Oklahoma football: Sooners have dealt with injuries in the past

Unless you count the mere handful of minutes the Sooners trailed UCLA last Saturday, Oklahoma football has yet to face any real adversity on the field.

However, this team had its first off-the-field roadblock this past Sunday when it found out that star running back Rodney Anderson was out for the season.

Anderson was a Heisman and Doak Walker Award candidate coming into 2018 and figured to play a prominent role in the Sooners’ offense.

It is the biggest injury setback of the Riley era so far and will bring some challenges along the way. It also brings to mind other major Oklahoma injuries in the past.

Here’s a list of major injuries over the years and how they affected the Oklahoma football season.

1985 – Troy Aikman

The Oklahoma high school football star broke his leg in the fourth game of the year against Miami, prompting the Sooners to turn to true freshman Jamelle Holieway to finish out the year. The rest was college football history. Holieway guided the Sooners to nine straight wins, including a 25-10 victory over Penn State in the 1986 Orange Bowl to claim Oklahoma’s sixth national title. Holieway would go on to be a four-year starter, while Aikman would transfer to UCLA to finish out his career. In a strange caveat to this story Oklahoma head coach Barry Switzer would again team up with Aikman 10 years later to lead the Dallas Cowboys a win in Super Bowl XXX.

2001-02 – Jason White

White lost the starting job to Nate Hybl to start the 2001 season, but when Hybl went down with an injury White replace him to great acclaim. Against Texas his crucial scrambles helped the Sooners play keepaway and control the clock in a tough 14-3 slug fest win. He would hold on to the starting job for the next few weeks before tearing his ACL on a non-contact play against Nebraska. After recovering from the injury he returned to take the starting job going into the 2002 season before tearing his other ACL against Alabama. In both situations it was Hybl who came in to play relief duty to mixed results. The 2001 team dropped a key game at Oklahoma State to miss out on the Big 12 Championship game, while the 2002 team rallied behind Hybl to win the Big 12 title and the first Rose Bowl in school history.

2006 – Rhett Bomar, Adrian Peterson

2006 was a double whammy. First starting quarterback Rhett Bomar was released from the team the week before the start of the season, then a week after losing to Texas 28-10 the Sooners lost Adrian Peterson for the rest of the regular season after he broke his collar bone against Iowa State. Head coach Bob Stoops turned in one of his best coaching performances from then on out as Oklahoma rattled off eight straight wins to capture the Big 12 title behind backup quarterback-turned-wide-receiver-turned-quarterback Paul Thompson and second-team running backs Mossis Madu, Allen Patrick and Jacob Gutierrez. Peterson would baffle doctors by healing weeks ahead of schedule in time to finish his OU career in the Fiesta Bowl against Boise State (we all remember what happened there).

2009 – Sam Bradford

The 2009 Sooners team had to replace some major pieces on the offensive line and unfortunately that meant more hits on the quarterback. Sam Bradford paid the price in the first game of the year against BYU when he took a nasty hit that injured his shoulder. He would try to return for the Texas game, but another big hit officially ended his season and with it his OU career. True freshman Landry Jones stepped in at the position and guided the team to an 8-5 record. He looked like a star at times – like in the Sooners’ 65-10 beating of Texas A&M. He also looked lost at others – like the next week’s 41-13 loss at Texas Tech. One can’t help but think that had Bradford – and tight end Jermaine Gresham for that matter – managed to stay healthy the 2009 season could have had vastly different results.

2014 – Sterling Shepard

Sterling Shepard was never going to win the Heisman, but his value to the team was unmistakable in 2014. The Sooners toppled 30 points per game in every contest Shepard was a part of, but the offense turned erratic without him, including an embarrassing 48-14 loss at home to Baylor. The Sooners struggled to find a feature wide receiver among the likes of Michiah Quick, Derrick Woods, K.J.  Young and what seemed like a revolving door of different players trying out at the position. The Sooners limped across the finish line with an 8-5 record. Luckily Oklahoma got one more year with the second-generation star, a special 2015 with Baker Mayfield immortalized him as one of the best receivers in the history of the school.

2018 – Rodney Anderson

Just like all of these other players, Anderson is a central figure in the OU offense, luckily, there are players with starting experience lining up behind him. Trey Sermon was the team’s feature back last year before Anderson’s emergence in the second half of the season. Marcelias Sutton has looked like a viable option so far this year and T.J. Pledger led all the running backs in rushing yards last week. That’s not even mentioning Kennedy Brooks, who impressed all spring and looked good in a limited role against FAU. Don’t be surprised to see Sermon’s name jump up on some lists before the end of the season. The true sophomore was stellar last year, but hasn’t come close to his high ceiling. With increased touches his vision should improve and allow him to use his superb skill set.