The Football Brainiacs

Mike Stoops

– Mike began by talking about the overall progress of the defense. Said “overall we’re relatively pleased with the body of work…there’s some things that we need to get better at.”

– Also, said he “thought West Virginia did a good job of exposing some weaknesses in our defense…caught us a little but unprepared for a lot of their max protection and worked our corners.” Note: This is something we noticed as well. West Virginia was willing to sacrifice potential receiving threats in order to protect their QB, give him time and test how OU’s corners would hold up.

– Mike was asked whether he felt they would play many times with as good an offense as WVU and he said, “no I thought…they are well coached…they had a great plan…they were going to widen the edges and make it hard for us to get to the quarterback. They did a good, they’ve got great personnel and the quarterback threw some great balls…we have to have more variations for our players to help them in situations like that.”

– Talked about Zack Sanchez and said “he’s fine” and that he took some reps yesterday. Said he is sick today. Did say he was surprised that he took reps yesterday but said that he just needs some rest so he can get 100% healthy.

– Mike addressed Zack staying in despite the fact that he was hurt and admitted, “he needed to come out and we needed to substitute for him…but that’s water under the bridge and hopefully he’ll be back to full strength in a week and a half…I think he’ll be healthy.”

– Talking about coach Kish’s ability to get young guys ready to step in and play right away (Dom last year, Evans this year), “Linebacker in this era of football is very difficult. We’ve tried to standardize a lot of our defense to help but those guys have a lot to learn and Tim’s done a great job getting those guys to play and understand their responsibilities…”

– Said that Dom and Jordan are “very comfortable with what we’re doing…they understand football very well. We’ve gotten a lot of reps doing what we do and we haven’t changed a lot for them…we’ve tried to simplify things just because of the variations you see week to week…that’s helped them as well, play fast…you have to have variations but we’re trying to keep it systematically clean so that they can understand better.” Note: This really speak to coach Mike’s overall philosophy which is to find a standard defense with less movable parts and really maximize the versatility of each individual player so that the small weaknesses that exist, almost by definition, in a standardized defense are masked by the players ability.

– Said that Q.Hayes is “really coming into his own as a player…his position on the football has been outstanding…he’s really made some big plays…he’s become a play-maker for us…he sees things much cleaner…he’s able to react and not think all the time…you think on the field you’re gonna be late on a lot of things.”

– Talked about Q.Hayes’ closing speed on the quarterback and mentioned that the advantage of having that kind of closing is speed is he’s able to disguise his blitz better…meaning he can stay wider for longer and appear to be playing coverage and at the last second make up that ground on a blitz.

– Said Q Hayes may have been a late bloomer but “better late than never.”

– Talking about coach Jerry Montgomery, “he has a great working relationship with his players. There’s a certain brotherhood with him. He relates well with his players. They understand each other very well in what they’re trying to get accomplished…they love to be taught and he’s taught them a lot of good things that make them productive players and that excites any player. They all want to be productive. We all want to tell them to go in there and get that guy but you gotta know how to get that guy and beat that guy. You can’t just say ‘go run down the middle of that guy and kill him’…there’s technique to everything we do and (he has an) understanding how to teach it and relate it to his players.”

– Talked about how kids in general are different and they’ve had to change their style of coaching.

Q.Hayes

– A lot of the discussion with Q.Hayes centered around his overall maturity on and off the field. He said he has a greater seriousness in the way he approaches the game.

– He also talked about the period of time when he was suspended and what went into the decision to stay. He said he wanted to play for a great school and Oklahoma is, of course, that. Talked about family members and teammates that supported him and advised him on how to be better on and off the field. It’s paid off.

Julian Wilson

– Julian came in a little late to the post practice interviews and was asked what he was doing and said, “technique work…just what I do everyday…last man off the field…I don’t want praise for it that’s what I gotta do…to be the best you gotta outwork everybody. Chip (Viney) helps me…”

– Talked about their play against WVU and praised WVU’s receivers. Also said that WVU’s scheme was to isolate the receivers one-on-one with the corners and make them tackle and space and said, “and I feel like that’s what we need to work on.”

– Mentioned that he feels Zack’s injury is probably the same as Aaron Colvin’s injury last year. Said those injuries are very painful but “you do what you can.”

– Said that, while he has proved that he can play outside corner, he wants to “be able to come in week in and week out and be consistent…not make the same mistakes I did the week before…really I just want to be able to lock down one whole side of the field…be out there on an island with full confidence…let the coaches know that I can play man to man, I can play whatever you need me to play.”

– Talked about the young guys and said that they are getting much better. Said the coaches are getting them ready and they are really growing.

– Praised Kevin White as a WR. Said he didn’t get to guard him because “we don’t switch sides.”

– In talking about how the defense has been able to generate so many turnovers he said, “Mike would say ‘controlled chaos’…just send more than they can block and the secondary…we have to be able to cover and come up with the ball. That’s a big thing they focused on throughout camp and in the spring that we need to have more turnovers.”

Charles Tapper

– Talked about Samaje and said, “that was an amazing performance…it was like watching Jerome Bettis back in the day…with the great offensive line it’s going to be exciting season.”

– When asked if he’s come up with a nickname for Samaje he said, “noooo…I try to stay away from that guy he’s a monster…I stay away from him” (laughed). “He’s a good guy…he don’t talk no trash…he’ll just run over you like ‘I’m supposed to do it.” Note: This was excellent!

– In talking about watching Samaje breaking tackles he said, “it’s a great sight to see him…just to see him break four to five tackles…safeties bringing all their might and just bouncing off of him…it’s amazing…I can’t wait to see him when he’s a senior…it’s gonna be a scary sight.”