Hello, my name is Christian! How can I help you (break in your new DB's)?
by KellenRN on Sep 9, 2010 7:05 AM CDT
in Oklahoma Sooners Football
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PrintIn case you haven't heard the Florida State University Seminoles are coming to town Saturday. They bring with them one of the most highly touted Quarterbacks in the nation in Christian Ponder. Ponder has been mentioned in a few circles as an early front runner to win the Heisman. So what's all the hype about anyways?
Well the hype starts with an incredibly efficient and productive 2009 season... at least through the first eight games. Going into last year's match-up with Clemson Ponder completed 206 of 330 passes for 2,453 yards and 13 TDs to 3 INTs. Ponder had an incredibly Landry Jones like game against Clemson, completing 21 throws for 264 yards and 1 TD to 4 INTs, before a season ending injury in the fourth quarter (separated throwing shoulder on a tackle on an INT return). If he had completed the season he most likely would have finished with something like 3,600 yards, 20ish TDs and 10ish INTs. He also ran for 179 yards and 2 TDs through those first nine games. All and all a good three quarters of a season. Provided the 'Noles can win 9 games and Ponder can stay injury free, it's reasonable to see him sitting in New York at the end of the season. I'd like to think that the Sooners will be a huge obstacle.
Christian's dad, David Ponder was a defensive lineman for the 'Noles from 1980-83. Christian got his start playing at Colleyville Heritage High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area where, as a senior threw for 2,214 yards and 20 TDs while rushing for 911 yards and 12 TDs. He was named to the all-district 1st team by the Dallas Morning News and Scout.com named him the 20th ranked QB while Rivals.com had him as the 14th ranked pro-style QB. Ponder spent his first year redshirting and his second season, 2007, playing back-up to the once highly touted Drew Weatherford. In his sophomore year Ponder won the starting job from the senior Weatherford. In his first season as full-time signal caller Ponder 177 of 318 passes for 2,006 yards and 14 TDs to 13 INTs while rushing for 423 yards and 4 TDs on 119 carries. The 'Noles finished the 2008 campaign 9-4 with a victory over Wisconsin in the Champs Sports Bowl.
Ponder sat out the entire second half in FSU's first game of the 2010 campaign against FCS also-ran Samford. The redshirt senior finished the FIRST HALF with an amazing 265.92 QB rating, completing 12 of his 14 passes for an 11.9 yard average and 4 TDs to 1 INT. With an incredibly difficult schedule that includes this week's trip to Norman along with games against BYU, Florida, Boston College, Clemson, Miami, and North Carolina, Ponder should nearly be a lock for the Heisman if the 'Noles return to 10-win form and he throws for 3,000+ yards and 20+ TDs. Of course the 10 wins in a rebuilding year (at least as far as the coaching staff goes) is doubtful. The first real stop to FSU's return to the promised land will be at Gaylord-Memorial Stadium.
Ponder has all the tools he needs to make this weekend's game a nightmare for the Sooners. Much of wether he is able to utilize these tools comes down to the match-ups on the lines. The FSU offensive line returns five starters who have a combined 142 starts coming into the season, so I suppose that's 147 starts now. Oklahoma made Diondre Borel look like a potential Heisman candidate (minus the 3 INTs) and unless there is a radical turn around with the addition of Adrian Taylor and Frank Alexander, look for a repeat of last weekend. The other major match-up that Ponder's performance depends on is between FSU's young receivers and OU's young defensive backs. Oklahoma's new corners struggled against what should have been an overmatched Utah State receiving corps. Stoops has made a lot about opening the defensive playbook against the 'Noles. Let's hope this, and a hefty dose of crowd noise makes life difficult for Ponder on Saturday. OU fans can get loud, but for 85,000+ there is a little to be desired. Let's remind the 'Noles what it's like to play in Clemson's Death Valley or Florida's Swamp. On paper Christian Ponder looks like a world beater and the Sooner defense looks lost in the wind. This weekend could go a long way towards setting or breaking that trend.
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Looking forward to a great game!
Here’s some highlights of the game against UNC last year. The noles were down 24-6 at the half before Ponder started picking apart one of the nation’s top defenses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb9XhosvAg8
Here’s vs GT (He threw for 359 yds and 5 TDs in this Loss):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9U1OcYw—U&feature=related
And some highlight compilations. He’s the real deal. Should be a great game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCuu6UyO3B0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7hmbuXns7Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQIrx7aygD0
(some different angles on this last one)
Chillll
People are setting our death sentence based on the Seminole offense. Last week was the wake up call for our D. They either show up SaSaturday or we’re done. All I gotta say is swarm to the ball and tackle. Stoops teaches this above all. Do or die. Jones, play naturally, let the rhythm flow man.
by Daftpfnk on Sep 9, 2010 9:11 AM CDT via mobile reply actions
I agree...
