ESPN.com is reporting that Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford will likely have season-ending shoulder surgery.

Bradford, who won the Heisman Trophy last season, will address his future plans in a news conference at 6:30 ET Wednesday.

Bradford re-injured his right shoulder on Oklahoma’s second possession during a 16-13 loss to No. 3 Texas on Saturday. The quarterback had previously been out a month with a sprain of the AC joint in his right, throwing shoulder.

Bradford had been ruled out of Oklahoma’s game this week at Kansas (No. 25 BCS, No. 24 AP), but coach Bob Stoops said Tuesday any decision beyond that is yet to come.

Bradford had been projected as an early NFL draft pick, but decided instead to return for his junior season with the Sooners. He was injured just before halftime against BYU and missed Oklahoma’s next three games before returning to throw for 389 yards against Baylor.
He was hurt again when Texas cornerback Aaron Williams sacked him in the first quarter Saturday.

The debate over the next couple months will be whether or not Bradford will enter the NFL draft. He’s not expected to announce that decision at his press conference today, but he’ll certainly be probed about it now that his season looks to be over.

It’s always tough for a player to decide whether or not he wants to enter the NFL draft, but there’s an added element to Bradford’s decision because of his injury. Seeing as how this season didn’t go as planned, he might be inclined to return next year and try to lead Oklahoma back to the national title game. That said, if he returns to school next year, he risks getting hurt again and forgoing millions of dollars in the pros.

I don’t envy his decision.

The unexpected happened today in Dallas. What was supposed to be a grudge match between quarterbacks Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford was anything but after Bradford was knocked out of the game in the first quarter. And what was supposed to be an offensive slug fest actually turned out to be a defensive struggle.

Some may say it wasn’t pretty, but Texas earned a hard-fought 16-13 victory over Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry on Saturday. Bradford only attempted six passes in the game, completing two for 77 yards before suffering another injury following a first-quarter sack. On the other side, McCoy was just 12 of 39 passing for 127 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

This game turned on the first possession of the second half. After Oklahoma took a 6-3 lead into halftime, the Longhorns came out in the third quarter utilizing a hurry-up offense that allowed McCoy to finally get into a rhythm passing. While the drive only produced a field goal, it instilled confidence in McCoy after the Sooners had frustrated him in the first half. This was the second straight year in which OU’s defense got the best of McCoy.

Freshman receiver Marquis Goodwin also played a huge role in the Longhorns’ victory. Oklahoma completely took emerging Heisman candidate Jordan Shipley out of the game by blanketing him in coverage, but Goodwin hauled in three passes and caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from McCoy midway through the third quarter to give Texas its first lead. With Shipley held in check, Goodwin came up huge.

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Jacory Harris is special.

A week after completing just nine of 25 passes for 150 yards and an interception in a loss to Virginia Tech, Harris bounced back to lead Miami to a 21-20 win over Oklahoma on Saturday night.

Harris was far from perfect as he threw two interceptions and took four sacks. But he also threw three touchdown passes while completing 19 of his 28 pass attempts for 202 yards.

How the Canes won this game is a bit of a shock. They were penalized 12 times for 115 yards, turned the ball over twice and trailed 10-7 at halftime.

But Miami opened the second half by marching down the field and capping the drive off with a Dedrick Epps’ 11-yard touchdown pass from Harris. Midway through the third quarter, Harris struck again, this time on a 38-yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin.

The Sooners railed with 10 points of their own, but the Canes managed to play keep-a-way for the final four minutes and 18 seconds to secure the win. In a murderers’ row of games, Miami was able to knock off ranked opponents Florida State, Georgia Tech and Oklahoma, with its only loss coming against Virginia Tech last week. The Canes will gladly welcome Florida A&M next week.

OU freshman quarterback Landry Jones didn’t make many mistakes, but he didn’t do enough in the second half to lift the Sooners to a victory. He finished 18-of-30 for 188 yards and a touchdown, but his average pass went for just 6.3 yards and he only had three completions for over 20 yards. (Miami also sacked him three times.)

It’ll be interesting to see what Bob Stoops and Oklahoma plan to do with Sam Bradford. The season certainly isn’t over, but with two losses already on their belt, it’s highly unlikely that the Sooners will be playing for a national championship again. So is there any rush to bring Bradford back? With a home game next week against Baylor coming up, it might be wise to give Bradford another week off.

Then again, with Texas coming up on October 24, Bradford might need to face Baylor to shake off the rust. It’s an interesting dilemma for Stoops and the Sooners.

Oklahoma head coach said Friday that freshman Landry Jones will start at quarterback for the Sooners this Saturday against Miami. Sam Bradford, who suffered a shoulder injury against BYU in the opening week of the season, was making progress throughout the week but Stoops didn’t feel as though Bradford was ready yet.

