John Shinn
Oklahoma receivers Malcolm Kelly, Juaquin Iglesias and Manuel Johnson are roommates, but they share more than a living room.
They all shared frustration after the Sooners’ 17-16 victory over Texas A&M; two weeks ago. They caught one pass each and OU only put the ball in the air 12 times.
“I told a few of the other receivers, ‘I’m not going to settle for 39 passing yards.’ That’s ridiculous,” Kelly said. “We have to do something about that.”
Fingers were pointed, but not at coaches, only at themselves. They had been warned going half-speed in drills and dropping balls in practice was unacceptable.
And the fact the Sooners jumped out to a double-digit lead early and rushed for 224 yards made the decision to stick to the ground game a little easier.
No matter how subtle or direct, a message was sent.
“You have to practice at a tempo that gives our quarterback a simulation of what’s going to happen on Saturday,” receivers coach Kevin Sumlin said.
The message was received.
A week later, quarterback Paul Thompson threw for a career-high 309 yards in a 34-24 victory over Texas Tech.
Kelly was on the receiving end of 153 of those yards and set a career high with 11 catches. Johnson added career bests with six grabs and 87 yards before he was injured early in the fourth quarter. Iglesias added three more receptions for 22 yards.
All told, the 16th-ranked Sooners had their biggest passing night since Jason White launching balls to future NFL receivers Mark Clayton, Brandon Jones, Mark Bradley and Travis Wilson in 2004.
Thompson said it was matter of taking what was given.
“Going into last week’s game we were going to even it out a little bit,” Thompson said. “We felt comfortable in their defense and what they were giving us so we could take some shots and get some yards after the catch.”
Perhaps it was.
But Iglesias believes there was more to it.
“Coach talked about how it’s us and we need to practice better,” Iglesias said. “At first it made us a little mad, but Coach was right. We’ve got to work hard and give him confidence in us so they can throw the ball around. We talked about it all week and it was a big topic: We see that it depends on us, how we do, whether we get the ball or not.”
But the question is what will happen at 11 a.m. Saturday when OU (8-2, 5-1 Big 12) faces Baylor (4-7, 3-4) at Floyd Casey Stadium.
Only offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson knows for sure. Whether it continues depends on the receivers.
One game and one week of practice isn’t enough for a trend. The key is doing it over the long haul.
That’s what Sumlin is interested in seeing.
“As a player you have to take pride in what you’re doing,” he said. “You’re not just developing yourself, your developing a passing game. Part of maturity and growing up and becoming a really good player is doing things not just for, but for other people on the team. That’s part learning how to win and learning how to handle success. That’s our challenge.”
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
