OU football notebook

By John Helsley

Published: December 20, 2006

Around town
Fiesta Bowl officials have begun welcoming Sooner fans — in Oklahoma City. The bowl committee has purchased the use of six billboards in the Oklahoma City metro area. The signs display a Tostitos Fiesta Bowl logo and an action shot of OU running back Adrian Peterson along with the message: “Congratulations, Oklahoma — Big 12 Conference Champions. See you in Glendale on Jan. 1.” The billboard locations: I-240 and Sunnylane

I-35 and SE 44th

I-40 and I-44

I-40 and Klein

I-44 and SW 144th

I-235 and 50th

• More commitments: OU’s youth at wide receiver hasn’t kept the Sooners from pursuing — and selling — some of the nation’s top prep prospects.

The Sooners secured a commitment Monday from James Kirkendoll of Round Rock, Texas, a four-star prospect and the 19th-ranked receiver nationally by Scout.com. That after landing Tyler Stradford from New Orleans over the weekend.

OU now claims three wide receiver commitments in what will be a small class of signees.

Stradford is a 6-foot-3, 180-pound prospect who is not currently ranked by Scout.com.

Kirkendoll, 5-11 and 178, chose the Sooners over Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Tennessee and Texas Tech.

• No worries: OU’s quarterback competition will be closely monitored in the spring as the key job battle with no clear frontrunner.

Still, Sooners coach Bob Stoops said the offense’s experience and proven playmakers will lessen the burden on whoever — Joey Halzle, Sam Bradford, Keith Nichol — wins the job.

“We’ll be fine,” Stoops said. “I know it’ll be doomsday come Jan. 2, but I’ll promise you it won’t be. Just like it was doomsday the first day of practice this year. We will be fine.

“What I said the first day of practice this year, we were much more capable of handling that this year than we were a year ago, because of the players around that position.

“And that will be the case even more next year. We’ll be much more experienced — line, backs, tight ends, receivers — around that position than we were this year. Those guys are all capable.”

• Red River rumblings: The Big 12 Conference’s future scheduling features some fiddling with the date for the OU-Texas game.

Traditionally reserved for the second Saturday in October, the game will be played as early as Oct. 2 in 2010 and as late as Oct. 17 in 2009, according to schedules for 2008 through 2015 released Tuesday by the conference.

Those dates represent the earliest and latest on record since 1931.

The fluctuation is due to the league’s attempts to meet a request by league schools to incorporate an off week into the conference schedule.

“Because of the 14-week schedule and what we’re trying to do with bye weeks, that game’s going to move around a little bit,” said Big 12 associate commissioner Tim Allen.