I think last week was a wake up call for the whole team but mainly the defense. I think last week was not all terrible. It gives our guys some tape to study and see where and how mistakes were made. Then we must correct those mistakes. Hopefully we will be ready to go for a WHOLE game this week!
Ponder's Performance =/= FSU win.
Although it was not publicized before the Clemson, Ponder suffered broken ribs the week before and was playing anyway. Bowden overruled Jimbo on some of the calls and sent the signal for Ponder to go deep. With broken ribs, there was no zip on the ball and a good Clemson defense got underneath the floaters.
Two of the three INTs through the first 8 games came the week before Clemson, when Ponder broke his ribs. I won’t blame either of those on his ribs. One was a tipped ball and the other happened when our receiver ran the wrong way on a timing pattern. Ponder put the ball where it was supposed to be, but with no receiver there, the defender got a pick. I think some of those type picks may have also happened against Clemson.
However impressive Ponder’s performance was, FSU went 4-5 under Ponder. We had to put a redshirt freshman, EJ Manuel, in to replace him. FSU went 3-1, including a win in the Gator Bowl, under EJ, with the only loss coming at the Swamp in Gainesville. Jimbo called a number of designed QB runs when EJ was in as he is a better straight-up runner than Ponder. The point is that despite Ponder’s numbers, his performance doesn’t necessarily guarantee a win although a good showing from Ponder will probably mean that the game will be closer than OU would like.
Our defense has a habit of making everyone (QBs, RBs, WRs) look like a Heisman candidate. At least that was the case last year. A big question is how much Stoops can do in his first year with a defense full of freshmen and sophmores.
I just find it hard to believe that OU is having trouble on both sides of the ball (with Landry on O, and with the DBs on the other side). I expect a much greater performance from OU in week 2.
Two of the three INTs through the first 8 games came the week before Clemson, when Ponder broke his ribs. I won’t blame either of those on his ribs. One was a tipped ball and the other happened when our receiver ran the wrong way on a timing pattern. Ponder put the ball where it was supposed to be, but with no receiver there, the defender got a pick. I think some of those type picks may have also happened against Clemson.
Yes, one against Clemson was when Jarmon didn’t go to the corner.
This team will improve in '10... on its 16-16 conference record over the last 4 years.... after losing 20 games in the last 4 years... after having the 7th worst major-conference defense... after not even winning its own division in the ACC in the last 4.
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i'm less worried with each passing day
it didn’t appear that we had any problem with our scheme, as we had guys in place for even the biggest plays… just missing tackles or failing to spot the ball. the exception being the underneath sit-down routes in the middle, where our defense has always had a glaring blind spot.
when these completions into man coverage on the sideline turned into big plays, it seemed to have more to do with blow tackling or failure to break up the pass, coupled with no safety help. what i think the coaches were saying on sunday/monday is that we’re not going to be loading the box so much against FSU, and that the corners won’t be left out to dry. that said, the expectation (read: hope) is that these guys can shake the nerves and start getting a hand in there to break up the passes which, for the most part, they were in position to defend.
*blown tackling
i guess my point is that we’re not in need of wholesale changes or any kind of panic-mode decision. we had a good gameplan, and we just have to trust that our corners have the individual talent to literally turn around and swat at the big brown thing.
you can’t really fault the coaches, even our embattled new secondary coach. he had the guys where they needed to be, and they #hat the bed.
We can certainly fix that by going 4 wide with a RB in the backfield.
Theory being that our #3-4 WRs > your #3-4 DBs. We don’t use our TE much anyway. One thing you can bank on is Jimbo showing you a lot of different looks.
you're going to want to hope
that your coaching staff has a better strategy coming into norman than, “i bet this big 12 team hasn’t seen a spread offense before.”
sorry
not trying to be ornery, but going back to what i said above… if you win this game, it probably won’t have just a ton to do with baffling our system with your offensive scheme. (this is particularly true if you are suggesting they’ll employ a spread, as do 80% of the teams we play.)
if you win, it’s going to be because some of these individuals are getting overmatched. if you ask me, the more people you run out there, the more likely you’ll see zones and be dealing with the best parts of our defense, the LBs and Carter (S). best bet to exploit these corners might be to keep the help pulled up as close as possible and isolate the freshmen on the outside… like we saw last week.
