NCAA Football - Sam Bradford, New AP Player of the Year

The quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners, Sam Bradford was named player of the year by the Associated Press; the announcement was made on Monday after he was chosen. This is the third award he gets this year since he was already given the Davey O'Brien Award and the Heisman Trophy. For this award he was competing against Colt McCoy of Texas and Tim Tebow of Florida, the same players that competed with him for the Heisman Trophy. Bradford received 27 votes followed by McCoy with 17 and Tebow with 16.

Josh Heupel, the current quarterbacks coach and former Oklahoma player who won the same award back in 2000, expressed that Bradford deserved the award for all the effort that he has been doing even in the offseason. He also explained that Bradford has grown up a lot with this process of three years and that he has gain character to have a leadership roll in the team as a quarterback, their teammates actually believe in him and that's what makes the difference.

The next objective for the team is fighting for the National Championship against the University of Florida in Miami. They are a very competitive team and have the same record that Oklahoma has for the season, 12-1.

"Playing in the national championship is something we've talked about all three years that I've been here, and we've yet to do that," Bradford said. "So to have that opportunity ... it's really exciting. Me and my teammates are really ready to get down there."

His teammates are very proud of him and they think he deserved the awards, especially because he is a great guy that still has his feet on the ground. They also consider that the awards he has received are for the team as well because the effort comes from all together.

Bradford has made a great effort as well this season. He got injured in the game against Oklahoma State when he tore his ligaments in the thumb of his left hand on November the 29th, but despite that, he played on the game against Missouri for the Big 12 title on December the 6th even though he was going to have surgery the next day.

This has been one of the best seasons for the Oklahoma team; they have scored 702 points in total, beating the record Hawaii's set on 2006 of 656. They are also the first college team in 89 years to score 60 points in five consecutive games.

Bradford started his career with the Oklahoma Sooners in 2006, when he was fighting for the starter position of quarterback after Rhett Bomar was kicked out of the NCAA for violating the rules. He won the starting position for the 2007 season, where he demonstrated that he truly deserved the position since he had a very good season and the team won the Big 12 conference but lost the Fiesta Bowl against West Virginia on January the 2nd.

For this season Bradford has passed for 4,464 yards and 48 touchdowns, breaking the record that Jason White set in 2003 for the school. He is also leading the country in passing efficiency and has thrown only six interceptions.