OU football: Notebook

Published: October 13, 2006

Through five games, Oklahoma has recorded six quarterback sacks and with another mobile quarterback in Iowa State's Bret Meyer coming to Norman on Saturday, the Sooners could fall farther off last season's pace of 3.75 sacks per game.

Three of the top four players in sacks last year — Calvin Thibodeaux, C.J. Ah You and Rufus Alexander — are seniors this season, along with senior defensive end Larry Birdine, who missed last year with an injury.

Will the sacks ever come this year?

"We've been close," defensive ends coach Chris Wilson said. "But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

"The thing (our players) are doing, they're playing awfully hard. They're being technically sound, so we feel like (sacks) will eventually come. But there are not a lot of people just sitting back there and taking five-step drops on us."

Last season, OU finished with 45 sacks, 22 of which came from Thibodeaux, Ah You and Alexander. That trio has one sack this season.

"What happens as a senior is you believe you can always do what you've always done," Wilson said. "And it's like anything else. The more success you have, people are aware of it and they're going to plan for it.

"Your focus week-to-week, your awareness of what people are going to do to attack you, is huge. It's not a physical ability-type deal."

• Bouncing back: OU defensive tackle Carl Pendleton says the team has already moved on from the Texas loss, something that doesn't seem as easy for some fans.

"I think the fan base somehow invests a little more in it emotionally," Pendleton said.

"To lose at Texas is one of those things that OU fans just hate. We hate it, too, but we still realize that we still have another game to play. I think fans sometimes forget that there's another one and another one after that. They just kind of focus on Texas."

• Texas test: True freshman tight end Jermaine Gresham often has said that blocking has been the biggest challenge for him in his first season.

The Ardmore product was in on about 20 plays last Saturday against Texas, which has one of the best defensive lines OU will face all year.

"It was a test, because they're pretty big and fast," Gresham said. "Knowing what I'm doing and knowing my assignments, then to take it and do it felt really good."

Gresham has shown promise as a pass-catcher as well. He had a 41-yard reception against Texas and nearly pulled in another long one in the third quarter.

"It tipped my fingertips," he said. "I should've caught that ball.

"It ain't probably gonna happen again."

• Barresi still being evaluated: Redshirt freshman Ben Barresi is still with the team, OU coach Bob Stoops said Wednesday.

Barresi, a 6-foot-5, 311-pound offensive lineman from Edmond, has not practiced with the team this fall because of an undisclosed illness.

"He's been working through medical issues with our staff," Stoops said.

By Scott Wright