The training room inside the Switzer Center is vast. Everything a player might need to get over the aches and pains of football is there.
Oklahoma linebacker Ryan Reynolds is very familiar with that room. Too familiar. Severe knee injuries guarantee reserved space.
“It’s been two years, but I think I can finally say I’m playing to my full potential,” Reynolds said.
That full potential might be the biggest key to the Sooners’ defensive success this season. Besides being a junior, the Las Vegas native is the only player in the middle of the defense with starting experience.
If things would have worked to plan, Reynolds would be getting ready to begin his final season at OU and his third as a starter. Since 2006, OU’s defensive coaches have been raving about the potential Reynolds’ mixture of speed, size and instincts can unleash on opposing offenses.
But things were derailed before they could get started. Reynolds suffered his first setback in the summer of 2006. A torn ACL in his left knee forced him to redshirt that season.
He finally got on the field as a full-time starter last season, but Reynolds admits not every piston in his engine was firing.
“I always dealt with the aches and pains of it (the knee injury),” Reynolds said. “I was just that 10th of a second off.”
Enough that by late in the season, he’d vacated his starting job at weakside linebacker. The aches and pains of a long season took their toll.
It wasn’t like Reynolds or the coaching staff didn’t know that would be the case. There have been incredible medical advancements in knee surgeries over the last two decades, but it can still take two years to fully recover surgically repaired knee ligaments.
“You really don’t have a full recovery on those severe knee injuries for a year to year and a half. That has been our experience and I think that is pretty standard across the board,” defensive coordinator Brent Venables said.
Reynolds will attest.
It wasn’t until this summer he really started feeling like his old self. For the first time since he was a freshman in 2005, he went through offseason workouts without any restraints. All the running and lifting was there to be absorbed.
“He worked really hard this summer to get back into shape and get his speed back up,” fellow linebacker Austin Box said. “This summer, he looked great.”
It will obviously help him going into this season physically, but the biggest boost may be mental.
“You have to go through that pain and suffering together. It brings you really close,” Reynolds said. “When I couldn’t do everything, I felt like I was on the team but I wasn’t really one of the guys because I hadn’t been through everything they had been through.”
Of course, Reynolds is expected to be the guy this season. He’s moving to middle linebacker where he’ll replace departed All-American Curtis Lofton. To his left and his right will be first-time starters. At the moment, that’s junior Keenan Clayton on the strongside and Box on the weak.
Venables would love to be able spend the brunt of August getting those other spots up to speed. A healthy Reynolds makes that possible.
“The expectation on keeping healthy — that’s the key, that’s what serves our defense best and I think that he has found a comfort zone in the middle. If he stays healthy that’s one position that you don’t need to be concerned about,” Venables said.
Reynolds doesn’t have any concerns. For the first time in nearly three years, his body is telling him there are no limits.
“I’m feeling real good,” he said. “Finally.”
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
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Sooner linebacker the picture of health
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