Because the Sooners are playing on Friday night this week instead of on Saturday Bob Stoops and a few of his players met with the media on Monday instead of their usual Tuesday affair.
Oklahoma will most likely be facing the strongest offense of their first four opponents in the Golden Hurricane. In two games they have scored 11 touchdowns and are averaging almost 560 yards a game. Stoops was asked about the challenges this will present to the Oklahoma defense.
"Well, everyone asked me the same thing for North Texas. They are one of those spread open teams. There are some similarities, some differences. This team has their differences and their personalities and the little things that they like and we've got to come familiar with them this week and be ready to go back there."
Of course Tulsa has a great quarterback in Paul Smith who excells in leadership and on the field success. Coach Stoops thinks highly of him as well.
"I think he is one of the toughest guys that we've played in the last few years and I said that after our game two years ago that that's the toughest performance I've seen out of anyone. I've never seen a guy get knocked down so much without flags and continue to compete well. He did a great job, and I think he's a heck of a competitor."
The Sooners are no slouch at the quarterback position either and Bob Stoops attributes a lot of that success to one of the great Sooner quarterbacks of all time.
"I think Coach Heupel has done an amazing job with these guys. I think it begins with developing, and Josh can understand what they are seeing and going through. I think competition is going to make everyone better."
Oklahoma's new Golden Boy, Sam Bradford, will be playing on the road for the first time as a Sooner and while that could affect many players production level Coach Stoops thinks Bradford will be fine.
"In the end, he'll just get out there and play. When you get out there, you just become engrossed in what you are playing that you don't pay attention to the rest. It just gets down to being able to communicate and focus on what's between the lines. I am pleased to see his accuracy. I wouldn't use the word surprised because then I'm not giving him credit. I've seen it in practice and last year in scout teams. He's continuing to develop; he throws the ball in anticipation."
The runningbacks continue to improve from week to week and had one of their most dominating performances last week against Utah State. Everyone who has seen the Sooners play this season knows that OU has something special in the offensive backfield.
"The tailbacks are a really good group. They all have a different style in how they run, but we really don't care who's in when we call plays. That makes a really good offense, in that we can rotate them. It's great as a coach to see them doing well and pulling for one another.
"Allen is going quicker vertical than anyone. Demarco is such a slasher and has such speed. Chris is the most underrated but he may be the most efficient. He is just fantastic."
Possibly even with the performance of Sam Bradford this season has been the surprising emergence of Juaquin Iglesias as a dominant receiver. On a team that features the talent of Malcolm Kelly it is Iglesias who leads in receiving yards.
"He has been consistent; his hands have been great. He's made some of those first-downs out on the boundaries. He's playing well; for whatever reason, he seems to be quicker this year, probably because of maturity. He's stepping up and that's going to be a big factor for us."
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