2 good reads from the TW Jan 2, 2016

[Wheat]

first article.

Orange Bowl loss stings, but optimism fuels Sooners' future

Oklahoma’s past two football seasons suffered painful ends with double-digit bowl losses to Clemson.

The postgame locker rooms were two different places, however. In 2014, there was plenty of embarrassment when the 8-5 season was finally completed. On Thursday night, disappointment was evident once again but it was mixed with optimism for the future.

“This team, we’re more than just a team,” OU running back Samaje Perine said after the Sooners’ 37-17 setback to Clemson in the Orange Bowl. “The family aspect, as far as playing for each other more … we play for each other and just to have that next year, it’s going to be the biggest part of our success and we hope to keep it going.”

The Sooners will lose key seniors like Eric Striker, Sterling Shepard and Charles Tapper. On Friday morning, cornerback Zack Sanchez announced he will skip his senior season and became an early entrant to the NFL Draft.

The journey ended short of their goal, but the map has been set, an emotional Tapper said in the locker room. His eyes welled up with tears when asked about playing one final game with his teammates on the defensive line.

“This is hard. But at hard times you have to come together with your brother. This is one of those times where we want to live and prevail,” Tapper said. “These guys are going to be back here next year. We have three guys who can win the Lombardi next year and I know they are going to strive to get there. There is nobody stopping them in the country.

“I’m speaking for them and I’ve been speaking for them all year. Nobody is stopping them in the country. They can match up with anybody. I have so much faith in these guys and what they are going to do next year, especially with the offseason coming up. They got here but they feel the pain of losing in the first round. It’s going to be a long ride.”

An experienced offense — led by Heisman Trophy candidate Baker Mayfield — will be the nucleus for next season.

Lincoln Riley installed one of college football’s top attacks this season. How much can it grow in year two of the system?

“A ton,” Riley said. “Tonight is a great example of that. We’ve played good for the majority of this year and a lot of things that we can be proud of. But a night like tonight shows you that we still have a long way to go and we’ve got a pretty strong nucleus of guys back that will be better.


“We think we’ll continue to recruit better and get better pieces based on these guys getting to see the product on the field this year. We’ll expect to be better next year.”

The Sooners’ backfield will be potent with senior Mayfield, junior Perine and sophomore Joe Mixon. Shepard’s loss — along with Durron Neal — will impact the wide receiver spot and new faces must emerge. OU also loses veteran offensive linemen in Ty Darlington and Nila Kasitati.

Mike Stoops watched his defense grow into the best statistically in the Big 12, but understands the team must make the next big jump.

“Yeah, we still have some things obviously we need to get better at,” Stoops said. “We still need to become a more physical team and a variety of things defensively, just the way we play.”

The defense will be hard-pressed to replace Striker, one of the country’s most disruptive rushers and a strong leader on and off the field. It has a strong linebacker group with Dominique Alexander and Jordan Evans, as well as experience in the secondary with Steven Parker, Jordan Thomas and Ahmad Thomas.

“It’s been a great run, and it’s been a great four years, learned a lot as a leader, as a young man, and walking off that field, you get a little emotional because you can never come back to it,” Striker said. “So you try to soak it in a little bit, see your family and the fans still here waving you on, just to salute. But it’s been a wonderful time.

“We’ve got to move on now to our next life. But I appreciate the fans and my family and everybody who came out. It’s been a … I think about all the times that we had. It’s really been good. I’m sitting here very humbled, and it sucks to walk out like that, but it’s been a good run.”

Oklahoma’s defensive backs shared an emotional huddle as media entered the postgame locker room after Thursday’s loss. It would be the last time that Sanchez would be in the group.

Sanchez announced via Twitter that he’s decided to forgo his final year of eligibility and declare for the NFL Draft. He’s signed with sports agent Ken Sarnoff, who has represented many former OU players, including first-round draft pick Lane Johnson.

