View slideshow - Football: Red and White Game 2009

The end of the 2008 football season left a lot of questions for the upcoming year. But now that spring practices have concluded, many of those questions have been answered.

Here are a few things we have learned about the Sooners coming out of the spring practices:

The young receiving corps can replace last year’s big three

Even though the loss of receivers Juaquin Iglesias, Manuel Johnson and Quentin Chaney will be evident once September rolls around, the young receiving corps led by sophomore Ryan Broyles should be ready by the time the Sooners will attempt to make a national championship run.

Broyles has become more diverse, moving from the slot to the outside allowing junior running back Mossis Madu to take some snaps from the slot position, and has stepped up as a captain within the young group.

Broyles led all receivers in the Red-White game with four receptions and 59 yards.

Also, senior receiver Adron Tennell has emerged as one of the top players coming out of spring practice. In the spring game, he had one catch that was good for a 23-yard touchdown.

The o-line should be better than it was in the Red-White game

Even though OU’s offensive line got manhandled during the Red-White game, it has controlled the line of scrimmage for the better part of the spring.

Many of the major plays in practice have come via the running game against a defensive line that is predicted to be one of the best in the Big 12.

Senior offensive tackle Trent Williams is the only returning starter on the line from last season as the Sooners graduated four starting linemen.

But, with the help of senior tight end Jermaine Gresham in the blocking game — and having junior tail backs DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown in the backfield — the offensive line should be in decent shape when the season starts.

The only question that still remains is whether or not the line will be able to protect junior quarterback Sam Bradford and give him enough time to find his receivers down the field.

The defensive line may be the best OU has seen in years

It will be difficult for opposing teams to slow down the pass rush and rushing attack by OU’s defensive line when it is completely healthy. The Sooners are returning junior Gerald McCoy, senior Auston English, junior Jeremy Beal, sophomore Frank Alexander and junior Adrian Taylor from last year’s team.

Those five combined for 32 sacks during the 2008 season.

Once you add the talented linebackers to OU’s pass rush and rush defense, the Sooners’ defense has the potential to be deadly enough to assure the offense has plenty of support to win games by double-digits in 2009.

The special teams may still be OU’s weakest link

There were countless times last season when the special teams gave Sooner fans reason to moan and groan, and from what was shown at the Red-White game, there is no reason for this to change.

Redshirt freshman kicker Tress Way had problems on punts and kickoffs Saturday. He averaged 37.6 yards on 13 punts and struggled getting kickoffs past the 10-yard line.

Neither Way nor sophomore kicker Jimmy Stevens attempted any field goals, but they were five-for-five on extra point opportunities. Way has a stronger leg than Stevens, so OU may use him on kicks of 40-or-more yards and use Stevens on field goals on shorter attempts.

The kickoff and punt coverage will have to improve from last year if the kickoffs and punts remain short. The Sooners can’t afford to give up good field position and touchdowns in the special teams game if they want to keep up with conference opponents.

Bradford is in top form, but backups need to improve

In both practice and the Red-White game, Bradford looked as good as ever, but both redshirt freshman Landry Jones and freshman Drew Allen looked off the mark during their elongated time.

Combined, Jones and Allen completed nine of 26 passes for 131 yards. Several of their passes were dropped by defenders or nowhere near their intended receivers.

Even though Jones and Allen have looked good during practice, their game performances showed they are not ready to back up Bradford and take control of the reins if he were to be sidelined.

-Jono Greco is a journalism sophomore.