Lendy Holmes, who’s played every position in the secondary the last three seasons, has been working at field cornerback since practice began Monday.

Holmes was a free safety throughout spring drills and all of last season, but OU’s coaches now think the best way to get their four best defensive backs on the field is with Holmes out wide.

Redshirt freshman Sam Proctor emerged as a potential starting strong safety in the spring and Nic Harris has returned from a shoulder injury at free safety.

“We are scrutinizing every guy every day in every drill, and we are looking for a variety of things,” OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “We are looking for consistency, playmaking, leadership, toughness, focus, and we are looking for guys who play with urgency.”

Brian Jackson remains the No. 1 at boundary corner. Dominique Franks has slipped to No. 2 at the field corner spot.

No huddle update: The biggest news coming out of spring practice was OU implementing a no-huddle offense. Offensive players said they tried to implement a quicker scheme during the offseason workouts.

“Everything we did was quicker,” running back Mossis Madu said. “We would do things like push sleds for like 10 seconds and then get a 30-second break, because that’s how long you get between plays when you’re trying to play at the tempo the coaches want.”

The goal of the no-huddle offense is to get the offense more snaps. Also, college football has reduced its playclock to 40 seconds for this season. That alone will speed things up.

But offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said there’s no guarantee OU will go without a huddle this season.

“You have to practice in a way your team can get better,” he said. “We are just trying to manage it as we go and, as a staff, we will decide if it accelerates or pulls back.”

Bigger, faster Bradford: Quarterback Sam Bradford has added about 10 pounds to his 6-foot-4 frame since last season, but he also believes he’s added some mobility as well. Last season, Bradford pretty much stayed in the pocket. He only had 20 carries last season and his longest went for 11 yards.

“I have emphasized this off-season working on mobility, getting out of the pocket and going through scramble drills with our wide-receivers and making sure we’re on the same page,” the quarterback said. “If something does happen and the pocket breaks down I am able to get out and make a play.”

Don’t look for Bradford to tuck the ball and run too much. Since 1999 no OU quarterback has rushed for more than 200 yards in a season.

English healing: Defensive end Auston English underwent an appendectomy recently and is being held out of preseason practices until fully healed. He said Wednesday he expects to be back on the field by OU’s Aug. 30 season opener against Tennessee-Chattanooga.

“It's really just day-to-day and depends on how I'm feeling and on how our medical staff wants to do it,” he said.

English was the Big 12’s preseason defensive player of the year and had a league-leading 91⁄2 sacks last season. For now, he’s just been cleared to run, but that’s it. Out of practice, he’s been reduced to an interested observer.

Impact linebacker: One newcomer to catch Venables’ eye has been junior college recruit Mike Balogun.

“He may be one of the top three linebackers when it is all said and done, so we’re trying to work through that right now,” Venables said. “If that’s the case he’s not going to be behind somebody else.”

OU entered preseason practice with Ryan Reynolds as the No. 1 middle linebacker. Austin Box at the top of the weakside spot and Keenan Clayton at No. 1 on the strongside. Balogun has been working at middle linebacker.

Clay Horning

366-3526

cfhorning@normantranscript.com