OU "Running" The Ball Well In Spring Practice

The offensive players were off limits to the media after Thursday's first scrimmage of the spring campaign. That's not to say that the offense did a bad job or was inconsistent in any way, shape or form though. In fact, in listening to the comments from the defensive players and coaches you get the exact opposite impression.

"I thought they ran the ball better on us today than they have all spring, and that's a concern. We have to look and see where we were losing leverage on the football. They had a couple big runs..." - Defensive Coordinator Mike Stoops on last week's spring scrimmage

Did you catch that? Oklahoma is running the ball with efficiency again! I know that some of you are thinking to yourselves, "I'll believe it when I see it in a game." and frankly I don't blame you. The offensive game plan from the Bedlam Beatdown Oklahoma suffered last November is going to resonate for a long time in the minds of a lot of Sooner fans.

However, the offensive changes for the Insight Bowl showed that a serious lesson had been learned and now spring practice could be indicating that Josh Heupel has matured in his first year of play-calling and that a balanced attack could be back in Norman for 2012. He has the tools in place with an offensive line that is both mature and physical.

Even better for Sooner fans it appears that a favorite back of Sooner Nation could be taking the lead in Oklahoma's rushing attack with Dominique Whaley still on the mend. Who was it that had the defense talking after a big day on the ground on Thursday?

"It was (Roy) Finch," he said. "You know those little moves he's got, he's kind of hard to tackle sometimes. He has real good vision. So, props to Finch and stuff. But give us a couple more days." - Tony Jefferson on Oklahoma's rushing attack in Thursday's scrimmage

Speaking of Tony Jefferson, it appears that he's destined to play free safety. He played there extensively in the scrimmage and delivered a couple of devastating blows against the OU offense. Where does that leave Javon Harris? Well...with Aaron Colvin sitting out the spring while recovering from shoulder surgery Harris has moved over to the strong safety spot. Keep in mind that there's still a strong possibility that Colvin returns to corner which could leave Harris as the starter at strong safety.

The team is off this week for spring break and will resume workouts next week.