Juaquin Iglesias barely created a ripple when he signed with Oklahoma in February of 2005. After all, he was part of a recruiting class that included the likes of Malcolm Kelly and Manuel Johnson and the Sooners already had a huge crop of receivers ahead of him.
He didn’t possess any of their accolades, but he did possess something else.
“He’s a guy with great ability and has shown a willingness to work and make himself better,” OU coach Bob Stoops said.
Iglesias has. He leads the Sooners with 21 receptions, including five last week against Texas. Those numbers come off a freshman campaign which finished with 290 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns.
In two seasons, he became the prototypical possession receiver every offense seeks.
“I’m just trying to become as well rounded as I can be,” Iglesias said.
Most believed it would be tough for him to get on the field with so many older players and highly-touted recruits ahead of him.
Iglesias’ prep career at Killeen (Texas) High School was solid. He caught 42 passes his senior year and found the end zone 10 times. But his efforts didn’t catch the attention of many big-name college programs.
He was entertaining offers from UTEP, SMU and Houston when the Sooners called.
He jumped at the chance to come to Norman. Killeen used a similar offense to OU’s and Iglesias had seen what receivers like Mark Clayton, Brandon Jones and Mark Bradley had done in the system. He wanted to be a part of it.
But even he never imagined it would happen so quickly.
“I came from a town where people were always like, ‘You’re not going to play,’” Iglesias said. “That was kind of the mindset I had coming out of Killeen. I didn’t expect to play.”
Most, including Iglesias, figured he was destined to redshirt in 2005. OU had Travis Wilson and several older players who’d been waiting in the wings. Plus, Kelly and Johnson were expected to have the best chances to make immediate impacts.
Besides, freshmen who play right out of high school are few and far between. The speed of the game tends to overwhelm most.
“It’s an eye-opening experience for anybody,” OU receivers coach Kevin Sumlin said. “The first thing that happens to most players is they see that the game is extremely fast the first time they go out there. Things happen in a hurry and they don’t know what’s going on. Even though you’ve practiced it, it’s not the same.”
However, Iglesias caught up faster than most. He wasn’t the biggest or the fastest, but he had something else going for him though.
“When we’re out there doing one-on-ones, he’s the best route-runner,” Kelly said. “He knows how to get open. He has that confidence about him that he knows he’s going to get open … That’s something that gets overlooked.”
But not by the Sooner coaching staff. Iglesias remembered what former OU receivers coach Darrell Wyatt said in those practices.
“He said the way you get on the field the fastest is when you have opportunities to make the plays in front of the coaches and the team, you have to make them,” Iglesias recalled. “When you do that the team can get confidence in you as well as the coaches.
“Everyday in practice I tried to keep that in my mind. I had to make the plays that come at me. In big situations like third-down plays, it was something that was always in my mind.”
Iglesias’ mind is a big part of what makes him a special player.
It’s one thing to have size and speed, it’s another to quickly adjust to mental demands of Division I football.
“He knows what to look for and how to attack things,” Sumlin said. “One thing I’ve noticed is that he’s extremely intelligent. That takes him a long way along with his talent. Guys like that always seem to go a long way.”
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
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