Sanchez, a three-year starter, has been an All Big-12 first team selection in his sophomore and junior seasons. He has led the conference in interceptions during the past two seasons, nabbing six in 2014 and seven more in 2015.

The Fort Worth, Texas, native had started 37 games over the past three seasons and registered 15 interceptions, which finishes tied for fourth on Oklahoma’s all-time list.

Eric Bailey 918-581-8391

[email protected]

2nd article

John E. Hoover: Samaje Perine could teach us all something

Baker Mayfield gets a lot of credit for being the guy Oklahoma football players follow.

And Mayfield should. He’s the Sooners’ quarterback, he’s magnetic, he’s energetic and he’s easy to like. His leadership seems natural. Guys just follow him.

But going forward in 2016, there’s another Sooner who should have everyone lined up in lock step behind him: Samaje Perine.

Perine was all but carried off the field early in the third quarter of Thursday’s College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Clemson. He went down so fast and so hard, and laid on the Orange Bowl grass for so long, and hobbled so badly on his wounded left ankle, many thought he might have broken it.

That sure didn’t look like a sprain.

And yet, when backup Joe Mixon was knocked out on the first play of the Sooners’ next possession, there was Perine, the sophomore tank, back on the field on the Sooners’ next drive, with less than three minutes elapsed off the game clock.

Acclaim goes to the OU athletic training staff for their quick and thorough work to get Perine back so soon. A fast (and massive) tape job, and some extensive stretching, and Perine was back and carrying the football on his next play.

That kind of toughness is internal. It comes from a place most of the human race doesn’t know and can never find. And after getting physically overwhelmed in all four quarters, on both offense and defense, the Sooners could stand to find that place more regularly.


That kind of toughness, that kind of selflessness, is in short supply these days, not just for Oklahoma, not just in sport, but everywhere. We can all follow Perine’s example.

“Once I figured who it was injured (Mixon), I knew I had to suck it up and get back out there,” Perine said. “We were already thin. Having Dimitri (Flowers), he’s a great guy, but having him play fullback and tailback is too much to ask of someone. I (tried) to suck it up and try to get back out there and do what I could.”

Sadly, it wasn’t much. From his return during the middle of the third quarter to the end of the game, Perine carried just four times for 14 yards. And it was his fourth-and-1 bull rush up the middle — on which he was stuffed for no gain — that helped Clemson lock the game away.

Truth is, Perine’s ankle was already sore going into the game. He was limited after hurting it late in the season, and he said it was at maybe 85 percent strength. It was less than that on his fateful fourth-and-1 run. Operating on sheer guts and an inflamed joint, he was slow to the hole, didn’t cut away from the one defender in his way and, when he countered resistance, had no strength to push through.

Recall that on OU’s first-quarter touchdown, Perine plowed through two Clemson linebackers to drive his way into the end zone. After the injury, that famous power was gone.

This is no knock on Perine’s teammates. They all tried their best. They never quit, like other Sooner squads have in the coming storm of a bowl blowout. They wanted to win the game, a seemingly fundamental quality that has been missing from other postseason ventures. They’re all plenty tough, gritty, gutsy, courageous, whatever.

But seeing Perine walk away from the safety of the Sooners’ sideline M*A*S*H unit so he could return to battle alongside his platoon mates should illustrate to everyone else just how deep their own courage runs if they’ll only test themselves.

“Samaje is definitely a warrior,” said receiver Durron Neal. “That’s what this group has been about all year: leave no doubt on the field. Come off the field letting your team know that you gave everything — every breath, every snap. Let them know that you did the best that you could, and Samaje did that with every snap.”

Perine finished with 58 rushing yards on 15 carries. He became the 10th Sooner with 3,000 career rushing yards (3,004), and just the second to reach that milestone in his first two seasons. Adrian Peterson ended his second season with 3,033 yards, but needed 561 carries to get it. Perine has carried only 489 times.

