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NORMAN — Oklahoma spent Bedlam Saturday rolling up all kinds of big numbers against Oklahoma State en route to an impressive 42-14 bashing. The Sooners produced 560 yards of offense, which included 237 and two touchdowns from tailback Adrian Peterson. Quarterback Rhett Bomar also threw for 206 yards and a career-high three scores to give the hosts a balanced attack vs. the Cowboys.

On the flip side of that, the Sooners were also flagged 16 times for a whopping 155 yards of penalties. OU coach Bob Stoops spoke afterward about the good and the bad of his team’s fifth win in its last six games. The following are excerpts from his postgame press conference in the Red Room:

Bob Stoops’ Opening Statement...

Q: Could you talk about Adrian Peterson’s ability to get stronger as the game went along?
Bob Stoops: Yeah. The more and more you feed it to him, he gets stronger and stronger and the offensive line
just kept at it. Eventually, you hit one of those seams, and we did a few times. That’s where sometimes you
just have to have patience with it to — where you’re running it and you get a couple or you get hit in the
backfield, or you’re just off — you have to have the patience to stay with it and eventually you get it
just right. That happened and (Adrian) has such incredible explosiveness when he hits it he’s hard to handle.

Q: You see (Adrian) every day in practice, but are those two long runs just a reminder of how special he really is?
Stoops: Yeah, but I’ve been around it a long time and I shake my head at practice — I can’t tell you how many times. You don’t see people hit it like that. When he hits a hole or turns a corner it’s something. That’s a lot coming at you.

Q: How has he handled the frustrations of this season?
Stoops: He’s handled it great. I think along it was frustrating to a point but he also understands it’s no ones fault that he’s hurt. He had a high ankle sprain and those aren’t the easiest things to manage. He tried to fight through it and play a few times, like the KU game. Sometimes you feel like you can until you go and make those game-type cuts. But he just wasn’t
able to manage it like he was used to and we just had to pull him. But he’s been very mature about it. He’s
been a great teammate throughout the whole year and I think what I appreciate about him is that it’s never
been just about him. He has a genuine humbleness to him that he wasn’t sitting there worried about not being the guy and missing out on all the attention. He was a great teammate and when he was able to come back, look what he’s done. He’s been sensational.

Q: Is he just a better running back out of the I-formation?
Stoops: I think it’s obvious that’s where he’s the best. Of course we’re going to play to that. Then when he busts it, you look great doing it. I don’t think that’s any secret. I think most teams know we like to be in it when he’s there and it also sets up play action passes. It sets up defenses and how they want to defend you. But we have had other occasions where
we have been pretty decent out of the shotgun. Jacob Gutierrez, for instance in the Baylor game, was awfully good in the shotgun too. Of course A.D. being deep and coming straight down hill, that’s a strength of his so we play to it as much as we can.

Q: Can you talk about all this team went through during the season and all the things this team came though, all the youngsters, injuries and how you came out like you have?
Stoops: Yeah, it’s been a great group to coach. I can say that. It’s been a fun team to coach in that their attitudes have been great the whole year. Our seniors were a group of guys that have been used to winning virtually every single game for a bunch of years and that didn’t happen early on. They could have gone a different direction and they never did. They kept their character, their discipline and leadership. We fought through it and have ended up in a good position. 7-4, there’s worse records out there and we’ve got a chance at a good bowl game. As much as anything, I told them, it gives us a lot of time from now to then to build our team the next year.

I love seeing the young guys out there today with so many of them making big plays. So it’s been a good year because we’re working with good character guys on this team and they’re fun to go out to practice with every day and in the locker room. You want to win every game but sometimes you don’t. That doesn’t take anything away from the character of these young guys to work with.

Q: Now that you’ll have time to look back on it, how frustrating is the Texas Tech game realizing it might have been different?
Stoops: I’m not much on going back. What’s done is done and it serves me no purpose to go back and rehash that. To some degree there’s aggravation in that, but I’m not going to go into that. It’s finished. If there was something I could do about it I would, but there isn’t so we’ll move forward.

Q: Could you talk a little bit more about your seniors on defense because they seemed to play really well tonight?
Stoops: Yeah, Clint (Ingram) had his fourth interception. I’ve always said he’s like a ball magnet. The guy just does an amazing job finding the football. Dusty (Dvoracek) — incredible again. He fought through the last two weeks. He’s been in a boot and came out and played in a great way the last couple of games. I don’t know, all those guys. I feel bad Travis Wilson wasn’t able to be out there. I was really proud of Jejuan Rankins. He’s a guy that’s been a little bit forgotten about but a guy that started two years ago the entire undefeated season for us. He’s had two high ankle sprains on opposite legs. But he has been so valuable to us catching punts. He’s limited in his movement and what he’s able to do. But to possess the football into the
wind, with the wind — that’s big.

Q: Until Adrian Peterson’s two big runs, you followed your earlier script and got a big lead but couldn’t pull away. Were you concerned at all after you got up 21-0?
Stoops: Not really. I think sometimes the media or fans think you score every time you get the football, but show me anyone else that does that. At times you may be just a little bit off. We had a couple of dropped passes right? So if we hit the one to Manuel Johnson, we’re going to score again, you know? It doesn’t take much to end a drive. Penalties end drives, dropped balls end drives, they make a play. It’s not realistic to score every time you get the football. It’s a little bit humorous to me to assume it’s just going to happen that way. That’s not given the other teams enough credit. I think they’re capable of making their plays as well. They’ve got good players, they’ve got good coaches. Sometimes they hit it and you don’t.

Q: You talked about being aggravated and the media asked questions about Texas Tech all the way through Wednesday this week. Was it pleasing to see your team bounce back and not have any hangover from that loss? And also, did the scuffle before the game do anything to get your team past some of that?
Stoops: I don’t think so. I don’t believe there was any shoving. I think they were just bouncing back and forth. I don’t think there was any swinging or punches or anything. But you know what, I think it was an issue to everybody else. So much of the time people think because the media is talking about it that we’re involved in all this discussion all week about the calls. They’re not. Our guys are going to class, they’re going to study hall, they’re with Schmitty in the weight room or they’re practicing. (The coaches) are in here getting ready for practice, critiquing what we did, watching tape — we’re not dealing with it either other than what our job is to do on the Sunday after the game. We had to visit with the Big 12 office about what we felt and then we deal with it. It’s the same week as we always have.

Q: Bob you had 560 yards of total offense and (155) yards in penalties. Are you frustrated by the repetitive nature of some of those penalties.
Stoops: Yeah, what are you going to do. It is frustrating.

Q: Any particular bowl you’d like to go to?
Stoops: They’re are good and they’re all great. However it ends up, we’ll be pleased with it.