Click here to see Luke Atkinson's side on the Friday Faceoff
The injuries to Sam Bradford and Jermaine Gresham are definitely upsetting and it leaves a really sour outlook on the rest of the season. However, when deciding which injury will hurt the Sooners worse, I’m inclined to think long-term and go with Gresham.
Yes, I know Bradford plays quarterback and I’m aware of the Heisman he won last season. But look at some of the other details of the injuries.
First and foremost, Bradford is out two to four weeks, which would potentially bring him back by the Miami game. This would leave him out for two home games against Idaho State (which, let’s just be honest, is a cupcake win) and Tulsa, who is a decent team but nothing special.
Gresham is undoubtedly out for the season, leaving him out of games that we need our best performance such as the Texas and Oklahoma State games. This is the most obvious reason as to why Gresham’s injury hurts a lot worse. However, the biggest thing to me is that Gresham’s absence will place a lot more pressure on Oklahoma’s young and inexperienced receiving corp.
In the future games without Gresham, Brody Eldridge will likely be starting in his place. However, Eldridge is more of a blocking tight end, while Gresham was both a blocker and a downfield threat.
So, without that extra tight end asset, the Sooners are left depending on a list of young receivers. Ryan Broyles had a nice first season last year, despite not playing his best game against Brigham Young University. After Broyles, our receiving corps is left with a bunch of potential playmakers that have not broken out yet, such as Adron Tennell, Brandon Caleb and Dejuan Miller, just to name a few.
While all of these guys look to be OU’s star receivers of the future (except for Tennell who is a senior), I was really looking forward to them enjoying some open spaces this year when defenses would key on Gresham. It would have been great to be able to develop a couple of stud wideouts with Gresham there to take the pressure off.
However that fantasy has been completely drowned out, and now we’re all hoping for somebody to come out of the blue. Not to say I don’t think it will happen, just saying it would have been much easier with Jermaine on the field.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
dbh 2 years, 8 months ago
Gresham injury is a big loss for the sooners. But that being said I want to give my best to him and thank him for his loyalty to all true Sooner football fans. Thanks for your dedication and we will be thinking of you during this healing process. Get Well with Godspeed...