But beyond just yards, Perine came away from this game and this season with something more valuable: an unquestioned reputation for toughness, and the undying admiration of his teammates.

“At this point I wouldn’t expect anything different, though,” said center Ty Darlington. “He’s a warrior. He’s an absolute warrior. It’s been an honor playing with him for the last couple years. I’m gonna tell my kids I played with him one day when he goes, makes a lot of money and becomes a legend. He’s incredible. He’s a great teammate. And there was no doubt in my mind that if there was any way for him to be back on the field, he was gonna be back and he came back in and battled. That’s all you can ask of him.”

 

[Wheat]

another good read and surprised, considering who wrote it...

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Even before the clock zeroed out and the confetti rained down, many in the Sooner Nation had dispensed with their diagnosis for what ailed Oklahoma against Clemson.

Not prepared.

Not ready.

Not all in.

+58photos
Such post-Orange Bowl prognoses are understandable. Frustrations soared as the Sooners floundered and the Tigers surged. You want answers for a three-score loss in the national semifinal. You want to wrap your head around what you saw.

But here's what I saw — a team that cared.

That was evident in so many ways. In Durron Neal's tears. In Samaje Perine's return from injury. In Ty Darlington's streaked eye black. In Baker Mayfield's kamikaze dive at a defender. In so many eyes that were watery and red-rimmed.

I wrote about some of those raw emotions Thursday night, even the tears, and I heard from some fans who were angry.

How dare, they argued, anyone talk about a football player crying?

That makes zero sense to me. In those tears, Sooner fans knew without a doubt that players on their beloved team cared every bit as much as they did. They bought in. They invested. And when they lost, it hurt like crazy.

Yet, so often in football, emotions are quickly hidden. Player gets hurt badly? Docs give him horrible news? Someone inevitably gives him a towel so he can throw it over his head and shed his tears in solitary.

That comes at a cost — it perpetuates the portrayal of football players as gladiators.

They already play a sport where they're armored to the hilt. Helmet. Facemask. Shoulder pads. Body pads. They are so heavily fortified that many players could walk past someone who really loves their team and not be recognized.

If we aren't careful, we create a sense that football players are fighting machines, something not entirely human.

Truth is, sometimes they do things that make us believe that even more, like Perine returning to the game Thursday. The way he went down early in the second half, it looked like he might have broken his leg. He lay on the turf, wincing in pain anytime anyone touched his left leg. He left the field with lots of assistance, putting absolutely no weight on his leg.

But on the very next possession, Joe Mixon went down with what appeared to be a head injury, and suddenly, the Sooners needed a tailback. Perine wrapped his ankle, jogged the sidelines, stretched out a bit and went back in the game.

It was unbelievable.

Perine had to be tough and tenacious, all those characteristics we regularly ascribe to our football warriors. But he had to care, too. If he doesn't give a flip about his team, his teammates, his coaches, he doesn't go back out there and risk someone landing on that ankle and causing him even more pain.

That's exactly what happened, by the way.

Pretty clearly, Perine plays like a gladiator, but don't let that diminish his humanity.

Same goes for a guy like Darlington, who wears eye black all over his cheeks like some gridiron combatant. But a couple hours after the game Thursday night, he penned a heartfelt message that he posted on Twitter.

“It's been an honor and a privilege to play football for the University of Oklahoma,” he wrote. “I love my teammates like blood, and I would do anything for them, and (I know) they feel the same way.”

Similar passion was evident in Eric Striker. When the senior captain spoke after the game, you could tell that he was looking for the exact words and the perfect tone to express what everything meant to him.

“Walking off that field, you get a little emotional because you can never come back to it,” he said.

“I'm sitting here very humbled.”

These Sooners were really good, just not as good as the Tigers. When you try to understand why, you can say they weren't physical enough or talented enough or coached well enough, but you can't say they were lacking in the give-a-hoot department.

They cared.

It showed.

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or [email protected]. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.