OU Sports
Sooners ahead on intangibles
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Sunday afternoon, during that frame of time in which Oklahoma’s coaches, having digested Saturday’s game a second time in their offices, meet the media once more before moving on to the next week, defensive coordinator Brent Venables announced he’d awarded the first 100 percent grade of his coaching life.
Middle linebacker Ryan Reynolds earned the honor. However, it turned out, only to give it back.
Since, at Reynolds’ direction, Venables has found a few things Reynolds might have done better.
Also, Saturday at Baylor, it was strongside linebacker Keenan Clayton who led with 14 tackles, 11 of them solos. Since, Clayton has told reporters how, Co-Defensive Player of the Week in the Big 12 aside, he’s not sure he played so well.
A while back, during one of Bob Stoops’ Tuesday press conferences, Jermaine Gresham came up and Stoops went on and on about Gresham’s competitiveness. The Ardmore product might not be the most demonstrative guy, but he never gives himself a break.
About two weeks ago, offensive tackle Trent Williams told me the coaches might not say anything in the film room, but he’ll spot something, take a mental note, then head to practice with something to work on and make better.
Last season, early, before OU hit its Rocky Mountain low the second half at Colorado, Stoops was apt to praise his team with words like “robotic.” It was a description of the Sooners’ businesslike ways.
No, it didn’t hold.
This time, five games into the season, the No. 1 ranking in tow and a Cotton Bowl date with Texas just days away, a body of evidence is mounting that this bunch of Sooners has the blend of intangibles required to do what last year’s Sooners failed to do.
Because the kind of critical analysis Reynolds demanded, Clayton practiced upon himself and Williams performs just as naturally as taking a seat in the film room appears to be rampant on this team.
“I think you could go down the list and probably every guy would tell you what he did wrong on Saturday before he would tell you what he did right on Saturday,” Sooner quarterback Sam Bradford said. “I think that’s something that really helps this team and it’s one of the reasons that we’ve been successful so far, because people are hard on themselves.”
It’s just the kind of thing that not only demands the kind of performance the Sooners offered last time around in Waco, even with Texas on the horizon, but then turns around and deconstructs it to the point that, no matter how wonderful it might have been, they have a whole new list of things to improve upon in time for Monday practice.
“I think it’s fair (to say) that there are more guys that want more, that expect more of themselves and are more demanding than maybe in some other years,” Stoops said.
Though it’s a problem just about any program and its fans would love to have, maybe the toughest thing about a team seemingly as good as this one is determining what’s there for all to see week to week is really real. Because last season, it wasn’t quite as real as it appeared.
But the kind of attitude the Sooners continue to display is as good as it gets when it comes to putting such concerns to rest.
“It’s an infectious attitude and I think it humbles everybody and keeps everybody willing to be coached and willing to improve and willing to not be satisfied,” Venables said. “And when you have that, you continue to grow and mature and improve.”
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com
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