72-3 OU
Give or take 10 points. I feel like I am checking FSU’s site whenever I jump online to check CC. I’m getting tired of hearing about how amazing FSU did against a Division 2 school. The stadium is going to get LOUD, I hope FSU can handle their first sold out crowd of the season. One thing is certain, I know I am going to talk trash to every FSU fan I see on Saturday. Boomer.
by OUPest on Sep 9, 2010 2:56 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
something that isn't being talked about too much
since the focus has really come down to ponder versus secondary, is our ability to keep them off the field entirely. if the FSU is still developing, as some of the ‘noles fans have confirmed, a big part of our “defense” will be possession offense. or rather, it should be if we’re worried about being carved up by their passing game.
presumably, step one is pounding the ball with murray, calhoun and, now, madu. maybe we can work the underneath routes with kenney and, hopefully, a little dose of haywood… just keep the clock running.
should be
“the FSU defense is still developing”
though, come to think of it, it was the passing game moreso than the run that really hurt you guys on defense last year, right?
It didn't really make a difference - run or pass
Ponder lit Ga.Tech up for 5 TD, 0 INTs and we lost 44-49. GT is an option team, so they ran all night long. They never punted once.
Funny you should mention OU possibly wanting to play ball control to keep our O off the field.
Most Noles have been talking about our O running ball control to keep our D off the field. Those thoughts presume that your O-line is once again solid and not plagued by the injuries y’all had last year. In essence that Landry is the 2nd coming of Bradford and Murray is Adrian Peterdon take 2. There is also concern about OU possibly running plays in no-huddle light speed. That concerns us b/c we lack depth at just about every position on D and heaven help us if we have an injury. Most of our freshmen, like most freshmen, have not been through a season of S&C training and lack both size and experience to be anything more than a liability. We have a RS frosh starting at CB opposite Greg Reid and the consensus is that he is better than Reid right now—>Xavier Rhodes. Some of our other freshman that I expect will see sig. minutes in the 2-deep are:
MLB – Jeff Luc – 6’, 251 lb.
OLB – Christian Jones – 6’4", 228 lb.
DE – Bjorn Werner – 6’4", ~280 lb.
DE – Dan Hicks – 6’4" – 260 lb. (RS Frosh)
DT – Dionte McAllister – 6’2", 280 lb. (RS frosh)
CB – Lamarcus Joyner – 5’8", 183 lb.
As it is, if OU plays at light speed and we have to go to the 2-deep, we could theoretically have over 1/2 the D made up of freshmen and RS freshmen. If the starter goes down, then the 2-deep at many positions will be Fr-Fr, which is never good. If we have to go to 3-deep due to fatigue, that’s also VERY bad.
They are talented youngsters, but they are still freshmen. Perhaps that’s why most Noles are expecting Murray, Broyles, and Landry to have huge games. Essentially, y’all be playing against a HS all-star team that is still in school trying to learn Stoops’s complex defensive packages.
While we expect Ponder and the FSU offense to perform well, as it did consistently last year (even against some of the best defenses in the country), we expect OU to play pinball with the scoreboard too.
Our D gave up an ave. of 30 pts per game last year. In 6 of our 7 wins, we scored 29+ points b/c we had to score that high to win. We scored 34 against Miami and lost. We scored 44 against Ga.Tech and lost. The other win came against Jax St. (who just beat Ole Miss) in a torrential downpour. As for the other losses, Ponder had QB ratings of 128 and 137 against USF and Bost. Coll. but we fumbled the ball too much (5 fumbles lost in those two games; Ponder was also playing with a knee brace in those 2 games). We lost at the Swamp, only scoring 10, but Ponder didn’t play. He started the Clemson game with broken ribs and left with a separated shoulder, but before leaving the game, he put 24 pts on the board in death valley.
There is every reason to believe we will put points on the board, provided we don’t lose 4 fumbles in the game, as Ponder lit up everyone he played last year—regardless of who we were playing or where we were playing. 19 of the 22 of our Off. 2-deep return, including the entire line.
I dunno, maybe OU will have his number, being the first real game of the season and all. But even if Ponder does his thing, the big questions to be answered is “How well does Stoops have the FSU D prepared? How deep will we have to go into the depth chart on D? and Can FSU avoid defensive injuries?”
On your side, it is “Will Landry have confidence in his line? Or will he play scared after getting shell-shocked by some of the best defenses in the country last year?” I think he’ll settle down. Hell look what happened to Brantley at UF. Can’t take a snap? Can’t throw a forward pass for more than a yard? Against Miami (Ohio) who went 1-11 last year?
I for one fully expect Landry and Brantley to shake off the first game jitters and rebound this week by bringing their A game. thing is, OU could probably put up 28+ points even if it brings its USU game for a second week.
The over/under on this game is 58 pts. Take the over. It ought to be a fun game to watch.
6 of 7 experts cited above picking...
FSU in an upset.
Gee, talking about jumping off the Sooner Schooner (that’s a bandwagon for you Nole fans… in reverse, I guess).
