Will Detroit Lions destroy Sam Bradford Part I

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Unless you were fairly secluded yesterday, you found out that Sam Bradford, the sophomore from Oklahoma, won the Heisman trophy. Sam was amazing with 48 touchdown passes on the year.

Even the beginning of Sam’s career at Oklahoma is amazing.

In 2006, Oklahoma’s starting quarterback Rhett Bomar, then a sophomore, was kicked off the team for violating NCAA rules. Paul Thompson, a senior quarterback-turned-wide receiver, converted back to quarterback and led the 2006 Oklahoma Sooners football team to win the Big 12 Championship Game. His departure left a void at the quarterback position at Oklahoma. That void would be filled by either true freshman Keith Nichol, redshirt freshman Sam Bradford, or junior Joey Halzle (the only one with game experience). On 2007-08-21, Bradford was named the starting quarterback for the 2007 Oklahoma Sooners football team.[6]

In his first game for the Oklahoma Sooners on 2007-09-01 against the University of North Texas, Bradford completed 21 of 23 attempts for 363 yards and three touchdowns in just little over 2 quarters, breaking the school record for passing yards in a half, held by quarterback coach Josh Heupel, with 350.[7] The very next game, Bradford broke Heisman Trophy winner Jason White’s school record for most consecutive pass completions with 22 (18 came in the first half and four at the start of the second).[8]

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Your intrepid author feels the need to take you on a little journey to Michigan to see the long range effects of Sam Bradford’s passing success.

Keith Nichol

You will notice from the above paragraph that Sam had to beat out a true freshman in Keith Nichol. Sam had one year of reps with Oklahoma as a redshirt. Keith came in confident that he would win the starting job.

Keith Nichol played High School football right here in Michigan in a small town called Lowell. Lowell is more famous for as the birth place of 3 on 3 basketball tournaments called Gus Mackers that sometimes draw 500 teams.

Keith went to California to compete in the Elite 11 quarterback camp and was outstanding. Michigan State University is just a half hour down the road and Keith and his family were big Spartan fans. Keith had already verballed to MSU in his junior year. He not only wanted to play for the Spartans, he wanted to play for the wide open passing offense of John L. Smith.

Drew Stanton would graduate from MSU and be drafted in the second round by the Detroit Lions. Keith felt he would be the heir apparent.

Then Coach Smith was fired. Keith Nichols was devastated. The new coach was Mark Dantonio, a Nick Saban – Jim Tressel disciple and the coach at Cincinnati. For right or for wrong, Mark Dantonio was considered a very conservative run only coach. The record will bear out that Dantonio likes to establish the run, but will pass like crazy if he has the QB and the receivers. All one has to do is look at Mark’s first year at MSU with Brian Hoyer passing to Devin Thomas. Thomas is now in the NFL.

None of that mattered, because Keith Nichol felt betrayed and Coach Bob Stoops was knocking on his door and whispering the chance to lead the Sooners. Hmm, you are 18, who do you pick? MSU was down and trying a new coach, while Oklahoma has some of the best facilities and one of the premiere teams in college.

So, Keith became a Sooner.

Be sure to read Will Detroit Lions destroy Sam Bradford Part II.

Be sure to check out my companion blog at NBA Obsessed.

As always, any NFL Football related comments are welcome.

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