Stanback in the News
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, September 6, 2006
The Oklahoma papers used their space today to talk about the dangers Isaiah Stanback could present the Sooners, who struggled with UAB’s mobile QB Sam Hunt last week. It’s something I wrote about earlier this week, but it’s interesting to see what is said about it from the other side, especially because they talked to some Oklahoma defenders about Stanback, something we weren’t able to do.
The best of the two is from the Daily Oklahoman http://newsok.com/article/2842951/?template=sports/ou because it talks to several Sooners about Stanback. The article quotes one player as saying Stanback is as fast as anyone Oklahoma has seen, points out his big arm and calls him “a beast.”
The article from the Tulsa World http://www.tulsaworld.com/SportsStory.asp?ID=060907_Sp_B8_Washi9741 leads with saying that Stanback is much better than Hunt.
Several interesting things about both articles. Both compare Stanback to Texas’ Vince Young based on his size and athletic ability, and from those standpoints, it’s probably a valid comparison. They both also mention Stanback’s arm strength, which is something not a lot of stories about Stanback point out. So much attention is given to his running that people figure he can’t throw, which is far from accurate, as Stanback has one of the stronger arms in the Pac-10 and was very accurate last week.
I didn’t give you a link to the Tulsa World’s notebook as there wasn’t a lot that would interest UW fans, but one note said that 200 tickets remain for Saturday’s game, but don’t expect that to last long.
For the second-straight week, Oregon State plays on Thursday so my pick for the game won’t be in our Friday Football section. So here’s what I think: The Beavers looked really good against an overmatched Eastern Washington last week. This week will be a much bigger test against Boise State. We’ll learn more about OSU tonight, and what we’ll learn is the Beavers are pretty good, but Boise State is better: Pick: Boise State 32-26.
