I don't want to get your expectations too high, but I think you guys got something special with Drew Allen and you gotta understand some context to get how he ended up in Syracuse (and because I don't think the story has been well reported on and may be a big story come midseason).
When OU made the run to the national championship during the 2008 season and subsequently lost to Florida in the big game, Sam Bradford decided to return for another season, despite winning the Heisman trophy and by all accounts being the presumed (and ultimately inevitable) first pick in the NFL Draft. No one expected that to happen. As a result, the coaching staff at OU decided to recruit someone to compete with Landry Jones (who was redshirted as a freshman during the 08 season) for the starting gig in 2010 (or later, if for some bizarre reason Sam would've stayed another year after 09). The staff picked Drew - he had a big arm, was a notoriously fierce competitor with a "win at all cost" mentality. And to be honest, if it had played out the way the coaches had expected, no one would probably know who Landry Jones is and he wouldn't be the winningest (is that a word?) qb in OU football history. That however, didn't happen:
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This incident changed the whole dynamic at the qb position at OU. When Sam Bradford went down at the end of the 1st half of the season opener, there was no choice but to throw Landry Jones into the starting spot. And Landry performed admirably on a truly dysfunctional team that season. His performance wasn't perfect, but it was good considering. By the spring of 2010, any chance of a real position battle at qb wasn't going to happen; not only was Landry the presumptive starter, but you give a guy an entire season of playing time and he's gonna learn a few things - nothing improves a player like game experience. So, Drew assumed the back-up responsibilities for Landry in 2010 and the coaching staff recruited Blake Bell to come in as a freshman qb. By the time the 2011 season rolled around, the rumors were that Landry would leave after the 2011 season. Going into that season, Drew was the no question back-up and front runner for the starting spot when Landry left. However, a few things happened. (1) Landry Jones came back for 2012 and (2) the "Belldozer" happened. I'll start with the later.
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This offensive strategy comprised of taking your 3 year starting quarterback out in redzone situations and substituting a 6-5, 265 lb battering ram of a qb and giving him a heavy personnel of a tight end, an extra tackle, 2 full backs, and one receiver to just run dive plays on the goal line or any time we needed 2-3 yards. To anyone that knows football, this is ***ing asinine because it telegraphs what you're gonna run for both quarterbacks when they're on the field - if its Landry, they're gonna throw it and only hand it off as a token of "we have to hand it off to make you think we can but we really know we can't." To be fair to the coaching staff, using this strategy didn't become an option until it was evident that we couldn't run the ball by just handing it off; our oline was mediocre and our running backs were lacking - to them this was a really appealing short-term solution to a long-term problem.
The Sooner proto-fan friggin loved it. Bell's little spark plug thing gave OU fans a real chubber, especially when most of them unnecessarily blamed Landry Jones for any Sooner season disappointments. The guy became a superstar overnight; OU fans were literally calling for benching the guy that would throw 30 TDs in a season and won a Big XII championship the year before because they wanted Blake Bell so bad.
This is important context to understand Drew because he was caught in the middle of all this. Unbeknownst to the fans and sports media outlets, Drew was the actual back-up. When the staff put together the running qb idea, they originally intended to use Drew; he was faster than Blake, he can actually throw the ball, and he had game experience from 2010. However, Huepel (OU's OC) decided it was best to put the redshirt freshman, third string quarterback in because hell, if he got injured doing it, it didn't really matter; we still had the real back-up in case Landry went down. So as the season went on, Belldozer saw an increasing number of snaps at psuedo-quarterback where all he did was dive ahead and not really play qb and OU fans collectively fawned over the idea of a Blake Bell era at qb. On then, to point numero uno, Landry's return for the 2012 season.
By spring of 2012, there was no question that Landry was the starting qb; the staff wasn't gonna bench him (because it would've been friggin stupid) for a qb that had no game experience. Thus began the infamous "battle for the no. 2 spot." This bizarrely public contest for a back-up qb position occupied more fans attention than the question of "hey, is OU gonna actually be in good in the 2012 season?" Or "hey, is it bad that our defensive coordinator decided to jump ship to Clemson?" Or "hey, did we have a disappointing season in 2011 because we did stupid things like ESPN all-access and our players are getting entitled?" Or "hey, is our tackles/tight ends coach a former lawyer turned liberal evangelical minister (how one can be a liberal evangelical is beyond me, but trust me, this guy was) turned one year high school football coach turned position coach at the friggin University of Oklahoma?!" No, instead it was "Blake Bell should be the starting qb! *** Landry Jones! If you won't bench Landry, at least show us what we have to look forward to with Blake!" Its amazing, but fans can have an actual influence on coaching decisions sometimes; for who knows what reason, Huepel decided to announce that Blake Bell would be the back-up quarterback after a phony position battle and in 2012, we fully committed to the "Belldozer" whenever we needed to gain some yards.
And thus, here we are. Drew had one year of eligibility left and told he wasn't going to get to compete with Blake, so start shopping for another school (ironically, it looks like OU's gonna start a different kid than Blake; apparently once they started actually thinking "oh , we should actually ask the question as to whether Belldozer can actually play qb" they realized that they didn't have a good qb on their hands). So Drew looked around and narrowed it down to the 'Cuse and your future conference opponent, NC State.
Drew picked you guys because he believes in your program and he wants to make an impact. He wants to win and he's got a whole hell of a lot to prove. That's something you guys want. I know that was long winded, but I think it gives some much needed context so you understand that you're gonna get a guy who's finally getting his shot and is ready for it.
GO ORANGE 2013!!! WIN THE ACC!!!
- Your slack-jawed Okie scratchin his head 'bout your Yankee ways
