When Striker raised his arm, Dixon fell back like he’d been hit forcefully. There was no flag on the play, which came two plays before Louisiana Tech kicked a field goal.
Striker was asked Monday whether it looked like a soccer flop.
“He did, didn’t he?" Striker said. “Flopping like that. Or LeBron James. Something like that.”
Striker talked to Dixon about it after the game ended.
“I was kind of caught off guard,” Striker said. “That’s just him trying to get a penalty. He sold it a lot, didn't he? Like he almost hurt himself. It was kind of funny. I laughed. I’m sure you all laughed. I told him he was crazy for that after the game. He just laughed at me. He was just trying to do what he had to do to help his team, so that's what he did. It was pretty funny, though.
“I think he should win an Oscar for it.”
STOOPS SEEKS CLARIFICATION ON TARGETING CALL
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops expected to receive clarification Monday afternoon on the targeting penalty that caused sophomore linebacker Jordan Evans to be ejected Saturday.
“I’ve got a request into the office — the officials’ office — and I’m sure by this afternoon sometime I’ll have some kind of clarification on it and even some explanation,” Stoops said. “I need to know what I can tell the player. It’s a pretty tight situation. But Walt Anderson and all our crew at the Big 12, they do a great job. We’ll get an explanation one way or the other. We just want to learn from it.”
Evans will be back Saturday against Tulsa.
He was ejected late in the first quarter when he made helmet-to-helmet contact with Louisiana Tech quarterback Cody Sokol as Sokol started to slide.
Cornerback Zack Sanchez said players have to be able to adjust regardless of what the offensive player does.
“It’s tough,” Sanchez said. “You never know when a quarterback is going to slide. Going full speed, it’s hard to adjust. That’s one of the things that Coach Stoops stresses. We watch a video every week on targeting and things like that. He’ll learn from it obviously and be more cautious, but as defenders we have to be more cautious.”
STOOPS: ‘I CAUSE ENOUGH WAVES’
At his Monday press conference, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops was asked about the SEC's performance last weekend against teams who run the spread offense, including Alabama’s struggles against West Virginia.
“I’m not gonna sit here and talk about that. You guys are more than capable of doing that without me,” Stoops said. “I cause enough waves. This isn’t the out-of-season where I cause waves.”
Stoops is regularly asked about the SEC, especially as it relates to the Big 12 and has made headlines with plenty of those responses in the past.
He did, though, say he wasn’t surprised about the strong performances from Oklahoma State and West Virginia in losses to national powers.
“That should be obvious to everybody — the strength of the league and the depth,” Stoops said. “Both those teams, we knew were better than what people thought of them and had them ranked. These scores and the way they played did not surprise me at all.
“Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to go anywhere and go bet on them. I would've liked to.”
KNIGHT: ‘I NEVER SLID IN HIGH SCHOOL’
Stoops said before the season that he wanted quarterback Trevor Knight to be smarter about giving himself up at times to avoid injury after Knight left two of his starts last season with injury.
Knight clearly took the lesson to heart, sliding several times in Saturday’s season opener.
“I never slid in high school,” Knight said. “I maybe slid one time my whole career in high school. And that’s just transitioning from being a playmaker to being a distributor. I took two hits all night the other night. That’s what we want. I don’t want to take a whole bunch of hits — get the ball into those three running backs’ hands and get out on the edge.
“Those receivers did a great job blocking it up. We just pitched it out on the bubbles and picked up 10-11 on each of those bubbles, so it was good for those guys.”
BELL REMAINS A QB OPTION
In Saturday's game, Oklahoma quarterback Trevor Knight went the distance even with the Sooners having the game well in hand.
That's because backup Cody Thomas was banged up a bit, though OU coach Bob Stoops said he could've put Thomas in to just hand off the ball in the fourth quarter.
Because of Thomas' status, quarterback-turned-tight end Blake Bell keeps taking limited reps at quarterback.
“He took some last week and was well and throwing the ball great,” Stoops said. “The kids were teasing him that he’s still got it. But the projection is that Cody will be ready to go this week.”
Stoops has expressed a desire to redshirt freshman quarterback Justice Hansen.