Ponder is all of a sudden Superman and Stoops can do no good.
From what I’ve seen over the years, a Stoops team plays better with a chip on its shoulder.
Ponder is great
But we’re not there yet. Need a year or two more in the new climate of our program.
>>---l>
The more "experts" picking against us, the more confident I am
"Ronnell is a freak of nature. Anybody that big, powerful and fast shouldn't be allowed on the field. That's Ronnell. You saw in the Kansas game when he knocked that guy out, he changed the whole game."
another major factor
is that i will not be wearing (what i know now to be) the accursed, god-forsaken sooners hoodie i had on for saturday’s game.
i decided to give it a second chance, since there was the possibility that ryan reynolds’ injury, and not the hoodie’s debut, was to blame for the texas defeat way back when.
but the USU game has sealed its fate… perma-ban. homeless giveaway box, for you, satan’s hoodie.
i hate it when i try to make a smart--s comment
but everyone else has a sense of humor, and i come of looking like a joyless bastard.
but you’re right, it does suck… and that article of clothing should rightly face your wrath.
I like the way you think dorn
"Ronnell is a freak of nature. Anybody that big, powerful and fast shouldn't be allowed on the field. That's Ronnell. You saw in the Kansas game when he knocked that guy out, he changed the whole game."
Very superstitious…. Never wear gray OU appareled OSU losses made that impossible. Tossed the ESPN game day crap after Colorado ’07…. Nothing good. Clearly it was the hoodie…
by OU JJ on Sep 9, 2010 7:40 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Very superstitious…. Never wear gray OU appareled OSU losses made that impossible. Tossed the ESPN game day crap after Colorado ’07…. Nothing good. Clearly it was the hoodie…
by OU JJ on Sep 9, 2010 7:40 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
I'm predicting an OU win.
Would love for FSU to pull out a victory, I just don’t see that happening, if we have to rely on the defense. I think we’re in a better position to win this year compared to last year. Only if our defense can limit the big plays by OU, play disciplined ball on both sides, and a couple of breaks go our way or Special Teams show up. I think we can have a shot at pulling out a victory.
GO NOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!
FEAR THE SPEAR!!!!!!!!!
The only problem I have is you're basing this analysis on the performance of OU's defense in one game.
Over the past five years against ranked/marquee opponents at home, OU’s secondary has traditionally played well. There are some notable exceptions, the 2008 Kansas and 2007 Missouri games but usually OU comes out and plays well.
OU’s secondary played badly against Utah State, but most of the mistakes are coachable. Considering the talent level, some of them (Nelson falling down) are plain bad luck. They obviously were overlooking the Aggies, who are better than people give them credit for, as well as limiting the defensive playbook, and the game ended up much closer than expected. Furthermore our pass rush, which is probably more critical, is only getting stronger with the return of Alexander.
And of course as you mentioned, Samford is an “FCS also ran.”
I'm not saying I think our secondary will play poorly.
I’m saying they need to play better if the Sooners want to keep the FSU offense in check. With the experience in the offensive line, Ponder should get time to throw. He won’t have all day, but he won’t need all day if some of the errors don’t get ironed out. I actually think theres a good chance the defense could play lights out considering, as you pointed out the history of ranked opponents coming into Norman. I also mentioned the playbook opening up. Was never saying Ponder was going to torch OU. Just that he appears to be a great athlete.
34-31 FSU
That would reflect:
1. Improvement of the FSU defense from a year ago. (if there is no improvement, OU gets 38+ pts.), This would also mean that FSU’s D is slightly better than Utah State’s b/c I expect Landry to play a lil better;
2. Ponder and the Noles slowing the game down and playing ball control to try to keep our D off the field. (The game would be a lil slower than FSU-Miami last year.) I think we can spread the OU D to the edges with bubble screens and passes to the RBs and mix that up by running off center; and
3. FSU’s kicker being better than OU’s kicker.
Fisher can be pretty unpredictable. It will be interesting to see what he does with the FSU running game. I’m not a big fan of Jermaine Thomas’s (our #1 HB) running style. I like him better as a receiving back. Just my impression, but it seems like he usu. gets outside zone runs. Chis Thompson (#2 HB) is a small, speedy back who can get lost behind the big linemen. If he gets past OU’s MLB, it’s a footrace with the DBs. It will be interesting to see how much we use our #3 HB, Ty Jones. He was the leading rusher in several early games last year and he ripped Samford for 107 yds on 8 carries. He is the biggest of the three and is more of a power runner. If we are running off center, you’d think the big guy would get some touches. It will also be interesting to see how much PT, if any, our #2 FB, Debrale Smiley gets. He’s a JUCO HB that FSU signed and placed. Jimbo put him at FB b/c he weighs ~235-240.
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