Sooners to sport new look

? Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops hears the speculation that his Sooners team is due for a rebuilding season after his Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback finally departed and 10 others moved on to the NFL.

Just because he hears it doesn’t mean he believes it.

“Probably our youngest and most inexperienced team and least talented team in the last five years was our 2000 national championship team,” Stoops points out.

This year’s Sooners will be a far different bunch than the group that largely stayed together through back-to-back runs to the BCS title game.

Gone are quarterback Jason White and three of the offensive linemen who kept defenders from plowing into his two surgically repaired knees. Three of White’s top receiving threats – Mark Clayton, Brandon Jones and Mark Bradley – also have left, all within the first three rounds of the NFL draft.

But on an offense that will feature a number of new faces, there’s one familiar likeness that should keep the Sooners moving toward end zones: Adrian Peterson.

After setting an NCAA freshman record with 1,925 yards rushing, Peterson returns as the star of Stoops’ offense. He’s also not concerned with how Oklahoma will replace all the talent it lost following a 12-1 season and a Big 12 Conference championship.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops applauds during the first quarter of the Sooners' Orange Bowl game against Southern California in this file photo from Jan. 4 in Miami. Though Stoops lost a lot of talent to the NFL Draft, he doesn't expect this season to be a rebuilding year.

“I am just going to go out there and run the ball hard and play hard like I have always done,” Peterson said. “We have a lot of great young guys that are coming up that will fill holes that were left open from guys that graduated.”

Peterson missed spring practice after having reconstructive surgery on a troublesome left shoulder two weeks after Oklahoma’s 55-19 loss to Southern California in the Orange Bowl. He reported to camp proclaiming himself healthy, but was held out of the Sooners’ first fall scrimmage.

Peterson said the shoulder, which he dislocated twice last year, had him approaching football differently.

“I have had a more positive attitude going into workouts, and I don’t take things for granted,” he said. “I have worked even harder this summer to get my body ready to play and help prevent injuries like this from happening again.”

Peterson said he hoped to alter his running style to keep his shoulders lower and absorb hits better. He’s also trying to become more patient behind blocks so he can run around defenders instead of through them.

It will be up to a new quarterback to keep those defenders from crowding the line to stop Peterson. A competition between junior Paul Thompson, sophomore Tommy Grady and red-shirt freshman Rhett Bomar carried over from the spring into the fall, and Oklahoma coaches aren’t sure whether they’ll choose a starter before the week of the Sept. 3 season opener against TCU.

The decision doesn’t figure to impact Oklahoma’s playbook too much.

“We’re very aware of what they all can do, fortunately they all can do the same thing,” Stoops said. “They are all athletic, they all can run, so we don’t see much difference in what they can do.”

Instead, Stoops said the successor to White will be chosen based primarily on decision-making and the ability to avoid mistakes.

Thompson backed up White in 2003 and Grady was the backup last season while Bomar redshirted. Stoops and offensive coordinator Chuck Long hope that one quarterback distances himself from the other two and becomes the starter. If that doesn’t happen, the coaches will entertain splitting time between two quarterbacks.

“We have confidence in every quarterback that we have,” Long said. “We feel like we have a great situation and it sometimes get to the point where you have two good ones and play two good ones.”

Regardless of who’s taking the snaps, the Sooners see 2005 as simply a reloading campaign.

“Our expectations are what they have always been and that is to pursue and compete for a Big 12 championship, and if things go right we can find our way and earn our way to a national championship,” Stoops said. “That’s what our sights are always on.”