Brown returned from a team suspension in the North Texas game and carried the ball 15 times for 42 yards. The big gun again for the Sooners was Murray who added 15 carries for 64 yards bringing his season total to 32 carries for 151 yards and 5 TD's. Malcolm Kelly caught 4 passes for 102 yards and 3 touchdowns. Yardage wise this game was no where near as out of control as the North Texas game was. Miami's defense had its hands full all day with multiple looks in plays and personnel from the Sooners. Five different Sooners carried the ball against Miami and eight different Sooners caught passes from either Bradford or his backup, Joey Halzle, who played the end of the game and completed a 61 yard scoring pass to Adron Tennell. The point here is that as good as Miami's defense is...the Sooners could throw out relatively fresher bodies all day. Their OL handled the Hurricanes D line all day with the exception of Calais Campbell recording his first sack of the season. It took its toll on the Hurricanes defense. The Hurricanes offense had issues of its own.

I commented before this game how Miami worried me because of their defense. Their offense didn't concern me for two reasons. Their QB, Kirby Freeman was 9 for 21 the previous week and I didn't expect much more than that against an Oklahoma defense that is young...and loaded...and getting better. The second reason Miami's offense didn't bother me was that as well as they ran the ball a week ago against Marshall...this week they were playing Oklahoma. Bragging...arrogant...realistic!!! It has long been a point of contention that Miami's strength is their defense...NOT their offense. With Freeman at the helm against Marshall it was up to Javarris james and Craig Cooper to rush for 215 yards in that game. Relying on more of the same against the Sooners helped the Sooners actually. They held the Hurricanes to 54 yards on the ground and limited Freeman and his QB partner, Kyle Wright to a 10 for 23 day for 82 yards and a touchdown...which came after 2 pass interference penalties against OU and a fake field goal. This was late in the second half and OU was up 21-3 at the time. And while I am lamenting Miami's struggles on offense it wouldn't be fair to take away any of the OU thunder on defense. Miami's field goal in the first quarter was the result of an absolutely horrible snap on a punt that sailed 2 yards over the hands of OU's punter and was finally recovered by him on the 8 yard line giving Miami a first and goal on the 8. Four plays later they had to settle on a field goal by Francesco Zampogna to get on the board. Within minutes of that score OU's Reggie Smith returned a fumble by James 61 yards for a score. OU took the ball on the second half kickoff and proceeded to lose it on a Chris Brown fumble resulting in Miami's last score of the day...another field goal. Roughly 5 minutes later Bradford hit TE Jermaine Gresham for his second TD of the year and the Sooners started pulling away from Miami at this point.

So, after two games the Sooners are looking very, very good. Not so much because of who they played and beat...but how they played them and beat them. When playing inferior competition in any sport you are supposed to win...and win big. The past few years OU has not done that. This year they have while others have not. They have racked up 1,079 yards in offense and given up 386. As I was informed last week...232 of it was in passing yards to North Texas. What my informer neglected to mention was that most of it was in the second half when OU had 3rd and 4th string guys on the field on defense. But I digress. They have outscored their opponents 130 - 23. Their defense has scored as many touchdowns as they have had scored on them. Yes...it's early and we have a long way to go. Let's us Sooner fans enjoy the ride as long as it lasts and hope coach Bob Stoops keeps the guys focused. If his comments this week are any indication...he will.

When asked about them getting cocky and overconfident Stoops had the following comments.

"This group has always been so good about their attitude and their habits and not being that way," Stoops said. "I'll mention it, but I don't believe it'll be a big deal. They understand that we've got a long year in front of us." 

When asked about his team Stoops offered up this statement.

"I've always felt like we've got the chance to be a solid and really good football team, but I always feel the year is about building and getting better as you go through it," Stoops said. "So it doesn't matter where you start. You've got to improve as you go through the year. I feel we're on schedule or about where I hoped we would be."

Accurate statements if you plan on playing for the big prize at the end of the year. Especially with teams like LSU and USC and, of course, Texas in the way (not to mention some others who are yet to be identified).

We'll see how accurate he is when the Sooners take on the Utah State Aggies this week. The Aggies are 0-2 coming into this one but have had the lead in both games going into the 4th quarter and lost it. Against Wyoming last week the Aggies were outscored 15-0 in the 4th quarter in a 32-18 loss and in the opener against UNLV they led 10-9 going into the 4th quarter and lost 23-16. Their QB is Leon Jackson who handles the punting duties as well. Their leading receivers are WR Kevin Robinson and RB Curtis Marsh who have 8 catches each while the rest of the team has 14 catches in total. On defense they have FS Antonio Taylor who leads the team in tackles with 25 in 2 games and LB Devon Hall who returned a  third quarter interception 38 yards for a TD last week. He had a 65 yard fumble return against Boise State last year.  It will be interesting to see if the Sooners keep up the intensity and continue to play at the level THEY SHOULD play at...the same one they seem to have finally realized they should play at.

And that's the bottom line...

Go SOONERS!!!