The Football Brainiacs

Image via OU Football Facebook

Received a few notes from the past few days of practice that I wanted to share with all of you.

– I asked a source about how Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine compared now that both are actually sharing the same field, and thought the response I got was excellent. The source said, “Perine…you can’t stop and Mixon…you can’t touch.” My source further added that Perine may be stronger than Mixon and harder to bring down, but Mixon is more elusive. Which led me to tweet the following this past Friday:

From a source regarding how elusive Mixon was in this morning's practice, "during some drills Mixon was literally untouchable".

— TFB Sooners (@TFB_Sooners) August 7, 2015

– Was told that the offensive line looks “damn good, but with so much rotation right now it’s hard to nail down one person at any position who really stands out.”

– I know I mentioned last week that one of our sources spoke highly about Perine, Mixon & Dede Westbrook looking like possibly the most dangerous weapons on the team in one particular practice. Which may have come as a bit of a surprise given one Sterling Shepard’s standing within this OU offense. Well, as you might expect we’ve been told Shepard has stood out in recent practices looking every bit the playmaker you’ve all come to expect.

None of which is a surprise to be sure, but following that groin injury that limited him the latter half of the season it’s certainly never a bad thing to hear about Shepard showing out in practices.

– Was told that Jordan Wade appears to have overtaken Mathew Romar as the starting nose guard, for now. Both are rotating in-and-out, but I’m told Wade is getting more reps and is currently running with the 1’s.

– I have again been told the defense is primarily running their nickel package — which very may well wind up being their base defense — with Steven Parker continuing to impress at nickel. Will Johnson is the 2nd team nickel and I’m told that while Parker has the advantage at the moment, there isn’t a huge drop off between the two. So it’s clear the coaches are developing depth at the position.

– After talking to a few people, I get the sense the 2nd team secondary looks something like this: Stanvon Taylor and PJ Mbanasor at CB, Kahlil Haughton at SS & Prentice McKinney at FS.

– Also told that Ricky DeBerry is starting to get some 2nd team reps (Eric Striker & Devante Bond are sharing first team reps) at the stand up DE/OLB spot. If you didn’t see it on Twitter over the weekend, we also heard DeBerry had a ‘pick six’ during one practice. One source said, “he’s doing things Striker couldn’t do when he (Striker) was a freshman.”

– Was told the practices continue to be very intense. Apparently a couple of players got into it a little bit and had to be separated at one point during a weekend practice. Was given the indication that it was because of how hard one of the players was blocking the other. Again, sounded like it was triggered by the intensity of the competition.

– Related to the point above, I’m told that overall there is a lot more player rotation taking place than there has been in years past. There is clearly a renewed desire to develop legitimate depth on both sides of the ball.

– Was told that Jordan Evans continues to be a staple of the first team defense and has snagged multiple INTs during practices.

– Was told that true freshmen Neville Gallimore and Marquise Overton are taking reps at the 1-tech behind Wade and Romar. Have been told that both have looked really good so far. Gallimore is a powerful guy with exceptional quickness for a kid his size and good hand usage. Because of his ability to play both the pass and run, he seems to have a bit of an edge over Overton right now.

But I’m told that Overton is QUICK (a source said he might even be quicker than Gallimore) and can appear unblockable at times on passing downs. Sounds like both of those young guys are doing well, but at the same time it’s hard to imagine them unseating experienced guys like Wade and Romar.

– I was told that are a lot of offensive personnel groupings being utilized thus far. 4 WR sets, 2 back sets, 3 WR and 1 TE, etc.

– I also asked a source to compare Jeffrey Mead and Dallis Todd, who are frequently running with the 2’s at outside WR. Was told that Todd is probably more complete as a route runner and has a more developed route tree, but Mead is a bigger deep threat.

– Sounds like Dahu Green and AD Miller continue to do well. Was told Green had a big catch up in the middle field against the first team defense. Bob Stoops also once again singled both Green and Miller for their play in practices during his fall camp presser on Saturday.

– Overall, I’m told there is a lot of distribution at the WR position. It isn’t just one or two guys like you saw last year, the ball is being spread around quite a bit in this new offense.