From Tulsa World:

“Sam has made daily progress, but we don’t feel like he’s quite where he needs to be yet,” Stoops said in a press release. “Our team has a lot of confidence in Landry’s ability and we’re looking forward to going into the game with him at quarterback. Our approach will be the same that it has been in the last two games.”

“No one’s gonna play if they’re not healthy and ready to go,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said on Tuesday. “. . . A guy coming off an injury, if there are throws he can’t make, you either take those throws out or you say, ‘Look, if you can’t make the throws, the guy doesn’t play.’”

In a Wednesday report by CBS Sportsline columnist Dennis Dodd, Bradford’s father, Kent Bradford, said he didn’t see the harm in his son waiting another two weeks before returning to the starting lineup. That would put Bradford in the center of the storm for the Oct. 17 showdown with No. 2-ranked Texas.

This is absolutely the right move. If there’s any doubt about whether or not Bradford is ready to play, then he’s not ready to play and I applaud Stoops for not rushing him back onto the field.

Jones has more than enough weapons around him to succeed and Oklahoma’s defense has been fantastic this year. As long as the young QB doesn’t try to force the action by trying to make things happen in the passing game, he should be fine.

The Oklahoman reports that Sooners quarterback Sam Bradford split snaps with the first team in practice this week with redshirt freshman Landry Jones and might be ready to play Saturday against Miami.

Stoops still isn’t ready to announce whether Bradford will play Saturday at Miami, but said Bradford hasn’t had any setbacks in his recovery and wasn’t particularly sore Tuesday morning after throwing during Monday’s practice.

“That’s positive in that everything to this point that he has done he has handled in a positive way and he has made daily progress,” Stoops said. “That part is encouraging. But it’s just too early to determine his status for Saturday. I’m not able to give the answer yet, until we see what Sam’s capable of throughout the week. Is he able to make all the throws? Is he able to do it without too much soreness? How does he react the next day?

If Bradford plays on Saturday, it would signal a remarkable turnaround from where he was at a few weeks ago. Some were suggesting that his season was over and now he has a chance to play this week.

Hopefully Oklahoma isn’t rushing Bradford back onto the field too soon. I doubt Stoops would put the success of the team over the health of his player (or at least, I hope he wouldn’t), but if Bradford continues to progress throughout the week then there might be no reason for him to sit out.

Even though VA Tech shredded them on the ground last week, Miami has an aggressive front seven – one that could cause problems for Bradford if he’s rusty upon his return. It’ll be interesting to see how he progresses throughout the week and whether or not he’ll play against the Canes on Saturday.

John Rohde of the Oklahoman writes that Sooners quarterback Sam Bradford should sit out the rest of the season after injuring his throwing shoulder in OU’s loss to BYU last Saturday.

By sitting out this year, Bradford would be free to rehab at his own pace with far less risk of re-injury.
It would give Bradford a few months to clear his head and thoroughly examine his future plans.

A redshirt junior, Bradford could enter the 2010 NFL draft, or return as a senior if he felt he had something to prove because of the injury.

Bordering on the absurd, Bradford eventually would be eligible to petition for a sixth season at OU, a la Jason White. (If Bradford plays again later this season, he would have no sixth-year option.)

If Bradford has recovered enough to play in 2-4 weeks, by all means, come on back
If Bradford’s recovery falls behind schedule, I say sit this one out.

Rohde brings up good points and the smart thing probably is for Bradford to sit out the rest of the season. As Rohde’s points out, he could come back for his senior season fully healthy and then enter the NFL draft the following year.

Then again, telling a competitor like Sam Bradford to sit out the season following a year in which he won the Heisman and led the Sooners to the national title game is like telling a kid not to write on the wall after getting his new box of Crayolas. He’s just going to tune you out.

This has nothing to do with Bradford making the smart decision and everything to do with wanting to play football. He wants to be out there with his teammates and it’s going to be extremely difficult to get him to sit out when he knows his team needs him more than ever. I just hope for his sake that he doesn’t injury himself more when he does come back, because the young man has a bright future ahead of him in the NFL.

Oklahoma’s 2009 season got off to a disastrous start on Saturday as the Sooners were defeated 14-13 by BYU and quarterback Sam Bradford had to leave the game early after spraining his throwing shoulder. The defending Heisman winner could miss up to a month with the injury.

The injury was announced as a sprained AC joint. He was scheduled to undergo an MRI exam on Sunday to determine the severity of the sprain. The junior was in his white football pants and a gray T-shirt as he watched his teammates play the second half.

Bradford put his left hand on his right shoulder, sending athletic trainers rushing to him. He was first checked on a sideline table, then taken into the locker room. The Sooners kicked a field goal on the next play to take a 10-7 halftime lead.

