Lamb still a major question mark heading into OU/TX
Injury issues still remain at the forefront of Oklahoma’s preparations for Texas Wednesday in Norman. During the week, Oklahoma starting receiver CeeDee Lamb has been active on Twitter.
With 5:49 remaining in the first quarter against Iowa State, Lamb caught a short pass from quarterback Baker Mayfield, juked two defenders and dove for the endzone.
Lamb got the touchdown and gave the Sooners an early 14-0 lead, but he injured his left shoulder as he landed awkwardly out of bounds.
Trainers surrounded Lamb on the OU bench, and they soon made the decision to remove his shoulder pads and ice down his shoulder. He wouldn’t return to the game.
The loss of Lamb, who leads all OU receivers with 4 touchdown grabs, was noticeable Saturday.
He’s been on the mind of Sooner fans this week as they’ve followed his tweets throughout the week.
Earlier in the week Lamb tweeted out “Minor setback for a major comeback.” It’s a phrase athletes often use when they’ve been dealt an injury.
That tweet has since been erased. But early today Lamb tweeted something else that had Sooner fans buzzing.
When another fan asked “What’s the latest on his injury?” Lamb replied directly, “I’m good.”
When asked about the series of tweets Wednesday evening after practice, head coach Lincoln Riley addressed them.
“I don’t know yet,” said Riley. “I don’t know yet. He hasn’t done a whole lot with us here during the first few days. He’s going to have to make some pretty strong progress over the next few days.”
Lamb is the Sooners’ second leading receiver this season with 17 catches for 307 yards and those 4 TDs.
Mark Andrews certainly gives Baker Mayfield a capable target against a stout Longhorn defense, but plenty of pressure will rest on the shoulders of Marquise Brown and Jeff Badet if Lamb cannot go.
And Riley agreed with Lamb’s assessment of big-time players making big-time plays Saturday.
“He’s a team guy,” he said of Lamb. “If he plays that’s great. If he doesn’t, we need other big-time players to make plays in this big-time game.”
The Sooners are also nursing other key injuries. Starting running back Abdul Adams left the Iowa State game in the first half and never returned. He did come out of the halftime locker room with a boot on his right foot.
There have been few encouraging reports on Adams throughout the week.
“A couple of those guys were pretty banged up in that game and haven’t been able to do a whole lot,” said Riley. “We’ve tried to let a few of them let some things calm down and try to make some decisions here later in the week.”
The Sooners were also down another starter last week in starting right guard Dru Samia.
“He’s got a chance to be back this week,” said Riley of Samia. “He got a little dinged up during the bye week and it just didn’t progress quickly enough. It was kind of like this last week, it didn’t progress quickly enough to be ready to play.
“We thought there was a chance last week, but by game time he wasn’t ready yet. But he’s headed in the right direction.”
Mike Stoops said yesterday that starting strong safety Steven Parker had returned to practice.
With two days remaining, Riley would like to get some of these injuries decided.
“I think they’ve got to be able to do it a little bit of something to prepare,” he said. “Part of it, too, is what position you play. Some positions can handle maybe not having as much as the physical grind throughout the week and still be ready to play. Some players can handle it, some can’t. Certainly if a guy isn’t able to do much throughout the week, his chances of playing for us are probably pretty low.”