One of the concerns for the Sooners entering the season was that they would have to play with four new starters on the offensive line. Granted, injuries happen in football. But it’s interesting that the offensive line was the biggest worry for OU coming into the new season and now Bradford is out for an extended period of time because he was hurt after a blitzer came in almost unblocked.

This is the worse case scenario for Oklahoma. While the Sooners are still a good team, Bradford is the key to how far they’ll go this season and OU already has one loss. That said, if a team is going to lose a game in college football, it’s better to have it be early in the year. Maybe the Sooners can bounce back, but they need Bradford to come back soon.

Check out our other 2009 college football previews.

Preseason Ranking: No. 3 in AP Top 25; No. 3 in USA Today Poll.

Key Returning Players: Sam Bradford (QB); Chris Brown (RB); DeMarco Murray (RB); Jermaine Gresham (TE); Ryan Broyes (WR); Trent Williams (OT); Travis Lewis (LB); Keenan Clayton (LB); Ryan Reynolds (LB); Jeremy Beal (DE); Auston English (DE); Gerald McCoy (DT); Adrian Taylor (DT); Dominique Franks (LB); Brian Jackson (CB).

Key Losses: Phil Loadholt (OT); Duke Robinson (G); Brandon Walker (G); Jon Cooper (C); Nic Harris (S); Lendy Holmes (S); Juaquin Iglesias (WR); Manuel Johnson (WR).

Player to Watch: Sam Bradford, QB.
While defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and tight end Jermaine Gresham certainly deserve mention, listing any other Sooner besides Bradford in this section would be a crime to the college football world. He’s the key to whether or not Oklahoma will make a repeat appearance in the title game and whether or not the Sooners will inevitably be crowned champions. Many, including his head coach Bob Stoops, believe that the 2008 Heisman winner will be even better this year than he was last season. Considering Bradford threw for 4,720 yards and 50 touchdowns last season, that’s a scary thought for the Big 12.

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Every couple of weeks during the 2009 season, I’ll rank the top 10 Heisman Trophy candidates based on their chances of winning college football’s most prestigious award. Players will either rise or fall in the rankings based on their performances throughout the year.

Below is Version 1.0. Obviously with no games being played yet, I’m mostly projecting with this top 10. These types of rankings always stir up a lot of debate, so I encourage readers to tell me which players should be rated higher or lower. I’ll update the list after the first week or two of the season.

Without further ado…

1. Tim Tebow, QB, Florida
After Sam Bradford edged Tebow out in last season’s Heisman race, some will argue that the Oklahoma QB deserves to be at the top of this ranking. But I’m giving the slight edge to Tebow right now after he absolutely destroyed the competition in the second half of last year. Florida will incorporate the no-huddle into their offense this season, which should only benefit Tebow’s style of play and give him even more scoring opportunities than he already had. Outside of Florida having to replace tackles Phil Trautwein and Jason Watkins, there’s little reason to believe that Tebow will take a step back in 2009 and considering the Gators are once again national title contenders, he should be the front-runner to win this year’s Heisman.

2. Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma
After throwing for 4,720 yards and 50 touchdowns last season, I don’t doubt that the reigning Heisman winner could be even better in 2009. But the Sooners’ offensive line is a major question mark entering this season with the losses of Phil Loadholt, Duke Robinson, Jon Cooper and Brandon Walker. That’s a lot of change in one offseason and while OU should light up the scoreboard once again, I could see Bradford taking a backseat to Tebow when the final Heisman results are tallied.

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Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin, who collected a bunch of Player of the Year awards for his fantastic 2008-09 season, has announced that he will enter the NBA Draft.

“It’s tough to walk away from something like this but at the same time, it’s a big opportunity and I felt like I was ready for it this year,” Griffin said.

After declaring last year that he would stay at Oklahoma for at least one more season, Griffin said he wanted to be able to contribute immediately in the NBA before he would turn pro.

“This is the right decision. In my mind, it’s a no-brainer,” [Oklahoma head coach Jeff] Capel said. “It wasn’t a decision to really debate because it’s the right one, and it’s the best thing for Blake.”

This isn’t a surprise. Generally, when a player is in line to be the #1 overall pick, he goes pro. There is just too much at stake for him to play another year at the college level. Plus, he needs to get while the getting’s good. There’s no telling when this tough economy is going to force the league and the Player’s Association back to the bargaining table — reduced rookie salaries might be a part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

From what I’ve seen of Griffin, I think he’ll make an excellent pro. He has ideal height and length for a power forward and can jump out of the gym. His face up game needs some work, but he’s strong in the post and is already a terrific rebounder.